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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARagreement that the National Framework for Careers Education and Guidance in Englandprovides a sound basis for practice. What is less clear is whether the resources orcommitment are available in individual institutions to implement the frameworksatisfactorily.548. There were widespread claims during the evaluation that advice and guidance,especially in schools, tends to be patchy and recent research in twenty-four London schoolshas confirmed this (Foskett et al., 2004). However, it is difficult to be sure exactly howpatchy practice is. There may be a case for systematic, large scale research to clarify the sizeof the problems, identify potential gaps in existing provision and suggest ways forward whichtake account of the factors which lead to inadequate practice in some schools.549. While advice and guidance is crucial as students approach the 14-19 phase and vitaldecisions points within it at 16, 17 and 18, different forms of support are also needed to assiststudents as learners as they progress through the phase. The 14-19 phase is likely to becomeincreasingly flexible and complex. The barriers between schools, colleges, training providersand employers will be lowered. Some forms of personalised learning may become possible.Individual students may lose the security of being a clearly identified member of a school,college or training provider. While this may have many advantages in terms of studentchoice and breadth of curriculum and experience, it raises the risk of students becoming lostand disoriented in the new, more fluid learning environment. If this is the case it will beimportant to put in place mechanisms and approaches which can identify problems andprovide support for students. Such support will need to be provided for all students, since itwill not be possible to predict where problems might occur. The focus on support in learningis important since it may become increasingly important that students are able to monitor,review and diagnose their own learning needs.550. Individual learning plans provide a possible framework for such processes of supportand review. Considerable development and piloting work is going on but at this stage there isno consensus over the purposes, processes and products of individual learning planning.There is some sharing of good practice but this is not extensive. Policy makers will need togive careful consideration to the future development of ILPs and the broader issues related tostudent support and review which lie behind them.163