Science and TechnologyWritten evidence submitted by Pearson
Summary
With a growing proportion of the UK economy based on the science, technology, engineering and manufacturing (STEM) sectors, Pearson recognises the importance of a sufficient supply of young people with the right skills to work in these sectors.
We agree that the study of STEM subjects from age 14 onwards is an important period in young people’s educational lives as they are asked to make decisions influencing the career path they will follow. We think the Committee is correct to highlight that recent policy developments including the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and downgrading the importance of vocational qualifications in the accountability system could discourage the study of vocational qualifications, including engineering.
This paper sets out the clear need for support and attention to be given to students wishing to study STEM subjects at each stage as they progress through their post-14 education to ensure the UK’s engineering skills needs are met now and in the future.
Pearson Approach
BTEC Levels 1–6—Pearson’s internationally renowned suite of BTEC qualifications is widely recognised by employers and universities as the gold standard in vocational learning. Established for over 25 years, BTECs were the first qualifications to acknowledge that, in addition to purely academic learning on the one hand, and the work-based “apprenticeship” learning on the other, there was a legitimate “middle way” whereby students could learn about a particular career area or employment sector—gaining all the necessary industry-endorsed knowledge, skills and understanding they would need to gain employment or advancement in that sector—but taught and assessed within a full-time education setting.
These principles of school/college-based, teacher-assessed vocational learning, created through deep employer engagement, and nationally accredited with rigorous quality assurance, remain synonymous with the BTEC brand and qualification specifications today.
BTECs offer a complete vocational progression pathway within all sectors from Levels 1–5—and are studied by learners aged 14–19 as full-time school or college programmes, and part-time by adults. BTECs also form the Technical Certificate knowledge component of the BTEC Apprenticeship. Additionally we have recently developed a new suite of Level 6 Diploma qualifications in Mechanical, Electrical & Electronic, Manufacturing and Aeronautical Engineering, giving routes through to both Incorporated Engineering (IEng) and Chartered Engineering (CEng) status.
A core element of all BTEC developments remains significant employer/industry engagement. Within Engineering we have worked closely with the key SSCs (Cogent, E-skills and SEMTA) and their employer networks on the development of our BTEC and Apprenticeship qualifications. We are also working with Engineering UK and The Engineering Council on the design of our Next Generation BTECs and new Apprenticeship frameworks, and all the key professional engineering institutions regulated by the Engineering Council endorse the BTEC provision.
There are over 1.3 million BTEC registrations in the UK each year; the most popular courses are the Level 2 “First” programmes (490,000 learners, predominantly in schools) and Level 3 “National” programmes (245,000 learners, predominantly in FE Colleges). BTECs are widely recognised as a route into the engineering industry via further study at degree level; in 2009–10 over 7,500 BTEC learners went on to HE to study Engineering disciplines.
BTEC Apprenticeships—In 2010 Pearson launched its new BTEC Apprenticeships. BTEC Apprenticeships seek to combine the value of the Apprenticeship opportunity with the additional benefits of Pearson’s own BTEC offer, including:
Available across 23 different sectors with over 235 career paths to choose from.
Built on core BTEC values of quality, flexibility, employability and progression.
Offer learners unique progression opportunities via other BTEC programmes.
Included value-added product surround to give learners a richer Apprenticeship experience including optional BTEC Workskills qualification, workbooks, and online e-learning.
A particularly relevant example is the new suite of Higher Apprenticeships currently in development, which includes frameworks for Engineering (Advanced Manufacturing, covering new and existing technology areas, such as Aerospace, Electrical/Electronics and Wind Generation), Life Sciences (Professional Science Technicians), and IT (Software, Web and Telecom Professionals).
GCSE and A-Level—Edexcel currently offers Design & Technology (D&T) GCSEs in five subjects: Electronic Products, Food Technology, Graphic Products, Resistant Materials, and Textiles Technology, as well as GCE A-Levels in Food technology and Product Design. We believe that the government’s English Baccalaureate initiative and National Curriculum Review both stand to have an impact on the amount of D&T learning done in schools:
We expect the EBacc to lead to a reduction in the take-up of GCSE D&T as some schools direct their more able students towards EBacc subjects.
The National Curriculum review recommends that D&T is reclassified as a Basic Curriculum subject. While this change would make the subject compulsory at KS4, schools would be able to determine the nature of the provision, and anecdotal evidence suggests that some might seek to meet the requirement by offering as little as a day a term rather than a weekly timetabled D&T lesson.
This will have a knock on effect on the GCSE entries as students won’t be covering everything they need for the GCSE.
Additionally there is a risk that schools with small numbers of D&T GCSE entries might stop offering the qualification altogether.
Diploma—Since the inception of the 14–19 Diploma, Pearson has actively embraced this qualification, launching in 13 lines of learning at three levels and winning an 80% share of the Diploma market:
We worked closely with the Diploma Delivery Partnerships (DDPs) on the design of each new Diploma qualification, and in particular the new Principal Learning qualification.
However the Coalition government’s lack of support for the Diploma has necessitated the withdrawal by Pearson of all of its aggregated Diploma programmes (last registration cohort 2011–12); we will continue to take registrations for the Principal Learning qualifications as standalones until their accreditation expires in August 2013.
