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Annex 1
Possible models of recognition
In principle, there appear to be five models of recognition. These are differentiated by a number of factors including the following: the extent to which the school is involved, the extent to which the employer is involved; the nature of the link (if any) to the school curriculum; the nature of the link (if any) to employability or other progression; and whether or not they will lead to certification.
Model 1: recognition of part-time work through full embedding in the curriculum
In this model part-time work would be recognised as a context for school learning and assessment. This could be achieved through syllabus inserts and/or by ensuring that there were opportunities for learners to draw on their experience of part-time work in assessments. There would be no discrete certification.
Model 2: recognition that part-time work can develop generic transferable skills
In this model part-time work would be recognised as a context for the development and assessment of skills which complement the subject-based curriculum. These could either be skills which can already be assessed and certificated through national units (eg core skills) or skills which would require the development of new national units (eg other employability skills).
Model 3: formal recognition of the distinctive outcomes of part-time work
In this model part-time work would become a focus for discrete certification in which either the school or the employer or both could be involved. This would result in the generation of formal record of the outcomes of part-time employment within the Scottish Qualifications Certificate ( SQC), possibly involving the SQA's new profiling facility.
Model 4: recognition of the role of part-time work in personal planning
In this model, part-time work would be formally recognised as having in part to play in the learner's personal development planning. This would be captured in paper or IT-based support materials related to Progress File and/or Personal Learning Plans.
Model 5: recognition of the potential of part-time work to contribute to progression
This model focuses on the contribution which the experience of part-time work may make to the learner in future - ie to the next stages of education or to employment - rather than on possible links to concurrent school activities. Examples of the outputs envisaged here would include web-based self-assessment programmes for the learners, structured references for use by employers, or a combination of these.
In further developing the models, close attention will have to be paid to the quality of the experience of young people undertaking part-time work. At present there is a lack of data on matters such as the types of work, types of employer, frequency or duration of employment and so on. However, it would be reasonable to anticipate that not only will the work itself vary considerably in nature - eg the extent of the skills and degree of responsibility involved - but the opportunity for personal and/or vocational development or progression within the employment and the support available for those involved is also likely to be very different in both degree and kind. These factors will influence the learning which takes place and the recognition which can be given to it.
Also, in considering the viability of each model, three constraining factors need to be taken into account: (a) not all young people will be involved in part-time work; (b) not all part-time work will yield the necessary outcomes; and (c) not all young people will wish to use their experience of part-time work in this way.
In table 1 below the models are shown as relating along two axes. One of these shows the nature of the links with the formal school curriculum and the other shows the extent to which the model is concerned with the formal assessment of outcomes. Whether they would be intended to lead to some form of certification is shown by an asterisk.
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