Principle Investigator: Lesley Doyle

Funders: Kent County Council and Skills Development Scotland

Funding: £50,000

Duration: 1/8/09 - 31/7/10

Summary: The research is concerned with Vocational Pathways. It investigates the effectiveness of the different types of vocational courses and workplace experience/learning currently in place for males and females aged 14-19, the methods and place of deliv-ery, and the fitness for purpose of the courses in terms of employers’ needs as well as those young people who may want to engage in meaningful economic activity themselves. The research offers a unique opportunity to investigate three different but comparable approaches to vocational education and training in Scotland, Kent and Virginia which is not be accessible in a Scot-land-only study. As in Scotland, in Kent and Virginia there has been increasing emphasis on the need to introduce a vocational focus earlier in the curriculum with dual educational and career oriented strands through the high school years. At the same time, all three regions have been concerned to introduce and maintain coherence to these vocational pathways within and beyond school and to ensure that they are fit for purpose.In Scotland, the SDS’s new Corporate and Operating Plan for 2009-2012 sets out a comprehensive skills development agenda. One of the priority groups of individuals are young people aged 12-19. There needs to be coherent and productive links with a wide range of delivery partners. Employers’ input is fundamental to this process. The course content and skills development of the courses which make up the various pathways have to have clear resonance with employers’ needs. At the same time, many of the pathways are dependent on committed employer engagement of which there is insufficient availability, especially for the younger end of the age range.

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