From the Decade of the Enterprise Culture to the Decade of the TECs

Abstract

This article looks back at the rise of the enterprise movement in the 1980s and forward to the establishment and performance of 82 Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) in England and Wales during the 1990s. Both strategies are thought to be part of an ideological project of the Conservative Government to transform Britain's economy and education by means of the enterprise culture. The main intiatives designed to promote such a culture are described, the concept of enterprise as used on enterprise courses is examined and the conclusion drawn that there is no generic skill of enterprise whose essence can be distilled and taught A number of crucialissues in relation to the new TECs (the need for a national plan for education, training and employment, the commitment of employers, future remit, accountability and representation, etc.) are discussed and some constructive suggestions made. The next ten years will show whether TECs prove to be an ambitious, forward‐looking and productive strategy or an ill‐advised, risky and unsuccessful gamble with the future prosperity of Britain.     

The Influence of the European Communities on the Emergence of Competence‐Based Models of Vocational Training in England and Wales

Abstract

This paper presents an interim report on research into the influence of the European Communities (EC) on the emergence of competence‐based models of vocational training in England and Wales between 1979 and 1987. Interactions between the development of the New Training Initiative objectives and the development of EC vocational training policy are analysed. Similarities between EC training levels and the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) training levels proposed by the Review of Vocational Qualifications are examined. These issues are so neglected in the official literature that, rather than present a definitive account, this paper outlines an agenda for further research intended to deepen our understanding of the historical, political milieu from which competence‐based vocational training emerged.     

Youth and the Enterprise Culture

Abstract

A major emphasis in the policies of U.K. governments in the 1980s was promoting an ‘enterprise culture’ as a key way in which the economy and labour force could be engineered into becoming more committed to a market economy. However, the extent to which the inculcation of an ‘enterprise culture’ has been successful remains largely unknown. Among adults there have been indications of resistance to the attitudinal and behaviourial changes which might represent acceptance.

Young people still in education and especially those in their late teens, were relatively young when the first of the Conservative administrations came to power and may have been much more receptive to an’ enterprise culture’. This paper analyses data on the attitudes of 828 sixth formers in schools in both the state and private sectors throughout England to a wide variety of values and beliefs as well as their occupational aspirations. The results provide detailed in sights on the extent to which young people at school have adopted an ‘enterprise culture’ and, hence, its likely affects on the occupational orientations of these new entrants to the economy in the 1990s.     

Responding to change: a new role for agricultural colleges in England and Wales

Abstract

Rural labour market changes are creating a demand for new and more flexible education and training opportunities. With the decline in agricultural production and the consequent reduction in demand for agricultural education, agricultural colleges in England and Wales are considering what their future role will be as providers of education and training for a diversified rural economy. To what extent and in what ways agricultural colleges are adapting to their new role and the factors which inhibit or facilitate institutional change was the subject of a research project undertaken in England and Wales between 1990 and 1992. The results show considerable variation between colleges in the way they are responding to change. This is reflected in the manner in which colleges perceive themselves, their mission and policy, how they perceive their constituency and the links they have with this constituency, as well as their ability to identify new training needs and provide relevant, flexible and more accessible learning opportunities to meet these needs.     

Managing Messes and Coping with Uncertainty: reviewing training for teachers in post‐compulsory education and training

Abstract

Post‐compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further Education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in Education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post‐compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further Education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated.     

Contextual Preconditions of ‘Open Schooling’: the English case in historical and comparative perspectives

It is sometimes claimed that primary education in England and Wales is uniquely open to ‘progressive’ techniques and innovations. Much of the writing about this relies heavily on the impact of ideas and strong personalities to effect and disseminate change. Drawing upon historical analyses of England and Wales and upon primary education in France, Germany and Scotland as counter examples, this article attempts to move away from this model of change to identify a range of contextual or structural features of the English and Welsh system which have facilitated the spread of progressive ideas and the influence of individual pioneers on the state sector of education. These include historical continuity, devolution of decision making to middle‐sized local units, substantial school autonomy, a high level of urbanisation, loose central control over curriculum and certain features of the structure of schooling.     

Community,culture and identity: geography,the National Curriculum and Wales

ABSTRACT

The 1988 Education Reform Act legislated for a National Curriculum not for one nation but for two, Wales and England. This article reviews the way in which attempts to develop a distinctive curriculum in Wales for one subject, geography, were thwarted by the dominance among key policy‐makers in England of views about the study of place which were unsympathetic to the idea of the school curriculum being a vehicle for the development of a sense of community and national identity. Drawing on evidence from a survey of secondary school geography teachers in Wales, it considers the extent to which the teaching of geography is seen by teachers as a means of achieving such educational goals.     

