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| Chapter 10: | Preparation for Working and Adult Life |
Young people must be prepared for the challenges and opportunities of adult life in Wales and beyond. It is vital that they have access to learning which improves their motivation and enables them to acquire the skills they will need later. People's experience of learning should not stop when they leave school. We want to create a society where further education and training, throughout life, becomes the norm.
1 Our children's experience at school lays the essential foundations for lifelong learning. Schools have a major responsibility in relating what they do to the wider range of progression opportunities available to young people. Everyone should have the opportunity to develop new skills and use their abilities to the full throughout adult life. In a rapidly changing labour market it is essential that they should, if we are to ensure that more people can fulfil their potential and use their skills and knowledge effectively to the benefit of the communities in which they live.
2 The challenge facing schools, therefore, is not only to provide young people with the skills and knowledge they require as they take their first steps in the adult world. Increasingly schools need to provide young people with the skills to go on learning. The way that schools teach will become as important as what they teach. Young people need learning skills as much as they need to learn.
3 What young people are taught must not only be a stepping stone to further education and training. Schools must also continue to develop programmes that introduce young people to the skills that are valued in the workplace. Wherever possible this should involve working in partnership with employers, training providers and the 29 Further Education Institutions accounting for over 190,000 enrolments annually and where four out of every five qualifications are now taken post-16 in Wales. This broad-based approach is essential if we are to improve the prospects for school leavers and to realise the economic benefits of fully utilising their skills.
Life skills
Community understanding
4 A modern society needs to involve all its members. Our young people must have a stake in the civic culture of Wales and beyond to make that principle an inclusive reality. Young people need to learn about and understand the nature of the community and democracy - and about the duties, responsibilities and rights they carry. We shall expect all schools to provide a curriculum that addresses these key themes and turns the broad statutory aims of preparing young people for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life into something practical and achievable.
5 Clearly school support for volunteering and activities outside formal lessons can have a powerful and positive influence. These develop skills and a sense of responsibility. They enable young people to learn through activities that benefit others. We shall work closely with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Community Service Volunteers and the Prince's Trust in Wales amongst others, to help give young people real opportunities to benefit themselves and the wider community.
Parenting
6 Parents have the primary formative influence in a child's life. The increased numbers of single, particularly young, parents in Wales puts a premium on parenting skills. Good parenting brings incalculable benefits for parents, children and the community as a whole. Building on the work of the WJEC, we intend that all secondary schools should have a role in teaching young people the skills of good parenting.
Nutrition and Health
7 Far too many children today - perhaps even a majority - exist on junk food. A diet of chocolate bars, crisps, additives and processed food is the norm for an uncomfortably large number. This is as damaging to school performance in the short term as it is to health in the long term. Many children at school are eligible for free school meals - often the only square meal they get during the day. These meals will be subject to minimum nutritional standards, and we intend to consult on these. We shall also build on the advice and guidance of Health Promotion Wales to encourage children to choose healthily and well whenever they eat.
Personal and Social Education
8 OHMCI has published a survey of good practice (Standards and Quality in Personal and Social Education) reflecting the existing framework of personal and social education in secondary schools. But given the importance of community understanding, parenting, personal health and other related matters, it would be timely to review the curriculum components of PSE comprehensively. So ACAC will be invited to undertake this in the context of their forthcoming review of the National Curriculum for Wales. In the meantime your views are invited on how community understanding, civic responsibility and personal development more generally should be taken forward in Wales - and what the related programmes should contain.
Question for consultation: What should the programmes of PSE contain?
Young people, self-belief and motivation
9 We shall consult on how best to build on the benefits of volunteering and other opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. However, work-related learning, and careers education and guidance, are fundamental to pupil confidence and motivation, and to boosting achievement at school.
Work-related learning
10 In Wales, the expectation remains that, with the assistance of education business partnerships:
- all 14-16 year olds should have at least two weeks of relevant work experience;
- all 16-19 year olds in full time education should have at least one further week's relevant work experience;
- all 14-19 year olds should have the opportunity to be involved in business activities;
- at least 10 per cent of all teachers should have a relevant industrial placement each year;
- all 14-19 year olds should be encouraged to set and achieve personal goals using incentives such as the support of business mentors;
- under LEA moderation, schools should be able to offer the GNVQ in full, part one, or unit form, to 14-16 year olds;
- all secondary schools should establish effective procedures to support pupils in reviewing and recording personal achievement, setting targets and action planning, building on the revised national record of achievement and linked closely to careers education and guidance.
