Vocational Route to Success
The 0-19+ Children and Young People’s Partnership aims to accelerate the progress of achievement, engagement, health and well-being of young people throughout the city.
Part of this Partnership is the Learning for Life initiative, which is transforming education for 14-19 year olds in Sheffield. All organisations in the city that either provide or support education have come together to develop new learning pathways that will provide young people with skills, knowledge and expertise that will help them progress to work, training or further education.
The new curriculum pathways, which are currently under development, aim to address the fact that young people have differing interests and abilities and that they learn and are motivated in different ways and by different things.
By working closely with employers in a number of sectors important to the local economy, the programme aims to make the curriculum more relevant to teenagers who are interested in a wide variety of careers - from software engineering and bioscience through to construction, catering and retail. Many of these opportunities are delivered off the traditional school premises, some in facilities built especially for this purpose.
Learning for Life also aims to provide young people with key, transferable skills in a ‘real-life’ environment. These skills, such as working as a team member, communicating with others, customer care, problem solving and the application of numbers, are highly valuable to potential employers.
In order to align the local education system with economic growth sectors, such as retail and engineering, Sheffield has introduced the Vocational Skills Programme for pre-16 year olds. Through links with these sectors, and a wide range of other work places, over 65% of 14–16 year olds now undertake some form of vocational learning or training.
Sheffield is also piloting three new Diplomas from 2008 in ICT and Digitial, Media and Construction. The Diploma is a new qualification combining essential skills and knowledge with practical and applied learning in a work–related subject area. It has a very simple aim: to make learning more relevant to teenagers who do not want to engage with the existing qualification options. Employers will be key in designing the content of these diplomas.
These types of innovative programmes will undoubtedly contribute to increased take-up of post-16 opportunities in Sheffield. Recent figures show that the rate of 16–18 year olds who are not progressing has fallen gradually year on year to under 10%. This is a mark of considerable success by the city, but efforts will continue to reduce this figure even further.
Visit www.sheffield14-19.org.uk for more information on how to become involved in any of these programmes.