Contemporary Issues in Post Compulsory Education - Essay Example

Contemporary Issues in Post-Compulsory Education At the very heart of the post -compulsory debate lies competing views of the purposes of post - compulsory, and even compulsory, education. Since the days of the Mechanics' Institutes, through Technical and FE Colleges, the greatest emphasis has always been upon the preparation of young people and others for work. This is still a major function of the public post - compulsory system. It this part of the tradition of FE, a tradition sustained as much by public as by professional values and beliefs, and in spite of there having been precious little investment by state and industry in vocational education. It was the emphasis upon further education providing a preparation for jobs which underpinned the new vocationalism of the 1980s. However, in more recent years, the provision of a 'vocational education' has come to be recognised as a more complex matter than that of simply training students in job-specific skills. While it is true to say that General, Liberal and Social Studies appendages to post -war vocational courses were an attempt to provide students with a wider educational base to their studies, it was the BTEC curriculum introduced from the early 1980s which took the first significant steps towards a preparation for work within a broader concept of vocational education. The development of TVEI as an enhancement curriculum, of generic and core skills, and of modular course structures such as GNVQ can be seen as further evidence of some general shift towards a broader, re-focused vocationalism. The reasons behind these shifts are themselves interesting and result from analyses of the changing needs of the economy, the labour market and, in particular, the nature of work. Post -Fordist and other analyses of current and prospective transformations in Western societies have stressed a requirement for some form of 'flexible' knowledge worker within collaborative, hightrust, high-skill, work relations (Brown and Lauder, 1991) and it is with some, albeit hasty and superficial, appreciation of these requirements that curriculum development has been stimulated. I say hasty and superficial because, a high degree of uncertainty still surrounds the extent of, the directions of, and the full implications of the developments anticipated in the post -Fordist analysis. Indeed, evidence of the anticipated flatter, leaner, hierarchies is not in great abundance, at least in Britain. Moreover, the surface features of post -Fordism are largely indistinguishable from those of the 'enterprise culture' and, where curriculum developments do not address fundamental differences between the two, their unresolved contradictions are carried forward into course planning. 'Student-centred learning', 'autonomy', 'entitlement', 'empowerment', 'democracy' and 'citizenship', which figure prominently in recent curriculum developments, are examples of concepts in popular use in post-compulsory education whose rhetorical value is their power to legitimise and compel common assent to curriculum innovations but whose more sinister function is to obscure the need for critical examination of those innovations (Avis, 1993:13-14). Nonetheless, many of the reforms to have taken place in post-compulsory education since the early 1990s, despite the problematic nature of their underlying evidence and logic, reflect a clear and visible attempt to shift from a narrowly focused 'preparation for work' towards some notion of preparation 'for life', 'for citizenship', 'for multi-skilled work' and 'for collaborative work relationships'. While the effects of such shifts are most evident in full-time vocational courses, and to some extent in A-level programmes, they have received little or no recognition in NVQ levels 1, 2 and 3. Consequently, the once clear purpose of vocational education has become bifurcated into 'vocational education' based in some broader concepts of vocation and preparation and 'occupational training' whose primary concern is to equip learners with skills for jobs. We can say that the main function of Post Compulsory Education and Training is to provide technical and vocational training that would spur students on a particular career field. We can say that PCET course are largely work - oriented and skill based, "It is the sector which helps to create the bridge between education and work, and its principal focus is to develop the skills and understandings necessary in a wide range of work-based subjects" (Newby, 2004). Furthermore, Post Compulsory Education and Training seeks to fill the instructive requirements of both school children as well as professionals. PCET seeks to fill the gap between education and work. It provides a bridge to further educational levels through GCSE and A - Levels as well as teaching skills for a myriad of jobs ranging from office jobs such as administration and human resource management to art and design, plumbing and construction work. One of the main purposes of Post Compulsory Education and Training has been to prepare youngsters for employment and to avoid social exclusion. Lack of work - skills has been cited as one of the main reasons for unemployment. The youth unable to find jobs with their current skills are consistently de-motivated to look for jobs. In this way a vicious cycle has been created as employers are unwilling to hire consistently unemployed individuals and individuals remain unemployed as no one is willing to