Collaborative Approaches to 14-19 Provision - Communities and ...

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARThe pathfinder was thus able to be embedded within a series of developments designed tostrengthen 14-19 education and training in Islington.The pathfinder focus320. The pathfinder took on three of the radical options proposed in the prospectus: (i)addressing skills shortages in specific professions; (ii) innovative approaches to designingand delivering vocational courses; (iii) partnerships with HE institutions.321. These three options were to be closely integrated through the development of a closepartnership with the health and social services sectors, based on the premise of mutuality ofneed and benefit. Thus the intention has been to develop collaboration with health and socialcare professionals which will enhance learning at school/college whilst helping to overcomeacute local skills gaps in those sectors and provide a focus for new ways of developingvocational courses. Links with higher education were also to be developed in the fields ofmedical education, radiography, health sciences and nursing in the context of concerns towiden participation.322. Islington contains, or is in close proximity to, many NHS trusts, hospitals and otherservices which have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting staff in some sectors andconsequently have recruited overseas-trained staff. The NHS was anxious to reduce thisrecruitment and the use of expensive agency staff and to ensure that its workforce betterreflected the local population.323. The pathfinder is attempting to bring two public service agendas together. On theeducation (supply) side, raising the achievement of learners by improving their motivation byclearly demonstrating to them and engaging them in the link between learning andpreparation for a career or higher education and to raising post-16 participation in educationand training. On the health (demand) side the need to address their skill shortages,particularly through having a supply of knowledgeable, motivated and skilled young peoplewhich would also contribute to workforce stability. The pathfinder is predicated on the viewthat bringing these two agendas together would provide a beneficial force for change in bothpublic sectors.100