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CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSIONS AND KEY MESSAGES
8.1 This chapter presents the main conclusions from the evaluation and key messages relevant to the future development and roll-out of SfW courses.
CONCLUSIONS
8.2 Interviews with schools, colleges and providers revealed that they are committed to the value of SfW courses and see them as having raised the status of vocational learning in schools. Most interviewees saw the main aim of the courses as enhancing students' skills and knowledge in a broad occupational field, changing their attitudes to employment, developing their employability skills and helping them to make more informed choices about their future transitions.
8.3 The evaluation has shown that the SfW pilot has been largely successful in achieving the objectives and key measures of success identified by the stakeholders interviewed at the start of the pilot ( see Chapter 2).
8.4 In particular, there was clear evidence that providers had tested out and developed different approaches to delivering courses and overcome various obstacles and challenges. They had adapted their teaching methods and developed staff skills to suit the needs of the main age group targeted by the courses (S3 and S4 students), embedded the teaching of employability and core skills into the courses and tested out various delivery models. Progress had also been made in the second year of the pilot with regard to developing more robust selection processes and improving the partnership working between schools and colleges, which is critical to the success of most delivery models.
8.5 The evaluation revealed a generally positive response to the design and structure of the SfW courses and the support materials provided by SQA and SFEU. Some delivery centres had adapted the materials or developed additional ones over the course of the pilot to better suit their students' needs and requirements. Similarly, most respondents were positive about the National Assessment Bank ( NAB) materials provided by SQA, although some found that particularly lower ability students took a lot of time to complete them or were resistant to them. In response, some colleges had adopted alternative approaches including the use of e-portfolios.
8.6 Student retention on SfW courses was good in over two-thirds of schools surveyed. Higher drop-out rates were more likely to occur where schools had not replaced a Standard Grade with a SfW course and expected students to catch up with studies from missed lessons in their own time. Turning to candidates that stayed on the courses, three-quarters of the delivery centres surveyed expected all or almost all the candidates still involved to complete their courses on time. Analysis of monitoring data collected by SQA revealed that more than four-fifths (85.6 per cent) of students had passed their courses by the end of the second year of the pilot.
8.7 School and college staff interviewed were positive about the impact of SfW courses on students. Enhancement of students' specific vocational skills and knowledge was seen as a key impact. Other main areas of impact identified included helping students to make decisions about post-school transitions, improving students' motivation to learn, enhancing students' attitudes and skills relevant to employment and enhancing their ability to work with and relate to adults. Interviews with students also showed that they really enjoyed the courses, that they had developed useful skills and knowledge and that they had helped clarify their career objectives. However, some teachers still consider SfW courses as most suitable for less able or only 'practically-minded' students, which raises the issue of whether they currently provide genuine pathways to employment, training or further learning for pupils of all abilities. 11
8.8 No information was collected from employers or universities about their views on the value of the SfW qualification as part of this evaluation. However, a study commissioned by SQA (Ashbrook Research & Consultancy, 2007) showed that employers were increasingly becoming more aware of the SfW courses. It is probably too early to seek the view of universities, but the Scottish Government may wish to commission research in the future to explore admission tutors' awareness and views of SfW courses.
KEY MESSAGES
Timetabling of courses
8.9 The evaluation has shown that timetabling issues have continued to persist in the second year of the pilot. Schools are using various approaches to enable students to access SfW courses, each with their own associated problems or challenges. Even where schools adopt the intended approach of replacing a Standard Grade, they still sometimes encounter timetabling problems. Schools using this approach also find it harder to integrate "drop-outs" back into the normal timetable, especially if this happens later on in the year or even in the second year of the course. Also, there was some evidence that higher ability students were less likely to choose SfW courses if it meant replacing a Standard Grade - this was both a result of school and parental pressures and expectations to achieve eight Standard Grades.
8.10 The alternative approach of expecting students to complete a SfW course on top of their eight Standard Grades further strengthens the perception that they are not equivalent and that they are just of additional, rather than equal, value. In addition, the evaluation suggested that schools adopting this approach were more likely to report timetabling problems and higher levels of drop-out. This was particularly the case in those schools in which students missed lessons for Standard Grade subjects, which led to various catch-up issues. Some schools had tried to address this by implementing approaches to enable students to catch up, but this was only done in a few schools. Other schools had timetabled it in such a way that students only missed core subjects - however, this approach is not sustainable in the long term as it means that schools are not meeting their statutory obligations.
8.11 On balance the evaluation appears to suggest, therefore, that replacing a Standard Grade should be regarded as ideal. The Scottish Government, SQA, local authorities and schools should consider ways in which the awareness and status of courses can be further raised among teachers, parents, employers and universities, which may encourage more schools to adopt this approach. It should also consider providing more guidance to schools on what approaches can and should be used to allow students to take SfW courses.
Delivery models
8.12 The evaluation has provided an insight into a variety of delivery models and highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of each of them, although the evaluation has not been able to identify a preferred model. Instead, it is clear that different models are more suited for certain types of courses, partnerships or geographical areas.
