Can skills competitions help to raise the attractiveness of VET

• The UK aims to become one of the top countries in the world for jobs, productivity and skills Leitch Review, 2006; UKCES, 2009 • Wolf Review 2011 concluded that UK vocational education

Can skills competitions help to raise

the attractiveness of VET?

Dr Susan James

Dr Maia Chankseliani

Vocational academic divide

International participation rates in

vocational programmes

Source: own calculations based on European Commission (2011) data

Relative esteem internationally of VET

in relation to general education

Source: own calculations based on European Commission (2011) data, Guthrie et al (2012)

What is attractiveness of VET?

Watters (2009): Status, image, relevance and quality

Lasonen & Gordon (2009): Attractiveness is observed as preferences, attitudes and related behaviour of individuals and groups

Winch (2013): ‘Attractiveness’ in relation to TVET means the preferability of TVET

compared with alternatives

• The UK aims to become one of the top countries in the world for jobs, productivity and skills (Leitch Review, 2006; UKCES, 2009)

• Wolf Review (2011) concluded that UK vocational education and training system is still failing many young people

Policy focus

Research background

• Long-standing history of criticism of the UK vocational

education and training (VET) system

• Focus has typically been on a ‘deficit’ model

• Positive stories of VET receive far less attention

• Scarce research on how excellence in vocational education is developed

‘A youth festival in which competitors would recognise their role in helping to construct the future Individual excellence is recognised in sports and the arts, and for this reason it was felt that achievements in vocational education and training were deserving of the same

(Wilson, 2000, p 201)

The UK skills competition cycle

Team UK for WS London 2011 Team UK for WS Leipzig 2013

Video

Developing and Understanding Vocational

Excellence (DUVE) Research

Overarching research questions:

high-level vocational skills?

just for minimum standards of high achievement but for high achievement that reflects world class standards?

excellence be identified?

Developing and Understanding Vocational

Excellence (DUVE) research projects

Project 1 Modelling the characteristics of vocational excellence

Aim: to study the characteristics of young people involved in the WorldSkills UK programme.

Project 2 Learning environments to develop vocational excellence

Aim: to understand what constitutes a learning environment where world-beating

performance can be developed

Project 3 Benefits of developing vocational excellence

Aim: to examine how and in what way skills competitions provide social and economic

benefits, not only to the individual involved but also to society

Project 4 FE college participation in WorldSkills

Aim: to establish benefits and costs of involvement in skills competitions for FE colleges

Project 5 WorldSkills contestants and entrepreneurship

Aim: to illustrate how the acquisition of greater skill and capability might develop

entrepreneurial instinct and ideas and to investigate the sustainability of the activities involved

Project 6 Training managers: benefits and barriers to WorldSkills UK participation

Aim: to identify the main benefits and barriers facing TMs in order to inform WorldSkills UK

in the recruitment, selection and training of TMs in the future

Conceptual understanding of benefits for different stakeholders and wider society

Methodological overview

Method: semi-structured interviews

Sample of semi-structured interviews: 39 competitors and their 71 associates (employers, family members/friends, college tutors and training managers)

Painting and decorating (2) Pastry chef/ confectionary Plumbing and heating (2) Restaurant service

Stonemasonry (3) Visual merchandising Welding

Benefits to employers

commitment to skills development

techniques or products

Benefits to industries

The WSC helped to raise industry profiles:

‘If it raises the profile of the craft, more people understand it and are keen

to get involved in it, that's surely what it's about It's about preserving that and keeping it going and hopefully developing it and the more times that that can happen or the more people that you take on and employ, it's only helping that side of things.’ (Employer)

The WSC contributed to raising industry standards:

‘There’s up to twenty different countries in one competition, just on that one subject, so if you’re a landscape gardener, and there’s twenty different ways to landscape, different ideas… they can bring this new design back, and spread it between all the different companies.’ (Competitor, 2007)