Careers Education and Guidance
11 On careers education, OHMCI's recently published survey evidence shows that much needs to be done by schools to improve standards. This is described in A Survey of Careers Education and Guidance on the Secondary Schools of Wales. The Education Act 1997, underlines the importance of the provision, by schools, of a programme of careers education for all 13-16 year olds. In addition, the Act highlights the need for schools to work with the careers companies in the development and delivery of careers education. There will be consultation in Wales on the implementation of the provisions within the Act. In the meantime, schools are expected to discuss and agree annually with the careers companies, a joint programme of work that will ensure that young people receive independent and impartial advice on the education, training and careers options available to them. They have the ACAC publication Providing for Choice: Careers Education and Guidance in Schools to draw on. As a minimum, careers companies are expected to:
- provide advice and information to all 13 year olds on GCSE choices, on vocational options, and where they can lead;
- offer all 15-16 year olds a guidance interview leading to an agreed action plan - and also offer 17-18 year olds staying on in full time education, information and guidance on choices post 18;
- offer parents and guardians the opportunity to discuss the options available to young people, and the action plan agreed with their child at the end of compulsory education;
- help young people and their parents make informed and realistic career decisions by providing information on careers, qualifications, and the local labour market;
- support schools in maintaining careers libraries and in meeting the training needs of teachers involved in the management and delivery of careers education.
Strengthening the educational base in relation to manufacturing
12 More concerted action is needed to ensure schools address the unmet needs of the expanding manufacturing/engineering industry for higher level skills in Wales. Manufacturing accounts for 28 per cent of GDP in Wales compared to 22 per cent in England. We want science, engineering, manufacturing and construction to be seen as high status, high value occupations which young people should be keen to enter. This growing challenge can be tackled by:
- attracting more well-qualified graduates into the teaching of maths and science;
- providing more science and technology teachers with relevant, up-to-date industrial experience, through placements;
- engaging more employers in support of exciting curriculum projects; especially to add rigour and relevance to GNVQs in manufacturing and engineering;
- strengthening local education/business partnership support to get all schools to participate in manufacturing/engineering related schemes and competitions.
Broader qualifications
13 The previous sections have set out our vision of just some of the elements that make up a broad and balanced curriculum. If we are to give effect to that vision then curriculum must be complemented by an equally broad and flexible qualifications framework. The first test that any such framework must satisfy is that it is widely and publicly understood. It must feature qualifications that are broad enough to equip young people to meet the challenges they will face in their working lives. It must enable older people seeking further education and training to do so in a context that allows everyone to see how one qualification stands against another.
14 There is much in the proposals stemming from Sir Ron Dearing's review of 16-19 qualifications that we can build on to secure these objectives and fulfil our commitments to greater breadth in A levels and stronger vocational qualifications. We recognise that more time will be needed for the changes than originally planned: so we have decided to defer for at least a year the introduction - first proposed for 1998 - of new A and AS level syllabuses, new model GNVQs, and a new key skills qualification designed to be available in all the qualification pathways.
15 We intend that the Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales (to be established in October following the merger of ACAC and the NCVQ Wales Office) should consult this autumn on how best to take all this forward. As part of the consultation, views will be invited on what changes can be introduced from September 1999, and on those which should come into effect the following year. In addition we shall seek to develop a single over-arching certificate for young people, allowing them to undertake A levels and/or vocational qualifications, plus the key skills of communication, application of number, and IT. In time this could become the basis for progression to higher education and employment from age 18: it would be available for young people in work-based training as well as full-time education.
