CEIAG for Headteachers, Governors and SLT
School, the point is to expand their horizons, not limit them.
Thursday 5th September 2013
t's not often I feel the need to blog on a daily basis, in fact I was running the bath ready for a facepack, cuppa and 'me time' session when I saw this link tweeted by Schools Improvement
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/School_the_point_is_to_learn_not_earn/13992#.UiimST-neSp
In short the piece is about a private members bill introduced into Parliament earlier this week. The writers comments about the premise of the bill had me jumping up and down and my fingers itching to hit the keyboard.
The bill, proposed by Conservative MP Andrew Selous, aims to 'help young people choose the right subjects'. The scheme will use information from tax returns to link the incomes of people currently in the workforce with the subjects that they studied at school. The data will then be published online. The plan is receiving support from across the coalition government.
Image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The author, who is according to the website 'a documentary maker' and, I gather, a Trinity Dublin Allumni, calls the plans "breathtakingly philistine." The mere fact that one could possibly have any idea about a career at the age of 14 is incomprehensible to the writer..
Maybe they have little significance to those whose lives are mapped out by cosy middle class assumptions of university followed by one of the professions. However, for a child who has never seen a member of their family work; those whose relatives are plagued by skill shortfalls or whose families have been unskilled or semi skilled workers all their lives; then the choice of one's GCSE's is a watershed in which a wrong choice can have disastrous effects.
One's GCSEs and/or A Levels often have significant bearing on a pupils forthcoming 'path' through the career jungle. Never has it been more vital to be aware of the opportunities available to young people, simply because they are now so diverse. Most pupils are simply not aware of a vast majority of jobs that people do. Ask a teenager what a toolmaker or an underwriter does, you'll most likely be met with a shrug and a blank stare. This is why career learning and the ability to manage one's own career are skills that must be developed within the secondary school system. Labour Market Information (LMI) as proposed by the Government has long been used by careers advisers to help inform and guide pupils in making their career plans. In conjunction with self knowledge about their own abilities and aptitudes they form the basis of informed career choices.
In a well educated household, there is less likely to exist a vacuum of information that often exists in other homes. Thus effective careers guidance is a vital tool for social mobility. We no longer, in most areas, have educational selection to facilitate social mobility. I was one of those from a working class background in east London, that went on to grammar school and university. I'll never forget the pride of hearing my aunt casually dropping into conversation with a friend, "Our Janet went to Cambridge you know." We are a 21st C first world economy and social mobility is an expected facet of our lives.
My argument is simple, without effective LMI, a pupil has little to base their choices upon. LMI isn't just how much they could earn but also where jobs are available and how difficult they are to get. Good LMI can give pupils the edge by showing them their are more likely to get a job by taking one exam over a similar one. Thus taking the 'wrong' exams can cut off avenues that would otherwise be open to them.
I'm not saying you need to know you want to be a quantum physicist specialising in magnetic fields of plastics at 14, but being aware of the difference between various science GCSEs/BTECs could be make or break one's opportunities.