Benefits to tutors and colleges

influence on their students

College tutor (CL)/university lecturer (UL) views on low attractiveness of

VET

‘I worked all over the world in vocational training, in

developing countries and things, and vocational skills in this country are still seen as second best.’ (CT/Training Manager)

‘In Europe it is not a problem When you mention vocational training, it’s not a dirty word It’s respectable It’s got a

respectable meaning there Here, it’s a slightly different

scenario in the UK.’ (UL)

‘People who work with their hands probably aren’t looked upon as the highest

of the high, you know? The academic route is probably favoured more by parents, because they think it’s going to earn more money, because they’re

going to do better in life.’ (Competitor, 2009)

‘We never at school got told if you do well in your exams you could get an

apprenticeship We never ever got told that It was always if you do well in your exams you could be a doctor or work in a bank or do this or do that You never get told that you can go and do bricklaying or you can be a

plumber.’ (Competitor, 2009)

Employer views on low attractiveness of

VET

It’s a kind of a cultural thing; we’re not very impressed by people who are good at doing things So artisans in this country, although they might have studied as long or longer than somebody who would need to be a doctor, or an architect, they don’t carry the same kudos and it’s not as impressive, which I think is a real shame, and it’s definitely a cultural thing I’ve seen it from both sides I did an apprenticeship here, but I’ve become a

designer And I know if I say to people I’m a designer, then that’s more impressive than saying I’m a furniture maker or I’m a cabinet maker And it’s just to do with the way that people perceive how professional you are I always remember with [the gold medallist], there was a kind of mention in [a newspaper] and I don’t actually know what it is they asked [the gold medallist], but the answer to their question was, ‘the only time I write anything, every week, is when I fill out my time sheet.’ And there was a kind of

backhanded compliment there in terms of, ‘Well you’re not very academic, so it’s great that you’ve found something you’re good at.’ Which is far from the truth, you know, a lot of the people that we take on have got very good marks at GCSEs and A levels, and they’re very intelligent, and they’ve just chosen to follow a non-academic direction But you do see that kind of negativity a little bit, in terms of people that are not academically gifted; they need to find something else that they can be good at

Can skills competitions make VET more attractive to young people?

Findings on how competitions may influence attractiveness of VET

Positive societal image of young people

who choose a vocational pathway

The WorldSkills competition develops ‘the belief in youngsters [at a time when] people seem to be losing faith in young

humans’ (Competitor, 2011)

‘There’s so much bad news all the time that actually it would

be really lovely and good for the country to see young talent shine through We’ve had all that ASBOs and young kids

having bad names, but then you look at 23 young skills

athletes, doing great things, and making the country better

That’s what is important.’ (Competitor, 2007)

‘You get respected as a young adult, whereas a lot of people may think a student just does nothing, and just constantly

drinks, but it’s not true.’ (Competitor, 2011)

Awareness of various professions

‘The competition itself is a great vehicle for the youth to see what is available to them.’ (TM)

‘They can see what they’re doing, they can see what

standard they're working to If it’s brickwork, they can see the kind of work that they can produce So for people

looking at what career they want, I would say it’d be

fantastic for them to see that.’ (Employer)

‘It gives [school children] a much wider choice of what they want to do when they leave school So, I think WorldSkills

is very good in that respect When we went there, you

could see all the school children walking round being

engaged in and looking at what all these other people were doing.’ (Competitor's family)

Inspiring examples of excellence and

success in VET

The WorldSkills competition highlights what great skill people have and

it doesn’t always need to be all about sitting behind a desk or being great on the internet (Employer)

‘Yes it’s being able to inspire anyone really And who knows who

you’ll inspire?’ (Competitor, 2011)

[Skills competitions] inspire youngsters to come and follow in the

VET leading to considerable economic

benefits

About 60% of the interviewed competitors indicated some economic

benefits related to their participation in the WSC:

‘I'm a lot more financially stable now, which I never have been But that comes through doing a lot of different things, climbing the ladder,

which the competition actually helped me to do that.’ (Competitor,

Vocational route leading to a

professional career

Skills competitions help establish skills as real professions, not just ‘pretty jobs’:

‘It gives you a real good backbone Yes, we are professional, we’ve trained very hard, the techniques we do, only a trained florist can do and you’re treated differently, not just like a small shop assistant We are professionals; we do beautiful work that only florists can make.’ (Competitor, 2007)

The WSC gives a vocational career ‘an appeal, lift[ing] it from being what could be seen as

a mundane job, that you can go to very high levels doing this, it flags that up to

people’ (CT)

By show-casing what can be achieved in vocational professions, skills competitions

demonstrate that the vocational route may be as valuable as the academic one:

‘What he did I think was far more impressive than three years at university frankly Because of what the World Skills people did for these young people, to help them to mature and to cope with stress they'd have never got that at university, never.’

(Competitor's family)

Making VET attractive to females

One of the employers of a female systems engineer argued that her participation promoted ‘not just the apprenticeships, but women in engineering as well.’

‘Having [the competitor] as a young lady in engineering, which is one of the areas where we struggle to recruit young women, it is a very male-orientated subject area, we've certainly seen there are gradually increasing number of girls applying for our courses So that could be a positive that comes out of

it, if they're looking at our prospectus and we've got [the competitor] talking about engineering and how much she enjoyed the course, and working at

[company name], and being involved in the WorldSkills, obviously, that's a really positive role model for young women to look towards So that, I would imagine that has had some sort of positive effect.’ (College Tutor)

Findings on how competitions may influence

attractiveness of VET

‘If it was publicised more into schools and colleges, it gets young people excited, interested in that vocational skill And I suppose, eventually that leads onto jobs and things, which I think, in the current climate, there are lots of people that have either gone to university or colleges or whatever, that are struggling and can’t find a job.’ (Competitor, 2005)

Where next?

Developing and Understanding Vocational Excellence - DuVE

Research team:

• Prof Ken Mayhew, PI

• Dr Susan James, co-PI

• Dr Maia Chankseliani, Research Officer

• Dr Andrea Laczik, Consultant

• Ms Jennifer Allen, Research Officer

• Ms Marta Mordarska, Research Officer

• Prof Petri Nokelainen, Consultant

• Dr Cathy Stasz, Consultant

www.vocationalexcellence.education.ox.ac.uk

European Commission (2011) Attitudes towards vocational education and training: Special Eurobarometer 369

European Commission Retrieved from

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_369_en.pdf

Eurostat (2011) Students at ISCED level 3-VOC - as % of all students at ISCED level 3 European Commission

Retrieved from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/education/data/database#

Guthrie, S., Holmes, C., Stasz, C., Ertl, H., Castle-Clarke, S., Drabble, S., and Villaba van-Dijk, L (2012),

Attractiveness of initial vocational education and training in Europe: What really matters, Final report to Cedefop,

PR-362, Cambridge: RAND Europe

Lasonen, J., & Gordon, J (2009) Improving the attractiveness and image of VET In Modernising Vocational

Education and Training: Fourth report on vocational training research in Europe Luxembourg: Publications Office

of the European Union Retrieved from

http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/etv/Upload/Information_resources/Bookshop/567/3050_3_en.pdf

Leitch, S (2006) The Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills Department for

Employment and Learning Retrieved from

http://www.delni.gov.uk/leitch_finalreport051206%5B1%5D-2.pdf

UKCES (2009) The Employability Challenge (Article) Uk Commission for Employment and Skills Retrieved

from http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/employability-challenge-full-report

Watters, E (2009) Making initial vocational education and training more attractive for learners (Report for

ENQA-VET) Retrieved from http://www.deqavet de/_media/PDF_allgemein/TG_Report_MIVMA.pdf

Wilson, J P (2000) Citius Altius Fortius Peritius: the Skill Olympics and skill competitions Industrial and

Commercial Training, 32(6), 201–208 doi:10.1108/00197850010354223

Wolf, A (2011) Review of vocational education: the Wolf Report Department for Education and Department for

Business, Innovation & Skills Retrieved from vocational-education-the-wolf-report