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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR400. The second, closely related aspect, of addressing the key objective of the pathfinderproposal is the focus on employability skills. This is being tackled through a range ofactivities.401. For example, a series of taster activities for year 9 students, including constructionand engineering, have been established with provision from employers and colleges.402. All of the pathfinder schools have been involved in work related learning courses for14-16 year olds at one of the colleges. These programmes have been developed through theIF programme and are also supported through pathfinder. About twenty year 10 studentsfrom each school are involved. They are offered a wide range of Foundation or NVQ level 1courses from the Creative Studies, Technology, Business and IT, Community and Land-basedfaculties. It was anticipated that numbers taking vocational courses in colleges would show afurther increase for 2004/5.403. Typically these students spend three days at school studying for GCSEs within thecore curriculum, one day at college and usually one day in a work placement. The currentyear 10 will continue in year 11 and year 9 pupils are being recruited for the new cohort.Students we spoke to were pleased to have the opportunity to do the courses. Theywelcomed the vocational elements and the fact that they would only be required to do fiveGCSEs in school. They had attended taster events at college and had been interviewed bycollege staff and this had helped to raise the status of the courses by showing that entry wasnot automatic. Parents were supportive of the courses which they saw as offering theirchildren ‘realistic’ prospects for achievement and progression. The students we spoke towere aware of post-16 opportunities available to them.404. Each school makes arrangements to supervise students while they are at college. Ateaching assistant is always present at college and deals with attendance and other issues.This teaching assistant has been allowed specialist training through pathfinder.405. The cost of delivering these courses is considerable and will further increase with twocohorts involved. Pathfinder funding has enabled schools to offset the cost of transport,equipment and other costs.122