CEIAG for Headteachers, Governors and SLT
Which Way WEX?
Wednesday 22nd May 2013
As a careers teacher I'm used to staff, pupils and parents alike telling me how useful and important work experience (WEX) is. I've heard them all, from, 'Oh Miss, I hate little kids, they don't listen, whatever made me think I wanted to be a nursery nurse?'
To 'He's fallen asleep in the van on the way home every night, he told me he didn't realise how hard work is.'
Via 'They come back from work experience with new purpose, they grow up in that 2 weeks.'
Almost everyone is for keeping work experience, even it appears that the government is for WEX but they seem to want to push it into KS5 and beyond. I'll explain why I think that later in this blog.
Without doubt, WEX is vital in educating pupils, especially those who have limited experience of the working world, in the reality of the expectations of employers and demonstrating to them the importance of transferable skills learned at school
However, not all experiences of WEX are equal. If you don't believe me go to Twitter and do a key word search for 'work experience', You'll get a very diverse bunch of tweets. These are examples of real tweets over the last 48 hours.
- Last day of work experience yaaay!
- Work experience so far: #tedious
- Off to Milan fashion week for work experience #cantwait
- why I've chosen to do work experience at castle bromwich juniors I do not know
- work experience in film/tv in south london area for my son 18 planning on doing this at uni this sept anyone able to offer/ know of someone?
- I don't even want work experience to end #havingtoomuchfun
This backs up my feeling that WEX can be a hit or miss thing depending on the amount of enthusiasm and importance exhibited by the pupil, parent and school involved. The current governmental policy seems to be about standardising the experience of pupils across the board. So what can we do to ensure that all pupils have a good and useful WEX?
What is the Government Saying?
Matthew Hancock MP says in the Westminster Hall debate on Careers Guidance on May 16th 2013, "What matters is real work experience, not pretend work experience." So what is the honourable member planning? My informed guess is moving WEX out of KS4, which has already been done as it is no longer compulsory, into KS5. This means pupils who enter into apprenticeships will get their WEX with their first employer and pupils who follow the academic route of A levels and uni may well get some form of WEX via voluntary work (The Big Society?) or some other similar device.
As I've mentioned earlier, the type and quality of WEX for KS4 varies tremendously, not just because of the effort the schools put into it; also the enthusiasm for the pupil's family and the availability of willing quality providers of WEX within the community. I'd love to keep WEX in KS4, I feel that it can be a powerful tool for improving motivation and ambition in school age students. However, I don't think that the government has the money or the will to put in place the infrastructure that is necessary for a relevant and effective WEX system.
If WEX is moved to KS5 what would the effect be on schools?
Headteachers will, I believe, have a dilemma as the same debate gives even stronger hints that destinations data will be used to judge schools' performance and that Ofsted will be strengthening its inspection framework to look at Careers Education, Information and Guidance in schools.
So the onus in schools will be to ensure pupils are well prepared and empowered to make effective choices at 16 for not only their career aims but their route through it. How will they do that without WEX?
My Hopes
I'm not sure if there is an answer, certainly not one that won't cost money, but if the hints that the National Careers Service might act as an enabler of services for schools should we not be looking to them to encapsulate and build on the good work done by many Education Business Partnerships on a regional basis?
My hope is that headteachers will respond well to the need to produce good CEIAG practise in their school in order to fulfil destinations and Ofsted requirements. To do this they will have to work in congress with other schools and share good practise and contacts.
Perhaps the CIPD whose members are currently voting thus about WEX https://www.cipd.co.uk/news/cipdupdate/_MiniPoll?pollid=387&answerid=1233&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cipd&utm_campaign=cipdupdate&utm_content=220513_na_graphiclink_poll.answer1 will spearhead some form of joint action between employers?
Adrien Oldfield has started a petition to implore the government to make WEX compulsory at KS4 again http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49957 I've signed as I still think that good WEX is invaluable at KS4 so please sign it if you feel able to.
Please, feel free to comment on this article, sharing your thoughts
