Participation In Post-compulsory Education Research Articles

Roma students’ experiences: practices contributing to participation in post-compulsory education

ABSTRACT Background It is widely recognised internationally that participation in higher education is likely to lead to increased opportunities and resources. However, only a minority of learners from Roma backgrounds continue into post-compulsory education. As important research into inclusion continues, more attention must be paid to the identification of practices that can help break down barriers and support the participation of Roma students in post-compulsory education. Purpose The research sought to gain insight into particular factors influencing the decision-making processes of three students from Roma backgrounds who chose to pursue an academic pathway. Method The setting for this qualitative study was a school in Spain located in a socioeconomically disadvantaged and predominantly Roma neighbourhood whose students had never previously participated in pre-university studies (courses preparing students for university entrance). In-depth interviews were conducted with three Roma students in their last year of compulsory education who were about to move on to pre-university studies, as well as with three significant adults: a Roma mother, a Roma role model working at the school, and the school principal. Findings The analysis of participants’ narratives suggested that, according to their views, the implementation of a set of successful educational actions involving high expectations, the involvement of Roma families, the influence of positive Roma role models and engagement with dialogic interactions contributed to the continuation of these three Roma students on a trajectory towards post-compulsory education. Conclusions The study highlights some noteworthy factors that can be involved in transforming a context from one where access to university is not considered to be an option and towards a new one in which university becomes a real choice.

Careers guidance provisions and progression to post-16 education: An empirical analysis for Wales

Careers guidance is widely regarded as important in supporting young people in making appropriate decisions following school. However, there is very little empirical evidence as to its effectiveness. This paper examines whether the services provided by Careers Wales have encouraged progression to post-compulsory education in Wales. The paper uses administrative education data for 2 cohorts of school pupils who completed their final year of compulsory education in Wales 2012/13 and 2013/14. Through linkage to individual level client records held by Careers Wales, those pupils who had received careers guidance during their final 2 years of school are identified. Further linkage to records regarding participation in either school based sixth-forms or colleges of Further Education provides a complete picture of participation in post-compulsory education among Welsh pupils and how rates of transition vary among different groups of pupils, including whether or not pupils had had some form of contact with Careers Wales. Multivariate statistical analysis was undertaken to examine whether or not, after controlling for other characteristics, accessing the services of Careers Wales was associated with the likelihood of attending post-compulsory education. The results based on multivariate logistic regression analysis reveal that receiving careers guidance through the medium of group sessions increases the likelihood of overall participation in post-compulsory education. The effect of this is enhanced when pupils also received a one to once careers interview during the last 2 years of school. In general, careers interventions are associated with a reduced likelihood of attendance at Sixth Form but encourages student transition to Further Education. The study offers important insights for policy makers and career practitioners in terms of the contributions of careers guidance in supporting post-16 educational landscape in Wales.

Careers Guidance and Transitions to Further Education in Wales

There is a general agreement that receiving appropriate and timely careers guidance enhances the likelihood of an individual’s participation in post-compulsory education. However, little is understood about how careers guidance influences the choices of learners. This paper explores the educational journey of learners’ who enrol within the Further Education sector in Wales, analysing whether the receipt of careers guidance is in anyway associated with these outcomes. This study utilises the linked database of school and pupil records, combining information from the Welsh National Pupil Database (NPD) with individual learner records from the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR) for young people who are registered at post-compulsory education providers, combined with anonymised client information held by Careers Wales. Data for two cohorts of Year 11 pupils (2012/13 and 2013/14) who subsequently enrolled in courses within the FE sector during the following academic year is analysed. Multivariate analysis reveals that, as expected, there is a strong link between GCSE attainment and learning aims at FE. However, the analysis also suggests that receipt of careers guidance may encourage learners to make choices at FE that are more commensurate with their abilities. Those with higher levels of attainment are also more likely to enrol on higher level learning programmes if they have also been in receipt of careers guidance. Likewise, those with low levels of attainment at GCSE are more likely to enrol on learning programmes with lower qualification aims if they have been in receipt of careers guidance. Receiving careers guidance through interviews increased the likelihood of registering on WBL programmes. Furthermore, learners on WBL programmes who have received careers guidance are less likely to withdraw from their courses early. The study offers important insights as to the role of career guidance in supporting young people in their transitions to post-compulsory education.

Raising Aspirations and Higher Education: Evidence from the UK’s Widening Participation Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between aspirations and inequality in higher education participation. Using a regression discontinuity design, I evaluate the impact of a nationwide UK policy aimed at raising aspirations towards college education in pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds by involving them in outreach activities. I find that the policy successfully raised the aspirations of the target students and their participation in post compulsory education. However, its final effect on college enrollment was negligible overall and appears concentrated among students from the most affluent families and those in the central part of the ability distribution.

