Young people at the heart

We’ve been consulting young people in Milton Keynes who will be attending one of Edge’s two new Academies, about what names they would like for the five ‘learning villages’ we are establishing for year groups. Was this going to be a hostage to fortune? What on earth will they come up with? Names of celebrities? TV programmes? But of course not. They’ve decided upon explore; discover; aspire; excel; achieve. Isn’t that wonderful!

Which reminds me, if you haven’t yet looked at what the young people in the Edge Learner Forum get up to, you really should – there’s some inspiring stuff. Some of the Forum members have just finished the second ‘Edge Instead’, this time at Lewisham College (following a very successful pilot at a London secondary school). Edge Instead is a student-led learning review process designed by the young Learner Forum members. The aim is to provide a helpful snapshot of how the institution is doing in the eyes of students, help the college ‘from within’ by training up a team of students to act as the review team, and produce practical suggestions for the institution to consider taking forward. As well of the many benefits to the schools and colleges, student reviewers also gain important life skills including professionalism, confidence, team work and presentation – something that is at the heart of Edge’s vision for education.

And finally, still on the subject of inspiring young people, I had a catch-up meeting this week with the wonderful Susan Piers Mantell from Learning to Lead Just like the Learner Forums, students are empowered to get involved in their school community, to identify what they care about and then to act upon it. Each student is provided with training to enable them to work collaboratively towards what they want to achieve within their school. Schools that have been running the scheme for a while have noticed significant improvements – not only in the areas the students pick to (such as sustainability; school environment and healthy eating) but also the confidence and maturity of the students and their relationships with staff. It’s proving to be a great success.

All this serves to reinforce my sincere belief that given the right support young people really do have the ability to transform their own education, and play their part in the revolution

Let's hear it for VQs...

Yesterday was VQ Day; the annual celebration of everyone who’s achieved a vocational qualification. Thanks to the hard work of so many colleges, training providers and awarding bodies, as well as staff at Edge, it was a really fantastic day. Celebrity chef James Martin did us proud as the ambassador for VQ Day, appearing on ITV’s Loose Women and BBC Breakfast News. The BBC’s piece also featured hospitality students from the wonderful Open Kitchen at Hackney Community College in London, where one of our four national VQ Day events was held. Others took place in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh – along with many more events around the UK. I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge WELL DONE to everyone involved!

Of course the real highlight in London were the two overall VQ Hero winners; Learner of the Year Aaron Collins from Croydon (studying art and design) and Young Learner of the Year Lucia Castro (studying health and social care). You can’t listen to these people on stage without being reminded that every one of us has talent and that there are many paths to success. The fact that there are thousands of Lucias and Aarons who leave the education system with unfulfilled hopes and beliefs is a disgrace. That is why Edge wants to transform the education system with our revolution campaign.

We need everyone to get behind this change; from young people and parents to businesses. I am heartened, therefore, to read the comments by chief executive of McDonalds UK Steve Easterbrook in today’s Times calling for businesses to play a part in bridging the work-school divide and ensuing our young people, who are bearing the brunt of unemployment during the recession, continue to have prospects in both work and education. He says; “For too long there has been a divide between the worlds of education and work. It cannot be right that leaving school at 16 is the end of the education story for so many. Only by making a revolving door between study and work can we harness this country's young talent.” I couldn’t agree more.

'Sat-nav' A-levels enter the debate

The Reform group has secured a lot of publicity today on a report which talks of ‘high maintenance’ students who are ‘spoon-fed’ with ‘sat-nav’ A-levels that they ‘learn and forget’.

I’ve just done a comprehensive survey of the staff in the office and 8 out of 9 say they learnt and forgot their GCSEs and A-levels, even though most did them in the ‘good old days’ of ‘rigor’ and ‘proper academic’ standards. So no surprises there! I am pleased that Reform have started a campaign Educators for Reform, promoting ‘rigorous education and an educated society’ (who could disagree with that!) because they seem to be advocating an alternative view to that of Edge, RSA and all the members of the Open Source Alliance (a group of organisations who share a similar perspective on education). It helps provide some traction to the debate.

Without yet having read their manifesto in detail, my beef is that we need to avoid a sterile debate about so called ‘traditional’ academic standards (and the implication of rigor) versus a more skills or capability-based curriculum (and the implication of wooliness). The need for really high quality academic or largely theoretical courses of study that test critical reasoning, broad understanding and flair is beyond question. And the evidence that standards have slipped with some A-levels needs to be taken very seriously. BUT there are many paths to success. And there is no reason why we cannot have other paths that combine theory with practice that are just as rigorous, just as important for developing flair and critical reasoning … and just as well resourced and recognised.

Also in the news today is the statistics on the shortage of jobs for young people, as released by the DCSF. I am pleased to have joined this debate on the Reuters Great Debate blog pages.

Work hard, get the best qualification you can, and you’ll get a better job, be happier, and earn more money...

