Professionalism in Education - Essay Example

Professionalism in Education with the Wolf Report + Introduction Professionalism in the education sector functions as a key driver to the success of the objectives ascribed to different schools, institutions and the community at large. The further education (FE) as well as the skills sector of education has always had a key role to play when it comes to giving a supportive role to the future economic success of young learners, along with the promotion of both their educational and social presence. With the facilitation of the Wolf Report, this paper provides practical recommendations to espouse the information of policy direction for the future while including the existing financial constrictions in the education sector. Consequently, the experience gained by several learners enhances their skills in FE, leading to life-changing effects. In a deeper perspective, learners usually move into the education sector with a difficult historical background regarding their formal education, prompting some of them to view it as the last resort prior to dropping out of education and training completely (Centre for Early Childhood Care and Education, 2005). This paper highlights the notion echoed in the Wolf Report that learners consequently require the most profound and excellent teaching for making sure that they stay on track and have the ability to make wise decisions while taking the right subsequent stages to protect their future of continuous employment. Conceptual Understanding of Childcare Education in the FE Sector When reviewing the significance of education and the success that reinforces it, it is important that every form of learning programme, such as apprenticeships go along with the best methods of teaching, learning as well as the assessment of the outcomes that are considered appropriate (McIntosh, 2004). Generally, teachers need to display their confidence in their existing learners by nurturing them for future endeavours in the education sector. Such initiatives begin with the provision of the highest quality training and assessment possible with the intention of building a solid foundation of skills, as they develop their careers progressively. In line with FE, the significance of constantly good or exceptional training, together with the highest quality of assessment methods, results in the most successful learning outcomes, making it a more substantial form of provision (Grubb and Lazerson, 2004). Separating early childhood education from childcare in line with the formulation of policy, financial endowment, delivery of services and recruitment serves as one of the main challenges hindering the development of national policy for FE (McIntosh, S. 2007). Such a challenge goes along with the provision or delivery of appropriate services for the Adult Learners who are studying Early Years or Childcare Education as their course. Such tendencies, if mirrored through FE, lead to a number of determinations that characterize services, such as Childcare Education as a vocational subject as well as offering opportunities for early educational practises aimed at nurturing young children through the teaching aids learnt by adult learners. “The review of frameworks should also consider ways to increase flexibility and responsiveness to local labour markets and conditions” (The Wolf Report 2011, p. 5). Assessing Further Education and the Wolf Report Recommendations The recommendations positively address the interests of young people using procedures that can maintain practical advancement, nurture the quality of vocational endowment and safeguard core successes in key subjects, such as English and Maths. According to the Wolf Report, in order to address the issues to do with childcare education in FE, the most significant recommendations outlined in the report include: a) Incentivising the youths to take part in most of their treasured vocational trainings before attaining the age of sixteen, while concurrently eliminating enticements in order to participate in several vocational qualifications to the disadvantage of the main educational studies. b) Coming up with concrete principles that monitor the education programmes designed for the young people who have embarked on their vocational routes after attaining sixteen years of age. These principles make sure that they acquire vital skills that would result in the development of skills that make them fit into a wide range of jobs or FE, and to make sure that those who have not passed well in some subjects strive towards achieving good grades in them. c) Assessing the distribution arrangement as well as content of trainings in making sure that they provide the most appropriate skills and expertise for the place of work d) Ensuring that the regulatory structure of FE shifts swiftly away from certifying specific qualifications to the regulation of the awarding bodies. e) The removal or elimination of the obligation that all qualifications given to children aged between fourteen to nineteen years can only accommodate themselves in the Qualifications and Credit Framework, which has usually had a damaging consequence on the children’s suitability by leaving major gaps in the education employment market. f) Enabling the best-suited FE lecturers and professionals to teach in schools in order to ensure that the young people attain appropriate skills to further their education and secure employment in the future (The Wolf Report 2011, p. 2). In line with the concept of professionalism in the FE sector, the UK government has tried to execute a form of professionalism by statute in the past decade on the further through advancing nationwide occupational standards for teachers. However, according to Goos, Manning and Salomans (2009), the authors have reported that such endeavours have not achieved uniformity in the entire delivery of the acquisition of vocational skills and knowledge. Comparatively, these provisions in the preliminary training of lecturers as well as their constant professional apprising in FE in both schools and higher education always result in a disorganised and burdensome course. According to Randle and Brady (1997), the responsibilities of teachers in UK FE sector sill undergoes constant reformation through the marketization and managerial control processes. Public subsidies to FE have reduced leading to an increase