EDUCATIONAL PARTICIPATION POST-16: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF INTENTIONS AND OUTCOMES

ABSTRACT: The issue of levels of participation in post-compulsory education has been emphasised by the current policy initiatives to increase the age to which some form of participation is compulsory. One of the acknowledged weaknesses of research in the field of children's intentions with regard to participation is the lack of longitudinal data. This paper offers a longitudinal analysis using the Youth Survey from the British Household Panel Survey. The results show that most children can express intentions with regard to future participation very early in their secondary school careers and that these intentions are good predictors of actual behaviour five years later. Intentions to stay on are more consistent than intentions to leave and most children who finally leave at 16 have at some point said they want to remain in education post-16. The strongest association with participation levels is attainment at GCSE. However, there are also influences of gender and parental background and these remain, even after attainment is held constant. The results show the value of focusing on intentions for participation at a very early stage of children's school careers and also the importance of current attempts to reform curriculum and assessment for the 14–19 age group.

Demographic and Labour Market Change: The Dynamics of Older Workers in the Scottish Labour Market

This paper presents a review of ageing in the Scottish labour market. Scotland's population structure has been ageing for some decades leading to an ageing of the working population, at a rate ahead of many countries in Europe. Low levels of fertility, increased participation in post-compulsory education and low levels of labour market participation after the age of 50 have further contributed to an anticipated marked future decline in workforce numbers. This ageing of the workforce will mean that in the future Scotland is likely to have to rely on a smaller proportion of its population to provide its services and produce its economic wealth. It also poses a number of questions around the supply of skills and labour for Scottish employers. In particular, with a declining labour force from where will employers draw labour? There are a number of important policy implications; specifically, what are the most effective ways and at what spatial level are the most effective means of addressing labour market ageing in Scotland. The paper examines the demographic context, spatial variations in ageing, the labour market participation of older workers, how current policy is addressing this issue and what should be done.

Students as rational decision-makers: the question of beliefs and attitudes

Rational choice theorists have analysed rates of participation in post-compulsory education, and, in particular, class differentials in these rates. Various claims have been made about the motivations of student decision-makers, but these claims have not been grounded empirically. This paper will assess the question of whether students' attitudes to education and beliefs about their own academic abilities vary according to social background and gender. Evidence is presented that students' attitudes to education do not vary greatly according to gender or social background, but that both the social background and gender of students affect their perception of their own abilities.

Developing an evaluation framework: assessing the contribution of community-based and work-based approaches to lifelong learning amongst educationally marginalised adults

In the United Kingdom and Europe ‘lifelong learning’ is often propounded to bring both economic and social returns, although the former, rather than the latter is more frequently the focus of policy prescriptions. Despite the significant increases in participation in post-compulsory education, certain socio-economic groups are still poorly represented. This article presents two case studies that promote lifelong learning to adults: a community-based initiative and a work-based scheme. Drawing on a comparison of these initiatives (based on a grounded theory approach) an evaluation framework for assessing the contribution of different approaches to further lifelong learning amongst educationally marginalised adults is proposed. This is then elaborated and utilised to explore the two case studies. This systematic analysis helps to highlight the complexity of the issues pertaining to lifelong learning amongst educationally marginalised adults. In addition, this article presents a substantive theory of evaluation that can be applied by others both to evaluate their work and to contribute towards a formal theory of evaluation.

Why State Policies Matter: The Influence of Curriculum Policy on Participation in Post-Compulsory Education and Training

This study examines the effects of state curriculum policies on participation in post-compulsory education and training. Whereas studies in the past looking at this issue have tended to focus on school retention rates alone, the present study measures participation in education and training more broadly, taking account of the greater diversity of provision of post-compulsory education. This is achieved by including data on technical and further education (TAFE) and non-TAFE vocational participation as possible equivalents of high school completion. The results show that state policies do matter, that they affect overall participation rates but, more than this, they have a marked and differential impact on participation for disadvantaged groups.

Power, assumptions and prescriptions: a critique of widening participation policy-making

This article focuses on widening participation in higher education by “non-traditional”, and currently under-represented, social and cultural groups in the UK. Although the barriers to access are complex and dynamic, this paper categorises the impediments to participation in post-compulsory education, and discusses the role of certain kinds of assumptions in developing policy solutions of limited effectiveness. In particular, it is concerned that dominant discourses display a propensity to make a series of untested assumptions, and reduce problems to a small number of issues, and to provide a “one-size-fits-all” solution. The UK government's proposals contained in the Excellence Challenge are examined, and underlying assumptions are identified: it assumes that the targeting and selection of pupils will be effective, and that all pupils will benefit equally from participating in the same activity. The limitations of these assumptions are illustrated by examining empirical research conducted by the author.