Overcoming obstacles to success
16 There must be further sustained efforts to develop the inter-organisational links to generate new ideas; and to promote a stronger sense of confidence amongst pupils and students that they can succeed. This will embrace funding from the National Lottery for out of school clubs, plus:
- new attention to overcoming obstacles to effective collaboration between schools and colleges. Existing legislation prevents local authorities and colleges from entering into service agreements on a consortium basis so as to get the most for pupils from existing resources. We agree with the view of the Welsh Affairs Committee in its report Further Education in Wales, that these obstacles should be removed so enabling LEAs and the further education sector to plan provision better. We plan to put proposals before Parliament to make the necessary change;
- greater flexibility, through legislation, to enable schools to offer work-based placements linked to vocational qualifications for 14-19 year olds;
- consideration of the role of NVQs in the curriculum for 14-16 year olds;
- continued emphasis on providing vocational options for 14-16 year olds so that under LEA guidance, full, part one and units of GNVQs will be generally available to schools from 1998 with funding provided from GEST.
- development of joint action plans between local authorities and TECs under the Youth Access Initiative to help those young people, from age 14 upwards, who are disaffected and underachieving, to reintegrate and progress;
- a review by ACAC of the curriculum discretion available to schools at Key Stage 4 in Wales - to bring forward proposals for integrating key skills into the curriculum in Wales, such as self presentation, problem solving, and working in teams. This will build on their survey of Emerging Patterns of Practice at Key Stage 4.
- action by TECs and EBPs to support schools and LEAs, by:
- making their programme and resource plans more transparent and more directly linked to the Partnership with Industry;
- giving priority to the schools which LEAs and OHMCI identify as needing most support;
- helping schools to meet business experience targets in the light of local labour market trends; and
- improving levels of understanding and interest in engineering, manufacturing, science/technology, vocational qualifications and modern apprenticeships.
All this should take due account of the Regional Technology Plan for Wales and the TECs' Action Plan for Manufacturing in Wales. The Welsh Office will set testing targets for TECs accordingly.
Questions for consultation: What more should be done to motivate the young people of Wales to learn?
How can the Welsh Office and others promote the merits of study and careers in science, engineering and manufacturing to pupils and students?
Lifelong learning
17 We want to open up learning so that increasing numbers of people at every stage of life are able to take those opportunities. This means bringing down the barriers to participation in learning - barriers which for too many people mean learning is something done at school and thereafter is for others, not them. It means encouraging and empowering people to take control of their own learning. It means reaching out to, and helping those in our society who are most in need of help. OHMCI will continue surveys of good practice in adult education and youth work involving all 22 local authorities to assist in this.
18 Employers have a crucial role to play. Their attitudes remain the single biggest influence on the decisions people take about further learning and training in their daily and working lives. With employers' commitment, and that of all the other key partners - individuals, teaching associations, trade unions, local authorities, education and training providers, information, advice and guidance services and Government - learning throughout life can become the norm. We also have to face up to the fact that many employers say that education and training in Wales is not producing what they need. The issues are not straightforward: employers are not always fully informed - which doesn't mean that their views are invariably misplaced. Getting the basics right and reinforcing them are the key strategic requirements. But much more needs to be done, so that home grown employers and inward investors can affirm the quality of the education and training systems in Wales.
A University for Industry
19 The University for Industry will be at the heart of our proposals to promote lifelong learning. It will bring new opportunities to help people improve their skills and realise their potential. Alongside the new National Grid for Learning, it will engage a range of public and private partners to harness the increasingly important contribution modern technology can make to the way we learn.
20 The University for Industry is not only for business or for the few, it is for everyone. And we want everyone to share in it. The University for Industry will bring learning to the workplace, the home and the community. It will help business - and small firms in particular - to become more competitive by developing the skills of those working in them. It will help to make lifelong learning accessible and affordable for many more people - in particular, for those people who need extra help. We will work in partnership with as many interests as possible in turning the concept into reality.
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Summary
This chapter sets out our plans to prepare young people for adult life through a partnership between the education, business and voluntary sectors. The action described will reinforce and supplement classroom learning, improve young people's motivation and help tackle educational disadvantage.
Under our proposals, by 2002 there will be, amongst other things:
a PSE curriculum in all schools embracing programmes in personal responsibility and community understanding to encourage young people to feel a sense of belonging to the civic culture in Wales;
Issues for consultation
We welcome comments on the proposals set out in this chapter. In particular:
- how can community understanding, personal responsibility and personal development be taken forward through PSE - and what should the related programmes contain?
- what more should we do to motivate the young people of Wales to learn?
- how can the Welsh Office and others promote the merits of study and careers in science, engineering and manufacturing to pupils and students?
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