8.13 Even though the in-college delivery model is still the most common one, the study has also shown that providers are increasingly adopting more diversified and flexible models of delivery - several colleges are using different models for different schools and/or different courses. Others were expecting to change their approaches in the coming year or years.
8.14 Generally, this trend should be viewed positively. It reflects the fact that providers are working closely with their partner schools and responding to their differential needs. Thus, several colleges had moved to delivering SfW courses in schools, vocational hubs, or other college sites to alleviate the transport issues experienced by rural schools which, in some cases, were located a considerable distance from the college main site. Some colleges also indicated that they saw the delivery of courses in schools as the main way of increasing their capacity to meet the increasing demands of schools for more students to participate in courses. There was also evidence of some schools adopting other approaches, including using private training providers and using school staff to deliver courses (sometimes with college staff providing a mentoring and quality assurance role).
8.15 These models do, however, raise issues for further consideration. These include that:
- School staff may not always have the skills, knowledge or experience to teach these courses to the same level as college lecturers
- Very few schools currently have the facilities to provide students with the same level of experience as within a college setting
- Vocational facilities set up in schools, such as hairdressing salons or areas to develop construction skills, may be under-utilised in some schools
- Schools are unlikely to be able to offer the same range of SfW courses as colleges
- There may not be enough demand for SfW courses, especially in smaller, rural schools to sustain the provision of sufficiently large class sizes or to allow for selection of the most suitable students.
8.16 However, given the capacity issues identified by colleges in this evaluation and transport issues faced by many rural schools, the Scottish Government, SQA, local authorities and schools may need to consider ways to overcome some of these barriers, including:
- Providing continuous training and development opportunities for school staff teaching SfW courses
- Supporting the approach planned by some colleges of providing a mentoring and quality assurance role to schools delivering SfW courses.
Partnership working
8.17 The evaluation has shown that both schools and colleges believed that the pilot had really helped to make a positive contribution to improved partnership working. Even schools which had previously had strong links with providers were able to identify ways in which it had further improved links. However, there was still some evidence of a need for schools and colleges to work more closely together to overcome some existing barriers. These included issues related to the timetabling of courses, the approach to and timing of selection, college involvement in providing pre-course guidance to students and the recording and reporting of progress on courses. There was also evidence that very little progress had been made by schools to make links between students' learning on SfW courses and the rest of the curriculum. Also, even though almost all delivery centres surveyed had carried out some form of evaluation or review of the pilot, very few colleges had involved school staff in this process. The Scottish Government, SQA, local authorities and HMIe should encourage this to happen more often.
Teaching approaches
8.18 The evaluation has shown that colleges have made progress in developing good practice in teaching approaches used for SfW courses. Many lecturers involved in the pilot had previously not had any experience of teaching students aged below 16 and they had realised that to keep them engaged they needed to ensure that:
- Courses were delivered in as practical a way as possible
- Students were kept busy
- Students were treated as much as possible as adults (bearing in mind child protection issues)
- Students were given responsibility for their own learning.
8.19 This has implications for sharing practice and deliverers' continuing professional development. Even though most delivery centres said that they had participated in events, workshops and conferences which enabled them to share good practice and network with other schools and colleges, some delivery centres said that they had not done so in the second year of the pilot. Also, many of those centres which only got involved in the second year of the pilot said that they had not received any help, guidance or materials from those involved from the start of the pilot. The Scottish Government, SQA and local authorities need to make sure that new providers and new staff benefit from the lessons learnt from the first two years of the pilot and that staff teaching the courses in schools and college have access to relevant continuing professional development opportunities. School and college partners could also be encouraged to work more closely together to share ideas on teaching and learning approaches - such links were currently being used mainly to focus on strategies to manage the behaviour of under-16 year olds.
8.20 There was also evidence that many centres were continuously adapting the SFEU support materials or developing their own. The Scottish Government, SQA and SFEU need to ensure that these are being fully disseminated to other providers so that fellow practitioners can benefit.
Employer engagement
8.21 Employer involvement in delivery was variable across courses and delivery centres. Some courses, particularly Rural Skills, Construction, and Early Education and Childcare were more likely to involve employers, but this was not the case across all delivery centres. Furthermore, only four out of 15 colleges said that they had developed stronger partnerships with employers by the end of the pilot. It is not clear though to what extent employer involvement is needed to deliver these courses successfully - they can provide a valuable insight into the reality of the workplace and offer opportunities for applying knowledge in practical situations. However, some courses appeared to be achieving these things even without strong links with employers. Further research to examine the benefits and costs of stronger employer engagement would be beneficial. The Scottish Government, SQA and local authorities may also want to explore ways of helping delivery centres to share successful strategies of involving employers. This could include establishing stronger links with employer bodies, such as sector skills councils (some of which were already involved in the initial design teams for some SfW courses), to assist this process.
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