Further On: personal reflections on a life in vocational education and training[1]

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between changes in the labour process, recent developments in the vocational curriculum and challenges that these changes present to the preparation of further education lecturers in England and Wales. Firstly it will be argued that the economy is moving from a Fordist to a post‐Fordist phase and that this change is affecting the vocational education curriculum. Previous attempts to relate post‐Fordism to education have tended to analyse the relationships in terms that are too general. When a specific aspect of education and training is examined such as the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications and General National Vocational Qualifications in England and Wales, more light is shed on the question of ‘correspondence’. This in turn reveals issues such as divisions between mental and manual work and issues of conception and execution which tend to be ignored or overlooked in debates about changes in the curriculum and changes in the economy. Secondly it will be argued that the new curriculum demands a new kind of professionalism for vocational teachers and a new kind of teacher preparation and expectation     

‘Say NO to Bullying!’: A Message from Your Peers

The study reported in this paper was undertaken to discover the extent of pastoral care training carried out during secondary initial teacher education. Questionnaires were sent to heads of initial teacher education institutions in England and Wales. It was found that institutions were likely to provide some form of training in pastoral care but the extent and method of training varied greatly between institutions. However, training in actual practical skills such as basic counselling skills was much less likely to be available. The authors conclude that there is still some considerable way to go before newly qualified teachers are likely to feel adequately prepared for their pastoral roles.     

Funding Government Training Schemes: Mechanisms and Consequences

Abstract

This paper follows the path of public funds allocated to private institutions‐‐Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs)‐‐which, in turn, fund the delivery of Youth Training (soon to be replaced by Youth Credits) and Training for Work. The paper argues that the terms on which funds are allocated to TECs offers little financial incentive for TECs to support high cost, high quality training since their success and cost effectiveness is measured by indicators which take no account of the type of training provided, to whom it is provided and by whom. A TECs performance rating can only be improved if it devotes more of its resources to support for the cheapest, easiest and quickest routes to the government's set of output measures. However, this will do little to cure Britain's well‐known deficiencies in intermediate skills in occupations in which it is costly and lengthy to train.     

Predicting the Impact of the Implementation of the DfEE Circular 4/98 for Primary Science Initial Teacher Education in England and Wales

Abstract

The article sets the context in which primary science educators find themselves, following the publication in England and Wales of the two recent DfEE circulars (10/97 and 4/98), Teaching: High Status, High Standards. The implications of trainee teachers demonstrating a wide range of standards, both of teaching ability and personal subject knowledge levels, by the end of their courses, are considered. The research was carried out by questioning staff from 32 teacher training institutions, who attended a conference in the early summer of 1998, where the focus was looking at strategies for auditing and enhancing trainee teachers’ subject knowledge. The results indicated that few institutions had foreseen the changes by previously planning for the introduction of subject auditing of trainees, but that all institutions had plans afoot for introducing it both on entry, and during the course. Techniques were based mainly around student self‐assessment, monitored by tutors, using strategies such as evidence portfolios, concept mapping, etc. Strategies such as multiple‐choice testing and computer assessment were envisaged as being used to a lesser extent.     

Primary Children's Perspectives on the World of Work: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

Abstract

This paper presents a ‘political arithmetic’ of women in post‐ compulsory education and training in Wales, illustrating that, although there has been some ‘catching up’ in participation and qualifications achieved, essentially education and training systems are reinforcing the highly rigid pattern of gender segregation that characterises the Welsh labour force. Wales is in danger of consolidating its position as a low wage low skill economy unless this situation is addressed. Changes in the administrative frame work of post‐compulsory education and training in Wales allows the opportunity to develop such a strategy, but so far the main actors in the field appear to be taking a ‘gender‐neutral’ stance.     

Education in England – a testbed for network governance?

Abstract

Since devolution in the late 1990s, education policy in England has diverged further from that in Scotland and also from policy in Wales and Northern Ireland. In this paper we review the roots and trajectory of the English education reforms over the past two decades. Our focus is the schools sector, though we also touch on adjoining reforms to early years and further and higher education. In so doing, we engage with various themes, including marketisation, institutional autonomy and accountability. Changes in governance arrangements for schools have been a defining feature of education reforms since devolution. This has been set against an evolution in national performance indicators that has put government priorities into ever sharper relief. In theorising the changes, we pay particular attention to the suggestion that the English education system now epitomises the concept of ‘network governance’, which has also been applied to education in a global context. We question the extent to which policies have in practice moved beyond the well-established mechanisms of ‘steering at a distance’ and undermined the very notion of an education system in England. We conclude by considering possible futures for education policy and how they may position England in relation to other parts of the UK and the wider world.     

Further education in England: at the crossroads between a national,competitive sector and a locally collaborative system?

ABSTRACT

During the 25 years since Incorporation, when further education (FE) colleges were taken out of local government control, FE in England has been shaped by processes of marketisation to become a competitive national sector that has increasingly diverged from the more ‘collaborative system logic’ of the other three countries of the UK. However, following recent government reforms, FE in England appears to have reached a crossroads with the opportunity to participate in a more collaborative skills-based landscape at the local and sub-regional levels. This article brings together evidence from historical and international comparative system analysis, a series of UK-wide seminars and in-depth research on the Area-Based Review of FE colleges to assess the strategic direction of FE in England at this critical juncture. We argue that English FE providers can take advantage of these trends to make a transition from a reactive, competitive national sector towards a more collaborative, regional and sub-regional system focused on inclusive economic and skills development. The article concludes that the potential for cross-UK policy learning depends on whether FE in England gradually transitions towards a more collaborative future that could bring it closer to FE and skills systems in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.     

Reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the connections between physical education (PE), sport, nationalism and citizenship in Wales, focusing upon how recent education policies relating to PE and sport are implicated in the cultural production of ideational differences between and among the peoples of Wales and England. The analysis suggests that tendencies towards narrow, conservative, cultural restorationist ideals, as evident in Wales as they are in England, may obstruct progress towards more innovative and progressive ideals in the curriculum of PE.     

Three surprising ways of impeding the integration of students with special needs into FE curricular contexts and how inclusive education may begin to help on this

Abstract

Whilst there have been major developments in the integration of students with special needs in Further Education in England and Wales, a number of policies and practices still inadvertedly hinder the integration process. These factors hindering integration are the development of discrete groups, the labelling process and the emphasis upon the ‘care’ role of Special Needs Teachers. Some strategies are suggested to overcome these impediments.     

The ‘new vocationalism’: Further education and local labour markets

Current policies aimed at promoting a ‘new vocationalism’ through changes in vocational training in further education are based upon a particular functional model of labour market behaviour, which sees the relationships between technical qualifications, training and recruitment to jobs as unproblematic. In fact, however, this model bears little relationship to the realities of actual labour markets, especially given the enormous diversity which exists between economic conditions in different localities. What this implies, therefore, is that there are considerable tensions between the imperatives of a national training strategy, promoted centrally by the Training Commission (and previously by the Manpower Services Commission), and its local implementation mainly by the local education authorities and their colleges of further education. In many local labour markets, far from promoting closer responsiveness to the needs of employers, current policy initiatives may actually be making it more difficult for the colleges to react to employers' demands. These general arguments are illustrated here by reference to a large‐scale empirical study which was specifically designed to investigate the inter‐relationships between the labour market behaviour of employers and the implementation of the ‘new vocationalism’ in further education.     

Shifting Identities: An investigation into student and novice teachers' evolving professional identity

This paper focuses on recent and innovative moves towards flexible learning in initial teacher education programmes in England and Wales, as part of the ‘widening participation’ agenda in higher education and in response to changes in teacher recruitment patterns. We take as our perspective our own experience as two course tutors in a higher education institution that introduced flexible routes into its secondary teacher education programme at the beginning of the academic year 2002/2003. Using the university's model for our case study, we have undertaken a small‐scale research project and reviewed the literature describing flexible learning discourses in higher education, to consider the extent to which concepts of flexibility are being translated into practice. In particular we highlight some implications for pedagogy and practice that have become apparent at this early stage in the development of flexible courses and which will have an impact upon their progress in the future.     

Middle attainers and 14–19 progression in England: half‐served by New Labour and now overlooked by the Coalition?

In the context of the international problem of ‘early school leaving’, this paper explores the issue of sustained participation in upper secondary education in England. It focuses in particular on the position of middle attainers, who constitute a large proportion of the cohort and whose progress will be vital in realising the government's goal of ‘Raising the Participation Age’ to 18 by 2015. The paper draws on evidence from national research undertaken as part of the Nuffield Review of 14–19 Education and Training in England and Wales and analysis of New Labour and Coalition policy between 2000–2012. It uses a three‐year local study of 2400 14‐ and 16‐year‐olds in an established school/college consortium to illustrate the effects of policy and practice on middle attainers. We argue that this important group of young people was ‘half‐served’ by New Labour, because of its incomplete and contradictory 14–19 reforms, and is now being ‘overlooked’ by Coalition policy because of its emphasis on high attainers. We conclude by suggesting a range of measures to support the 14+ participation, progression and transition of middle attainers in the English education and training system.     

The local embeddedness of graduates’ education-job mismatch and of lifelong learning policies for its overcoming

ABSTRACT

The article’s aim is twofold: to outline the specificity of the embeddedness approach and to explore the embeddedness of graduates’ education-job mismatch and the formation of lifelong learning policies. The study is based on both quantitative and qualitative data, obtained from the Bulgarian Universities Ranking System, and from interviews with experts and young adults engaged in a lifelong learning programme. The analysis uses multilevel modelling. It also relies on mapping lifelong learning policies in Bulgaria through a thematic content analysis. The article argues that the misbalances for highly educated people on the labour market mirror structural problems in the economy and the educational system. The argument is reflected in the historical and structural embeddedness of graduates’ education-job mismatches and the lifelong learning policies applied to overcome this. The results show that the extent of vertical education-job mismatch depends on the different profiles of higher education institutions and professional fields; they also demonstrate different ways in which the embeddedness approach could help shed new light on, and critically assess, lifelong learning policies. The findings reveal a differentiation between national and local levels of lifelong learning policy towards graduates and that regional policies are actively embedded in local contexts.