We are currently engaging with UTCs as well as employers and professional bodies within the engineering sector to gauge whether there would be an appetite for us to extend or redevelop the Engineering Principal Learning (eg as a suite of smaller nested qualifications at Level 2 building up to the largest five GCSE size).
Much of what we learned in designing the Level 2 Principle Learning in Engineering was carried across to the Next Generation Level 2 BTEC.
Pearson and the University Technical Colleges (UTCs)—Pearson is working closely with UTCs across the UK supporting and helping to shape their vision to devise a project-based curriculum led and informed by the needs of employers, industry and universities. UTCs are united in their “hands-on learning” approach and Pearson has committed to mapping both academic and vocational qualifications to real-world projects and challenges devised by those who know—that is, employers, industry and universities. These projects are undertaken in real work environments with real time constraints, thereby ensuring students have a meaningful learning experience of the world of work.
Pearson is also the co-sponsor of Harlow UTC specialising in environmental engineering and medical technology.
Pearson Recommendations
1. BTECs to be appropriately recognised in school performance measures—For a large proportion of 14–19 year olds, full-time vocational courses such as BTECs will remain the most appropriate route to a STEM career, taken alongside GCSEs or A-Levels as part of a broad and balanced curriculum as advocated by Alison Wolf. BTECs are widely understood and regarded by HE and employers alike, and have a critical role to play in providing the next generation of STEM technicians with the required underpinning knowledge to progress in their careers. We believe that every learner for whom a BTEC is the right qualification to maximise progression chances, or who wants to do a BTEC, should be able to do a BTEC. But the DfE’s EBacc measure and recent school league table reforms could mean that BTECs in subjects like Engineering cease to be offered in some schools. The following two things will help ensure this doesn’t happen:
The Next Generation Level 2 BTEC Firsts in Engineering (being developed for first teaching in September 2012) need to be included on the DfE’s 2015 list of “non-GCSE” qualifications eligible for Headline Measures recognition.
Non-GCSE qualifications such as BTECs need to be recognised in Headline Measures and other school performance indicators such as “Best 8” at an appropriate equivalence (rather than every qualification counting as one subject irrespective of its size in glh terms); we recommend:
120glh qualifications = 1 GCSE equivalence.
240glh qualifications = 2 GCSE equivalence.
360glh qualifications = 3 GCSE equivalence.
2. NQF qualifications to be made eligible for inclusion in Apprenticeship frameworks—Pearson develops many 100s of vocational qualifications, each one designed in consultation with relevant stakeholders (employers, SSCs, professional bodies, HE etc.) to maximise progression opportunities for learners.
3. For some qualifications the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) is the most appropriate framework eg for learners who want to undertake bite-sized chunks of learning, with the opportunity over time to build up to a full programme. For others the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is the most appropriate framework eg for full-time learners where a qualification of substantial size is required and there is value in a synoptic element to draw together the different units.
4. Our Next Generation of BTEC qualifications are being designed on the NQF at Level 2, and probably also at Level 3, as this is the most fit-for-purpose framework. These Next Generation qualifications will, in time, replace the current suite of QCF BTECs, many of which are firmly established as the technical certificate component of Apprenticeships. Currently only qualifications developed on the QCF are eligible for inclusion in Apprenticeship frameworks. This is arbitrary and fails to recognise the complexities of appropriate qualification design.
5. We recommend that BIS are proactively lobbied to get an amendment to the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE) to allow the inclusion of NQF qualifications.
6. NQF qualifications to be funded post-19—Through its BTEC qualifications Pearson offers a complete framework of qualifications across the STEM industries that enables vocational learning aligned to industry requirements from level 1 to level 6. This employer-led provision is designed to be delivered in a flexible manner either in the workplace or through learning institutions such as FE colleges and Private Training Providers.
7. We believe that the decision to fund only QCF qualifications post-19 is not in the interests of older learners as it prevents them from pursuing the next generation of A level equivalent programmes, many of which are being developed on the NQF. Qualifications on the NQF are accredited by Ofqual and funded for pre-19 study. They should be funded for post-19 study too.
8. High quality IAG in schools—It is widely reported that the Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Technician workforce is facing challenges including an ageing workforce and the need to recruit a further 450,000 roles by 2020. Yet there is a lack of awareness among young people of Technician roles: a recent Ipsos/MORI survey showed that 63% of young people know nothing about Technician careers, and 73% wouldn’t want to work as a Technician. This can mean that learners of this age make choices at 14 and at 16 which effectively close down these opportunities to them. This is compounded by the incentives mentioned above for schools not to offer the relevant technical qualifications at KS4. We regard it as critical that high quality information, advice and guidance is given to school pupils throughout their 14–19 education, and particularly in Year 9 and Year 11.
9. Clarity of government messaging—Government needs to be clearer in its communications that the English Baccalaureate is only one of a number of educational pathways, and that—in line with the recommendations of the Wolf Review—a broad and balanced curriculum at Key Stage 4 including an appropriate balance of “academic” and high quality vocational qualifications is as highly valued
June 2012