hire them, the problem is "self-perpetuating because of its effect on individuals' motivation to look for jobs, their skills and because employers may see long-term unemployment as a signal of low productivity" (McVicar, 2000). This has led to the United Kingdom's policy to combat youth unemployment by stressing PCET, "to stimulate a huge expansion of post-compulsory education and training in order to reduce numbers of unskilled labor market entrants" (McVicar, 2000). Other major purposes of post-compulsory education might be considered under the headings of 'general' or 'liberal' education. A liberal education stresses the value of self-fulfilment over utility and of the 'educated person' over the expert specialist. Such an education is intrinsically justified, as being of worth in itself and, in post-compulsory education, it is to be seen as contributing to life-long learning or unfoldment. It is part of an educational tradition which extends back to classical times, which underpinned British secondary and university education up to and throughout the nineteenth century, which has profoundly influenced educational developments of the twentieth century and which has been expressed fully and forcefully in its different ways in the works of liberal humanist educators. It is concerned to promote 'ways of experiencing' and, although it is often expressed in terms which bear a strong relationship to subject disciplines, it is not to be regarded in terms of discrete subject perspectives. Subjects, although underpinned by an epistemological logic, are to a degree arbitrary divisions of knowledge made for the purposes of facilitating mass education and for managing the 'knowledge explosion'. A liberal education aims to transcend these divisions, to allow the learner to understand the world in its full complexity. Curriculum developments throughout the twentieth century represent a movement away from the liberal tradition as subject constituencies have formed to render the curriculum teachable and assessable. The School Certificate, GCEs, CSEs, GCSEs and the mis-titled National Curriculum have simply confirmed the fragmentation of a curriculum for general or liberal education into ten or so elements. What is there, then, in post-compulsory education which might be described as 'general' or 'liberal', as part of a process of life-long learning and as intrinsically justified Answers to this question will vary according to their source. There are cases for claiming that TVEI, CPVE, BTEC and GNVQ have been in some small way guided by the principles of a general education, if not a liberal education. But these are weak claims indeed. A-levels, on the other hand, are borne out of the liberal humanist tradition. However, the conflicting expectations that students, teachers, higher education admissions tutors and prospective employers have of A-levels render the prospect of them ever fulfilling the aims of a liberal education remote indeed. The most obvious impediment to A-level in this regard is that any permutation of three subject-specific elements from the universe of knowledge is bound to result in an incomplete curriculum even if judged by the most minimal criteria. There have, during the 1980s and 1990s, been a number of carefully conceived attempts to move A-levels out of their rut and it is clear that there is a broad base of support for reform of some type. Sooner rather than later the A-level system will change into a form which will enable or require students to have a broader grounding to their studies. Whether the outcomes will amount to anything resembling provision for a liberal education, however, must be considered doubtful. KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POST-COMPULSORY EDUCATION I have already mentioned the problem of subject specialisation in post-compulsory education within the context of 'liberal' or 'general' education. But the appropriateness of narrowly focused subject-specific courses is drawn further into question when weighed against requirements stemming from current transformations of modern economies and work. Increasing proportions of the work force are, or will soon become, engaged in multi-skilled work requiring mastery of a range of new technologies and communications skills which subject-specific courses are ill-equipped to provide. Moreover, knowledge is increasing at such an unprecedented rate that the interests of effectiveness and efficiency are likely to be better served by knowledge-retrievers than by knowledge specialist holders whose expertise is quickly outdated and which is not readily adaptable to novel problems. Coupled with the facts that the nature of work is changing at an ever-quickening pace and that adults can now anticipate an average of three major changes of career during their working lives, this amounts to a strong challenge to long-held beliefs that subject specialism is the only platform for expertise. This is not to claim that subjects and specialisms are irrelevant to expertise but to argue that they must be redefined. The 'new expertise' requires not only a broad knowledge base but a 'softening' of subject demarcations to enable learners to work confidently and creatively as knowledge retrievers and knowledge creators. It requires that learners are competent in 'basic skills' of numeracy, literacy, communication and information technology, not merely at the level of technical mastery or proficiency within the prescribed limitations of given tasks but at the level of critical