in competition between schools, as several lecturers experience declines in their salaries, security, job satisfaction, along with academic and workload increase. All these consequences sum up into extensive college failure and intermittent strikes as well as financial mishandling, which has transformed FE into a battleground of industrial affairs. For instance, 15,000 lecturers (20% of teachers) have undergone early retirement or rendered jobless since colleges abandoned the management by local authorities. However, FE remains an uncultivated ground in comparison with the practical research on schools (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004). Furthermore, the UK government has encouraged innovative organisations to help in the development of robust apprenticeship approaches with the intention of ensuring that the young people have unlimited access to the high-quality programmes they might request for in the course of their training. Moreover, different organisations can bring together their skilled expertise to build the capacities of each other into a more effective vocational programme and magnify their strengths on FE. As an illustration, Kent has come up with approximately twenty-five Vocational Skills Centres that accommodate young people aged between 14 and 16 years all over the UK, with some of them located on school grounds, including self-supporting establishments and centres that clearly and perfectly conjoins with most further education (FE) College campuses (McIntosh, 2007). Employment Patterns and Vocational Qualifications in the FE Sector The employment patterns of young people usually display the urgent prerequisite for a generally fair, instead of extremely detailed vocational qualifications. On the other hand, it is evident that most institutions increasingly offer young people with only the extremely detailed vocational qualifications. In one way or another, most young people have a tendency to shift frequently from one sector or occupation to another, including some particular professions, in the course of their initial ten years of service. Such tendencies mean that most employers that offer jobs to young people always have to recruit afresh for the intention of replacing the high proportion of the shifty employees on vocational qualification. Furthermore, it has become a repeated occurrence that the lower the level of the vocational qualification, the more expected this tendency. According to the Wolf Report (2011), the high proportion of moving employees maintains that this occurs mostly for general vocational programmes involving young people aged between 14 and 19 years old, which mostly affects almost every developed country. In a deeper perspective, regarding the notion that institutions of FE should not place limitations on the programmes of young people regarding the level or type of qualification they can follow, it does not apply only for programmes in schools or colleges. The employment patterns in the FE sector include the comparison of apprenticeships in other European nations in order to involve a considerable sum of off the job universal learning and training (Goos, Manning and Salomans, 2009). Nevertheless, in the current times, the English education policy has made substantial progress in enforcing a split system. In this system, the education policy takes either a narrowly specific occupational qualifications, or traditionally academic trainings to offer the young people aged between 16 and 19 years old. As stated by the Centre for Early Childhood Care and Education (2005), apart from the Diploma and the traditional academic qualifications, currently, all vocational qualifications must get an approval from the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), who consider their role in conjunction with existing employers and vocational detailed job requirements. This criteria for acquiring the approvals drawn as the qualifications regulator illustrates that, practically, a vocational qualification can only have full credit prior to SSCs approval. As soon as the establishment of the qualification regulator came into force, it became clear that the government policy dictated that it would offer publicly funded provisions only for the accredited qualifications, making the policy to take a restricted view of further education (FE). Conclusion Young people deserve to receive high quality education and training from educators with the right skills and effective abilities and commitment to bring out the best in them. The experiences of the children in the early years of their education have an influential effect on their educational growth and learning development. In line with FE, the skills and understanding of adult learners who study Early Years or Childcare Education as their course, and work closely with the children should apply the well-articulated recommendations of the Wolf Report. With the good qualifications of the staff, they can make sure the children receive high quality education in their early years to advance the correct combination of academic understanding and practical skills. The awarding organisations should also establish a way of looking for recognition by involving employers directly in advancement and description of qualifications (Grubb and Lazerson, 2004). References Centre for Early Childhood Care and Education. 2005. Insights on Quality: a national review of policy, practice and research relating to quality in early childhood care and education in Ireland 1990 – 2004. Dublin: CECDE. Goos, M, Manning, A and Salomans, A. 2009. Job Polarisation in Europe American Economic Review. Gov.uk, 2011. Review of vocational education: the Wolf report - Publications - GOV.UK. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-vocational-education-the-wolf-report [Accessed 10 Sep. 2015]. Grubb, N. and Lazerson, M. 2004. The Education Gospel Harvard University Press McIntosh, S. 2004. The Returns to Apprenticeship Training CEP DP 622 London: CEP/LSE. McIntosh, S. 2007. A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Apprenticeships and Other Vocational Qualifications) RR 834 Sheffield: DES. Pollitt, C. and Bouckaert, G. 2004. Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition). Randle K. and Brady N. (1997) Managerialism and Professionalism in the ‘Cinderella Service’ Journal of Vocational Education and Training. Vol 49, no 1 Read More