I’m now three-quarters of the way through the Nuffield report 'Education for All – the future of education and training for 14-19 year olds'. For me, any really good book will at some point smack me in the face like a Tango advert. It all happened in chapter nine, on ‘employers and the labour market’. Strange but true!

There are two types of incentives for young people to do well in education:

- Ones internal to the system; making learning more interesting e.g. what is taught and the way it is taught.

- External ones; such as future wage returns, access to high-status employment (linked to getting a degree) and the status that comes from going to university.

I feel I know about the first. There is so much more we can and should do relating to higher-quality practical and vocational learning, more ‘learning by doing’ – all that is the basis of Edge’s Six Steps to Change.

With reference to the second type of incentive, the authors point out:
“… for young people who live in communities where the range of local job opening is narrow and often leads to lower end occupations, and for whom escape via HE entry appears an unrealistic or unappealing prospect, the reasons to stay on and try to achieve a qualification may not appear particularly compelling.” Basically, for very many young people it makes sense to get out of education and earn some money – by fair means or foul.

Wonderful schools, with wonderful facilities, mixed styles of learning suited to the individual, a wide range of experiences, inspiring teachers, great advice and guidance for young people – not enough! We have to reform the labour market as well as education. Perhaps we need more ‘license to practice’ - you can get this job and earn reasonable money but only if you have this qualification.

So much policy, the authors go on to state, is driven by faith in a universal incentive that should work for everyone; ‘work hard, get the best qualification you can, then you’ll get a better job, be happier, and earn more money.’ Actually, for very many, it’s just not true. And why isn’t this received wisdom challenged? “It is simply that most of our policy makers, and many educationalists, were themselves good academic students, who followed what we called the ‘royal route’ through A-levels to a top university. For them, that is the norm.”

I was Tangoed.

Education for All - the Nuffield review 14-19 education and training in England and Wales

I felt very privileged yesterday to be in a grand lecture hall at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. Why? Because I was listening to a group of education experts who had distilled six years of concentrated research on education and training for 14-19 year olds with decades of their own experience. Six years of research! This is important stuff.

Politicians talk of the importance of evidence-based policy but often it seems more like policy-based evidence.

I haven’t read ‘Education for All’ yet but I’m looking forward to curling up on the sofa with it tonight (it’s either that or watch England v Andorra!) From what I heard at the launch however their conclusions come across as profound common sense – common-sense backed up by data, research and real-world experience. I just hope that this tremendous work leads to change…

… but there lies the rub. There is no evidence from history that great research and sensible conclusions are followed through – on the contrary (and as the report itself makes clear). We will certainly be doing all we can to create a debate around this work. It fits beautifully with the terrific new feature-length education documentary ‘We are the people we’ve been waiting for’ that is funded by Edge, produced by Lord Puttnam - and hopefully released in the autumn.

For me personally it was also very heartening to hear such an endorsement of all Edge’s work over the past four years - the importance of practical and experiential learning for all, the ridiculous split between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ (and the inappropriateness of this language), the importance of teachers, the need to ensure that the professional development of teachers takes into consideration the practical knowledge required for the changing 14-19 phase, the importance of learner engagement, the importance of apprenticeships…well done and thank you to all those who contributed. Brilliant!

http://www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk/

http://www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk/files/documents206-1.pdf

Exciting prospects and progress

Local authorities sometimes come in for a bit of flak. So it was good to recently meet again with those responsible for education in Barnsley. They are a very refreshing and positive group. I’m so impressed with their vision and particularly inspired by the transformation of their entire secondary school estate (which consists currently of 14 secondary community schools) into nine Advanced Learning Centres. These ALCs will be new, purpose-built schools with extended opening hours and state of the art facilities, accessible to all members of the community up to 48 weeks a year. It’s a very exciting prospect and I am hoping Edge can help by bringing our projects and experience to bear; whether that’s communications, research, employer engagement, learner forums or vocational teacher training. http://www.barnsley.gov.uk/bguk/Education_Skills/Schools

Talking of vocational teacher training I am delighted to be involved in the latest Skills Commission inquiry addressing this topic, which kicked off this week. The Edge-funded inquiry is being chaired by Sir Mike Tomlinson. The purpose of the inquiry is to investigate the training practices for prospective and current vocational education teachers across schools, further education and higher education. It has been prompted by the policy divide between teacher training in schools and further education, the introduction of the 14-19 Diplomas and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill currently being debated in Parliament. It will collate existing research, take evidence from a number of experts and produce a report with a series of policy recommendations.

Finally, being interviewed by FE News at the recent ALP Forum for Employment & Skills was a great chance to talk about Edge’s aims, the opportunities provided by the current recession. http://www.fenews.co.uk/content/view/8285/177/

I was also able to mention the forthcoming VQ Day on 24th June, which is our national celebration of vocational qualifications. To find out more visit http://www.vqday.org.uk/