appreciation in order that they may be able and prepared to respond to new and unanticipated challenges. The 'new expertise' also depends heavily upon that primordial quality of the educated person, knowing how to learn, in order that new knowledge can be assimilated, reformulated, applied and evaluated speedily and effectively without dependence upon instruction. With the diminution of heavily demarcated work roles and the expansion of networks and multiskilled operations, the requirement for collaborative productivity and, in particular, the ability to contribute to the free exchange of knowledge and critique across traditional knowledge and role boundaries, is paramount. This requires a sharp movement away from the heavily individualistic emphasis in both educational and work relations towards a fuller recognition of the potential of collective and collaborative action in both the production and utilisation of knowledge. Support for such views of our present economic and educational needs has been provided by a variety of political, professional, academic and practitioner groups. There is little dissent from any of the fundamental propositions put forward here. The principle of the broadening of the knowledge base in post-compulsory education, for instance, has been advanced in some shape or form by such diverse constituencies as all three major political parties, The Association of County Councils, The Royal Society, The Institute of Physics, The Engineering Council, The Secondary Heads Association, The Headmasters' Conference, The Association of Principals of VIth Form Colleges, The Association of University Teachers and many others. And there is no more diverse range of interests than that! However, despite this apparent consensus, no coherent curriculum reform has been brought about, partly because of the political risks attached to reform and partly because of the unresolved contradictions between post -Fordism and the 'enterprise culture' referred to above. It is certainly necessary to look beyond the surface consistencies of proposals for reform and, in particular, present-day working concepts such as 'student-centredness', 'autonomy' and 'empowerment', if the radical changes briefly argued for here are ever to materialise. One final observation on the matter of subject specialisation concerns Britain's, and specifically England's, position in relation to other nations. While I am not suggesting that curriculum structures of other countries alone should provide the yardsticks by which the English system is judged, the information in Table 1 warrants consideration if not concern. If there is any connection between the broad-based post -16 curriculum and a nation's ability to respond to the requirements of contemporary economic and social transformations, it is plain that England is least well placed of all industrialised countries to make such a response. This observation is not new; it provided a significant part of the rationale for the Higginson Committee's proposals (DES et al., 2001) for five leaner A-levels, for instance. However, those proposals, as others before and since, were rejected as speedily as they were announced, for the reason that they might lower the 'gold standard' of the highly regarded A-level. But to what extent has the problem of the 'academic-vocational divide' been addressed in schemes to provide a broad-based post -16 curriculum Proposals and reforms to emerge in the 1980s and 1990s fall into four categories. First, there are those that have provided for, or sought to provide for, curriculum revision within the existing 'academic' or 'vocational' frameworks. The introduction of AS-levels did offer the prospect of a broad base of study within the 'academic' framework but low uptake by students and uncertainties about the market value of AS have meant that that proposal did not have anything like the impact intended. The International Baccalaurate offered by a very small number of post -16 institutions has Table 1. Students in final year of full-time secondary education Country Number of subjects studied Finland 9+ Hungary 9+ Korea 9+ Poland 9+ Sweden 9+ Japan 7+ Israel 7 Italy 7 Norway 7 Canada 6 Singapore 6 Thailand 6 Australia 5 Hong Kong 5 USA 5 Ghana 3 England 3 Source: Postlethwaite and Wiley (2003). Reproduced with permission. appealed to only a minority of students, arguably an lite. Interest in the IB has been excited because of the broad base for study that it offers, because of its perceived high academic standing and because of the international recognition that it promises. However, its 'academic' qualities and its broad subject base have counted against it in the minds of that large proportion of students who have always looked forward to post-compulsory education as the opportunity to discontinue those studies which they least enjoy or in which they have been least successful. BTEC, CPVE and, latterly, GNVQ courses broadened the basis of study within the 'vocational' framework. These courses must be judged as largely successful in establishing a concept of vocationalism which, as I have already noted, extended beyond the narrowly focused 'skills for jobs' emphasis of some of their predecessors. YTS schemes too, albeit to a very limited extent, attempted to move beyond the 'skills for jobs' emphasis. However, none of these courses or their 'academic' counterparts offered any scope for the proper integration of 'academic' and 'vocational' studies. The second category of innovations had one principal