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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARhence the interest in making students aware of the work of electricians, plumbers and joiners- and to show that there was a career development route within the NHS associated with thesejobs.337. Another school had developed a link with the laboratory manager at another hospitaland was developing a partnership which would be used to enhance the teaching of GCSEScience as a vocational subject.338. In another link a human relations manager in a primary care trust would introducestudents to the processes of career planning and development within the NHS as a means ofpromoting career development planning within their schools.339. The pathfinder is also aiming to strengthen advice and guidance, especially in relationto health-related careers, since it was argued by some that schools careers staff andConnexions PAs were not aware of the wide range of potential careers in the NHS,particularly in non-clinical occupations. The pathfinder had mapped careers education andguidance provision in Islington schools and discovered variable provision and practice. TheWDC was planning to provide some staff development activities for school and Connexionsstaff in order to raise awareness of opportunities in the NHS. The pathfinder is alsodeveloping a series of self-review and developmental activities for schools aiming at furtherstrengthening advice and guidance.Summary and emerging issues340. The Islington pathfinder was unique among our case studies in seeking to build aclose partnership with just two linked public service sectors. This gave the pathfinder astrongly instrumental and vocational veneer and seemed to place a high premium on theaccuracy of skills gaps analyses and the capability and capacity of the education system toaddress these skills gaps. There was certainly some room for differing perspectives here. Atleast some NHS professionals saw the pathfinder approach, if it was maintained, as havingthe potential to impact significantly on skills shortages in the sector (although some healthprofessionals were more sceptical about this, arguing that there were many factors outside theinfluence of education which caused skills shortages). Education professionals however,104