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

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEARupon the character and aims of the pathfinder and the characteristics of the local employersand training providers. In Cumbria, for example, employers and training providers, variedacross the different consortia, being particularly strong in West Cumbria and rather weakerelsewhere. We provide specific examples of employer and training provider involvement inthe context of curriculum development work in Section Four.79. The involvement of higher education institutions was slightly weaker than that ofemployers or training providers and this was reflected in a number of coordinators reportingthat their pathfinders were not addressing post-19 progression. It may also reflect the findingin our first report that across the pathfinder initiative as a whole a high proportion of targetedstudents tended to be those who were disengaged or disaffected 14-16 year olds and thattherefore pathfinders focused upon encouraging them to stay in school and then progress topost-16 education and training. However, many pathfinders had developed effectivecollaboration with higher education, especially through Aim Higher links. The Islingtonpathfinder, for example, had very extensive higher education links through its links withuniversity medical education (see case study).80. The involvement of special schools was very mixed, although three-quarters ofcoordinators reported no stronger than limited involvement in collaboration. An outstandingexample of the involvement of special schools was the unfunded Salford partnership, wherenot only were all special schools involved but the three Pupil Referral Units in the LEA werealso full members of the partnership. It was difficult to account for the variations ininvolvement and no clear patterns emerged from the survey data. From the case studiesvariations seemed to relate to the extent to which special schools had historically beenintegrated into local developments and also to the focus of the pathfinders.81. There was very limited involvement of independent schools in pathfinders, despitepartnerships with the independent sector being among the radical options offered in the2003/4 Pathfinder Prospectus. No pathfinder decided to take up this option as part of itsproposal. A small number of pathfinders indicated in their survey responses that they hadattempted to make links with local independent schools only to be met with indifference, butin most cases it was apparent that collaborating with the independent sector was not a priorityfor pathfinders. From the case studies the outstanding example of such collaboration was27