member: TVEI. Although there is a long history of failed attempts to supplement specialist courses in order to provide a broader base of knowledge and experience, TVEI and the many extension programmes which developed from it included a number of highly successful attempts to enhance established programmes of study. Through TVEI, many A-level courses were broadened to encompass some experience of industry and commerce and the utilisation of course knowledge in those spheres. Some placed emphasis upon life skills and awareness-raising in the form of multi-cultural and equal opportunities education and an introduction to new technologies, guided more by the broader concept of vocationalism adopted by BTEC courses than by the narrowly focused 'skills for jobs' emphasis of the original TVEI design. Many vocational courses were enhanced by TVEI, too, enabling students to broaden their basis of study across a range of experiences extending far beyond the immediate scope of their vocational courses. Some of the lessons of TVEI were carried forward into the likes of entitlement curricula and many institutions have sought formal accreditation for this work to enhance its credibility. However, TVEI and its offshoot programmes made little impression upon the 'academic-vocational divide', not least because the opportunities they offered to students were dependent upon voluntary takeup. The lack of formal certification and, in particular, public acknowledgement of TVEI-related achievements prompted many students to view the TVEI curriculum as a distraction from their core certificated A-level or vocational courses. While TVEI deserves much credit for creating opportunities for bridging the 'academic-vocational divide', and there is much to be learned from its successes, it did not bring about any fundamental change to the 'two track' system. Students', teachers', employers', and parents' expectations of post-compulsory education, themselves very much grounded in the two traditions and cultures referred to earlier, coupled with an adherence to established structures of post -16 curriculum organisation, effectively ensured that the scope of TVEI was severely limited from the outset. The third category of innovations to reduce the 'academic-vocational divide' is that of modular course structures. There are numerous cases of modular course developments within existing 'academic' and 'vocational' frameworks such as the innovative but subsequently rejected Wessex A-level project (Rainbow, 2003) and the MEI Structured Mathematics scheme, both of which met with a considerable measure of success in providing a 'flexible' response to students' needs. There have also been a few cases of modular programmes planned to provide some common experience for students progressing to different qualifications, for example a common first or foundation year for A-level and vocational course science students. But greater possibilities for bridging the 'academic-vocational divide' appeared with GNVQ courses in the early 1990s. However, the opportunities afforded by GNVQ for creating an 'academic-vocational mix' depended again upon consumer choice. While some students did elect to combine A-level courses with their GNVQs, many did not. Moreover, doubts must be expressed about the extent to which student programmes created on the basis of GNVQ, and other modular structures for that matter, amounted to integrated and coherent 'academic-vocational' courses of study. In the early years at least, the few GNVQ students who chose to add A-level courses to their programmes did so at least as often for utilitarian purposes as for reasons of enhancing their general education. While popular choices such as A-level sociology by social care students, modern foreign languages by business studies students and information technology by students from a variety of vocational courses might be taken as evidence of a technical bridging of the 'academic-vocational divide' it is not in itself an indication of any harnessing, integration or reconciliation of the purposes and values of different traditions. My fourth and final category of proposals to abolish the 'academic-vocational divide' includes examples which point to a far more radical reform than those mentioned above. In principle, they argue for a comprehensive post-compulsory education in which all or most students combine 'academic' and 'vocational' studies. A-levels and GNVQs would be replaced under such proposals by a single qualification and course structure guided by broad aims such as the following: 1 to ensure that all young people undertake a general or broadly based education, including an education for citizenship, up to the age of eighteen; 2 to enable young people to develop a critical awareness of the sciences, social sciences, humanities or arts ('academic'); 3 to enable young people to gain experience in the development, applica tion and evaluation of knowledge and skills in the contexts of work, community and leisure ('vocational'); 4 to ensure that all young people are able to demonstrate mastery of core skills; 5 to provide opportunities for young people to concentrate some proportion of their studies in one or more fields of special interest or need; and 6 to empower young people to learn to seek and achieve self-determination within a context of equality of opportunity The Institute for Public Policy Research (Finegold et al., 1990) proposal for a British Baccalaurat was clearly in keeping with the principles of a radical reform of