Memorandum submitted by Carshalton College,
Sutton, Surrey
1. Carshalton College is a General Further
Education College located in the London Borough of Sutton, which
is in south London. The College offers a wide range of vocational
learning opportunities to young people and adults. We provide
vocational learning opportunities from pre-Entry Level to Higher
Education, and have successfully introduced Foundation Degrees
in three vocational areas in the current year. The national Skills
Strategy is central to supporting our Mission, which is "to
help individuals, businesses and other organisations realise their
ambitions through learning and skills development".
2. Our adult learners may be people in work,
sponsored by their employer or who support their own learning
for a variety or reasons, for example to increase their job-related
skills, or in order to seek promotion or to enable them to change
jobs. They may be returning to learning as adults after leaving
school early with few, or low level qualifications. Our learning
programmes include full and part time programmes, or short and
distance learning opportunities. We aim to be flexible; meeting
individual's learning needs. The proposals in the Skills Strategy
paper to increase funding to support adult learners acquire level
2 and level 3 qualifications is welcomed, as is the proposal to
fund a more flexible, credit-based qualifications framework.
3. Forty per cent of our learners are aged
between 14 years old and 19 years old. Our vocational programmes
include full-time programmes leading to vocational qualifications
at all levels and we provide an extensive work-related learning
programme for young people including Modern Apprenticeships in
a number of vocational areas and an Entry-to-Employment programme.
The College is included in local partnerships with schools and
other providers for young people, where we offer vocational programmes
for young learners as part of their academic programme based at
school, including the Increased Flexibility initiative for 14-16
year olds. We have 50 years' experience of delivering education
and training to young people and welcome the opportunity of providing
evidence to the Education and Skills Select Committee.
4. The College made a response in support
of the proposals made by the Working Group on 14-19 Reform, chaired
by Mike Tomlinson. In particular the College supports proposals
to:
— develop a common template for all
learning programmes for 14-19 year olds leading to a single Award;
— create a framework where parity of
esteem exists between vocational and academic subjects;
— facilitate the development of generic
skills, attributes and knowledge; and
— supplement learning with enriches
and broadens the specialist programme as the learner progresses
from general to specific skills development.
5. The College responded to the proposal
for developing generic skills leading to more specific skills
progressively by saying that we think that both generic and specialist
skills should be developed from the beginning of the programme.
Our experience of talking to young people in Key Stage 3 has demonstrated
that it is the vocational specialisms that engage some young people's
interests and general, basic and key skills should be built around
these to continue their engagement in learning. These should not
be postponed until later in the phase.
6. The College has positive experience of
delivering vocational learning programmes to 15 year olds who
have stopped attending school because the learning programmes
and general ethos at school no longer suits their needs. Young
people grow and mature at different rates, their preferred learning
styles demand flexible, person-centered approach. This is the
core of the Entry-to-Employment initiative. There is no reason
(from the learner's point of view) why this type of programme
could not be successfully introduced at 14 years old. There are
legal, health and safety, and other work-related issues that would
need to be addressed. But the experience of relevant, flexible,
person-centered learning between 14-19 years old must be introduced
in order to meet new national targets for young people achieving
level 3 programmes (Charles Clarke's December Grant letter 2004-05:
"90% of young people by age 22 will have participated in
a full-time programme fitting them for entry into HE or skilled
employment").
7. The people teaching and training learners
within the new proposed framework for 14-19 year olds need new
skills. The proposals outlined in Success for All to increase
the skills of teachers, managers and leaders by setting up a Standards
Unit and the Leadership College are welcomed, but the work of
these must be accelerated and made relevant to the staff working
in the sector now. Incentives to increase the status of the profession,
particularly as the range of work increases in scope to include
ALL learners, must be considered by the Committee.
8. In order to meet the aspirations for
learning set out in the Skills Strategy teaching staff need new
and updated knowledge, skills and experience. They need to be
innovative, flexible and have the opportunity to draw on good
partnership arrangements locally. This will be assisted by the
agenda set for the new Skills Alliance to bring together the national,
regional and local skills strategy agendas will enable education
and training providers to draw on a much richer source of vocational
training, work-experience, and employment-related learning.
9. The DfES has recently published "Principles
underpinning the organisation of 16-19 provision", we believe
that these "principles" contradict the aims set out
in the Skills Strategy. Firstly that the Skills Strategy supports
the consideration an all-through 14-19 phase rather than continuing
a separate 16-19 provision. Secondly, the proposition that "distinct"
provision for young learners leads to their success is based on
assumptions that we would question. One aspect leading to greater
success in separate six form provision is due to a large part
to the selective nature of much separate sixth form provision,
and that this in turn leads to a more attractive employment arrangement
for qualified teachers. Delivering success in an inclusive, all-through,
academic and vocational setting is complex. However, we support
the aims of the Skills Strategy, that is to promote learning and
success by increasing choice and opportunity and this being the
key to increasing participation and achievement. The Committee
should take into account the proposals set out in this recent
publication.
10. We strongly believe that the advice
and guidance that provided to young people needs to be improved
so that it is given:
— is impartial and provided through
a professional guidance service;
— includes academic and vocational
education and training routes; and
— is based on the real experience and
a formal summative assessment of each young person—ie it
is specific and not general to each young person.
12 December 2003
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