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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARNORFOLK PATHFINDERThe local context383. This pathfinder involves four schools (two 11-18 schools, a 12-18 school and an 11-16 school). Three colleges are also central to the partnership. The pathfinder is led by theLEA, LSC and Learning Partnership while other partners include the local Education-Business Partnership, Connexions, a local university, the chamber of commerce, an industrytraining board and individual employers.384. Norfolk is a highly rural county with a mixed economy, marked by pockets ofseasonal employment and areas of significant deprivation. The pathfinder is set in one of themost rural areas within county. Travel time between the schools is at least 30 minutes andbetween the schools and the colleges often an hour or more.385. The area is characterised by low skill levels, low pay, low aspirations and low levelsof educational attainment. Participation in full-time post-16 education and training inNorfolk is below the national averages at both 16 and 17 and participation rates in thepathfinder area have been lower than for the LEA as a whole. Significant proportions of 16year olds leave school with no qualifications since they effectively drop-out of school early.Some able students may also have few aspirations to progress to higher education.Experience of higher education among parents is well below the national average in the vastmajority of the wards serving the four schools.386. Research conducted by the LEA revealed that year 9 students tended to aspire to thetypes of jobs which they know are available in the locality. They often did not see the valueof the subjects and courses they were studying in schools. Part of the explanation for thelimited aspirations held by some students may be the relative abundance of unskilled or semiskilledjobs. Unemployment is below the national average and young people and adults caneasily obtain unskilled or semi-skilled work in agriculture, food processing and the touristindustry and make a reasonable living and have a car.118