post-compulsory education such as I have briefly signalled here. Its aims corresponded to a large degree with the six that I have offered and its detail indicated how such an apparently complex and multi-purpose programme of study could be organised and achieved in practice. The British Baccalaurat proposal remains the most complete and coherent plan for radical reform and, unlike many other proposals, made clear reference to both the social and economic conditions that had informed its development and to the student interests it was designed to serve while providing a vision of post-compulsory education grounded in moral as well as practical considerations. But, despite attracting widespread interest and support, it has had only minimal impact upon policy. The 'academic-vocational divide' bears directly upon the central concerns of this paper. The perpetual debate about purposes and values of post-compulsory education is the important backcloth against which students' and teachers' experiences of learning unfold and are evaluated. Their perceptions of academic and vocational studies, of general education, of specialisation and so on are crucial to our understanding of their studentship and teaching. Moreover, it is through the values, expectations and practices of our present students and teachers that the 'academic-vocational divide' is perpetuated. As one A-level student was heard to say to another after the latter had failed to grasp a point, 'You're a right BTEC aren't you!' According to Hodgson and Spours (2005), there are three main factors influencing policy with regard to education. These factors incorporate societal and international influences on governmental policy regarding education. The factors affecting education policy and provision in the United Kingdom include "underlying societal shifts and historical trends, dominant political ideology and national and international education debates, which either support or contest the dominant ideology" (Hodgson and Spours 2005). In the United Kingdom, these factors originally emerged in the 1980s and have more or less remained the same, "these three shaping factors emerged in the late 1980s and have been broadly consistent to the present day despite changes of government" (Hodgson and Spours 2005). The first factor is the change in trend of post - sixteen education participation. Finding its roots in the 1980s, participation, as well as achievement, in the education system has increased from low to medium. This level of participation leveled off during the 1990s and has remained stable since. The second factor influencing educational policy outlook in the government is ideology. The "divisive" approaches to the education system set by the Conservatives in the United Kingdom in the 1990s have not been changed by the New Labor. There has, however, been a rise of new ideology stressing the integration of higher secondary education. Thus, there has been a slow but sure change in ideology conservative to a "new and progressive era of system expansion based on inclusion and collaboration" (Hodgson and Spours 2005). Thirdly, international as well as national debates on the ideal educational system have also affected the educational outlook on Post Compulsory Education and Training. At an international level, a unified or integrated approach to education has been prominent feature of the European System reforms (Lasonen, 1996). In the end, Post Compulsory Education and Training has been implemented in a number of countries including Australia, Sweden and Finland. The educational outlook taken by other countries greatly affects the national policies and importance given to Post Compulsory Education and Training. Bibliography: 1. Avis, J. (1993) ' Post -Fordism, Curriculum Modernisers and Radical Practice: the Case of Vocational Education and Training in England', The Vocational Aspect of Education, 4 5, 1: 3-14 2. Brown P. and Lauder, H. (1991) 'Education, Economy and Social Change', International Studies in Sociology of Education, 1: 3-23. 3. Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office (2001) Advancing A-levels ('The Higginson Report'), London: HMSO. 4. Hodgson, A. and Spours, K. (2005). 14-19 Education adn Training in England: A Historical And System Approach to Policy Analysis. Retrieved on November 5th 2005 from: http://www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk/files/documents60-1.pdf 5. Lasonen, J. (1996) Reforming Upper Secondary Education in Europe: Surveys of Strategies for Post-16 Education to Improve the Parity of Esteem for Initial Vocational Education in Eight European Educational Systems. Finland: University of Jyvaskyla Press 6. McVicar, D. (2000). Marginalized Young People and Social Inclusion Policy in Northern Ireland. Retrieved on November 5th, 2005 from: http://www.qub.ac.uk/nierc/documents/Rwp54.pdf 7. Newby, M. (2004). Post Compulsory Education and Training. Retrieved on November 5th, 2005 from: http://www.ucet.ac.uk/Docs/cagpaper3oct04pcet.doc 8. Postlethwaite, T.N. and Wiley, D.E. (2001) Science Achievement in Twenty-Three Countries, Oxford: Pergamon, cited in A. Smithers and P. Robinson (2003) Beyond Compulsory Schooling: A Numerical Picture, London: The Council for Industry and Higher Education, 8. 9. Rainbow, R. (2003) 'New Models of 16-19 Provision: Case Histories and Emerging Frameworks', in W. Richardson, J. Woolhouse and D. Finegold (eds) The Reform of Post-16 Education and Training in England and Wales, Harlow: Longman, 87-100. Read More