The Distribution of Wages in Transition Countries

This paper seeks to document and analyse changes in the distribution of wages and employment in the transition countries since the collapse of communism. Most countries experienced an increase in wage inequality during the initial shock of the transition. Proximate causes of this increase seem to be sectoral shifts in employment and increasing inter-industry wage differentials. In Eastern Europe, where economic growth has restarted, there have been further increases in income inequality. These changes are arguably the best guide to future trends in the wage distribution. Taking the case of Poland, rising inequality appears to be entirely accounted for by an increased incidence of workless households. This rise in workless households derives from two phenomena: rising participation in post-compulsory education and earlier retirement. Also in Poland, though there is no change in hourly wage inequality, structural change has had clear impacts of the distribution of wages with increased wage premia to education, to growing sectors and geographically advantaged regions in the economy and to senior occupations.

Post-compulsory education and training: Some recent research findings and their policy implications

The twenty-first century has ushered in a new phase in the history of secondary education in Australia. Behind lies a decade of stagnation in which the economic impulses to greater use of school have not been strong enough to drive up retention rates. These peaked during the 1990 recession and subsequently fell back to the levels of the late 1980s, when around 3 in 4 young people completed school. There has been little movement since. Policy-makers are concerned about the lack of growth, and have begun to set targets. Reviews of post-compulsory education and training (or of the senior secondary curriculum alone) have been undertaken or are in progress in several States and Territories, and the federal government has funded vocational programs to make schools focus more on employment. Though no doubt from different points of view or different value perspectives, governments across Australia are determined to change how secondary education works. More young people are expected to complete school and the orientation of school programs is being broadened. When participation in school involves as many as three in four young people, the policy drive to extend this still further naturally raises the questions, What is at stake? Why is more growth needed? Is it feasible or even desirable to keep 80% or as many as 90% of the age-group at school (or the majority of these, with the rest in training)? To answer these questions involves examining the extent and the value of participation in post-compulsory education and training on the part of different populations, while keeping in mind the historical context within which participation reached its current levels. To do this, we will draw on an extensive national survey of early school leavers administered during 2000, on data from the Educational Outcomes Survey conducted across Australia between 19941996, and on findings from the tracking of over 6,000 students in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) in 1998. These sources provide insights into the

Modelling what's in it for me? the application of modelling to the management of accessibility

This article investigates the usefulness of modelling as a management tool, particularly to support the planning and implementation of innovation. The purpose of modelling is explored, and the process of constructing a series of models based on original research is analysed. This leads to discussion of the management implications of each of the models, and indicates how they can be used to plan and monitor innovation. The immediate context is the management of accessibility, primarily of open-access learning resource centres in further education in the United Kingdom. Finally, the dynamics of the summative model are applied to the context of widening participation in post-compulsory education.

Youth Employment, Unemployment and School Participation

This paper identifies and examines the trends in teenage labour force and school participation in Australia over the past 25 years. It covers a broad range of associated issues such as school retention, youth employment, and apprenticeships. The aim here is to determine the important movements in young persons' participation in post-compulsory education and the labour force, and the changing interaction between the two in recent decades. To this end, a model of secondary education participation is developed. The results from this work indicate that declining full-time employment and increasing income support for students have been the most important determinants of school participation in Australia over the last 25 years. The results of this paper have important implications for government policy on school participation.

Britain's Training Statistics: A Cautionary Tale

In the last two decades or so education and training have become central in the discussion of Britain's economic performance. There have been substantial changes in education and training policy (OECD 1995) and, at the same time, an expansion of participation in post-compulsory education. Both current and recent governments have aimed to raise work-based training through a mixture of persuasion and limited, selective, measures. Yet, there is considerable uncertainty about the extent to which the education and training system is enhancing skills in Britain or, for that matter, in many other countries. This paper concentrates on one dimension of the issue, namely work-based training statistics. There is uncertainty both over the amount of inputs into training and over its impact on skills. It argues that the uncertainty is, in part, the consequence of poor training statistics and that policy debate would benefit from improvements in the ways in which these statistics are compiled and interpreted.

The two components of a new learning society

This article uses the results of a large-scale study of patterns of participation in post-compulsory education and training over the past 50 years to identify some of the social determinants of adult participation. It is suggested that these determinants are of two types, those more relevant to immediate post-school education and training and those relevant to lifelong learning. This possibility is used to reinforce doubts about the wisdom of current policy in seeking mass participation in further and higher education and immediate post-school training. Such measures, while creditable in themselves are not sufficient to create the United Kingdom Learning Society so widely espoused in official discourse and its associated policy literature.

Participation in Post-Compulsory Education in Scotland

This paper uses data from the Scottish Young People's Cohort Study to investigate the factors affecting participation in post-compulsory education in Scotland. These surveys are a unique source of information on routes through school and on entry to higher education. The major aim of the paper is to estimate the effects of the structure of post-compulsory schooling and certification on participation rates. The main statistical technique is multilevel logistic regression. Another aim is the investigation of regional differences in participation in Scotland.