Key Skills of the Britain Education System - Essay Example

Key skills in 14-19 Curriculums: A Literature Review The Educational system in Britain stands on a threshold of efforts directed at bringing and keeping a vast majority of its teenagers on a pathway to continued education, both vocational and academic, imparting knowledge, key skills and motivation in the process, vital for the purpose. The planning behind the efforts has its genesis in the education policy documents drafted in the latter part of the last decade, wherein a new learning vision surfaced. The ‘Learning Age’, Green paper, (1998) brought out this thought process in a subtle manner. Therein, the policy planners envisioned a society, where people would have the necessary opportunity and incentives to take up learning as a lifelong process. The process being a basis for building as large a pool of human resources as possible, that would be educationally, skill wise and motivationally sound and full of confidence with respect to their life’s needs. A major contribution of such a pool of Human resources or people would be towards achieving sustainable economic growth. Such a revolutionary change would not be possible without having a look at our educational system. The strengths and weaknesses of the existing system would be an able guide towards moving ahead in the said direction. The existing centres of excellence in Higher education were identified as a major strength. However, the major weak link, were the problems at the basic and intermediate levels of education. A contemporary international survey found UK lagging behind in performance at these levels among other leading industrial nations of the world. The results at these education levels are indicative partially of our attitudes to learning. As per the Learning theory, Learning is essentially a process among other things. Insofar as learning is seen as a process, it has to be ongoing. A process that would result for us in acquisition of capabilities that would put us in a better position with respect to our past knowledge and skills and make us better able to deal with problems and utilize the opportunities in a better way (Illeris, 2000). The said attitudes to learning had to be shaped to make it a lifelong process for as many people as possible. The paper emphasised on the need to institutionalise this attitude and make it a part of the education system to ensure such a transformation of collective and individual thought. The paper talked at length as to why ‘Learning’ as a lifelong strategy mattered so much. It categorically stated the benefits of the strategy to not just individuals, but also businesses and the nation as a whole. For, it was important to have a motivational strategy in place for the people and/ or groups of people for whom it was meant. In keeping with the contemporary motivational theories, the paper rightly brought out the point that those undergoing the learning process had to be motivated to be on the learning path at each stage of learning. The need to learn had to be backed by suitable drives to learning, which could stimulate appropriate learning behaviour and finally result in achievement of ongoing learning goals (Kelly, 1980). The principles on which the ‘Learning age’ was supposed to be built were to prove to be simple motivational drives like additional investment in learning, serving as additional incentive for continued learning or providing additional guidance support to people to help them keep making sound learning choices as per their own needs. For the motivation to be ongoing, the needs structure has to be progressively higher (Maslow, 1943). The principles also included this aspect of motivation by providing for achievement of ultimate standards in the learning process, which could be an eventual motivator for anyone. As mentioned above, the weak link in the learning chain rightly identified in this paper as the primary and secondary levels of education had to be adapted to learning principles encompassed in the paper. Evidently, the thought process was carried forward and resulted in more policy papers in the current decade. The evolution had to result in more specific observations and measures to be taken towards the achievement of the said learning goals. The benchmark work in this respect would be the Tomlinson Report, October 2004. The report recommended a unified approach on the educational curriculum for pupils in the age group of 14-19 years category. It aimed at giving them an educational infrastructure and opportunities, so as to ensure that as many young people stay on the educational path, through improved skills in English, Maths and ICT. These skills with many others like in the areas of problem solving could prove crucial to success in academic, vocational as well as employment streams. The paper recommended measures ensuring that the English, Maths and ICT curriculum be based on demonstrable development of key skills like problem solving. Towards this end, the report recommends specified levels of achievement in the above areas. However, it does not clarify as to how the specified levels, which will essentially be scoring levels, ensure the achievement of desired level of skills in such areas as communication and problem solving. Whether, there will be special key skills development programs or whether their achievement will be embedded in the scoring for the above subjects. Although the report does say that there will not be separate diploma stream for the said key skills, the lack of clarity on the inclusive/embedded or exclusive nature of key skills can lead to confusion in real classroom scenarios. This particular aspect needs further enquiry or research. The fact that the report goes on to address key issues at the advanced level, which also encompass a higher level of development of the key skills at the previous level, seems to be a shortcoming of the report, since it does not give a clue as to how exactly to ensure the achievement of desired proficiency in the skills at the preceding level. The report does well to recommend a linkage of the educational pathway to the potential employers and users of the knowledge and key skills of the pupils. The report talks about the contributory nature of the key and other skills stream to the core subjects diploma line and rules out diploma level courses in the key skills area. The nature of emphasis on the Functional mathematics, English and ICT is such that the reach and accessibility is supposed to be as wide as possible. Evidently, the key skills are though a part of the existing curriculum, however only in an optional way. The key skills which are vital to success in future need to be revisited, particularly in terms of the attitudes surrounding their cultivation. The Vocational framework already incorporates keys skills as components of Apprenticeships aligned with the diploma structure, however, the report sees it as sufficient for it being close to its diploma program in emphasis on such skills and not in how it is administered. The report suggests work related programs at FE level as only emphasizing key skills as part of the existing curriculum within the Diploma stream such as BTEC, which is seen as a transitional stage for advancing to employment. However, at this juncture it is important to point out that Colin, 2004 in his NIACE publication cautioned us against overemphasis of colleges’ role in the said policy objectives. This, he observed, could lead to primarily to financial crunch for the Colleges. Finally, the report does say that the diploma core programs need to incorporate the key skills proficiency as essential components but only as part of the attached apprenticeships. Thus there is a scope for enquiry on the accountability for success of the key skills program as part of all the 14-19 educational efforts. It was on the basis of the above mentioned comprehensive Tomlinson report that the Policy paper or white paper on 14-19 education and skills, November 2005, was presented as a guide to 14-19 educational reforms. The white paper in consonance with the Curriculum theory, has analyzed the past and present curriculum within the given sphere of 14-19 education and gone on to schematically draw, based on Tomlinson recommendations, an education work plan. The work plan strives to achieve state of affairs wherein the number of pupils leaving the learning stream would be minimized. The white paper discusses the present scenario wherein the employers show a high level of dissatisfaction with the key skills of school leavers in the 14-19 stage. The paper underlines the goal of working with the teaching fraternity to clearly define and describe as to what would be seen as functional skills or key skills in a given area. This does give strength to the idea that tasks remain to be accomplished in improving key skills administration. It needs to be figured out at different levels as to how to achieve this objective. Among other things, the value that the white paper adds to the Tomlinson report in terms of achieving the 14-19 objectives is the plan to take practical measures to equip the faculty at FE colleges like those offering BTEC to be able to effectively deliver the much needed key skills training. Inviting industry professionals to take classes in the respective courses, for instance, being a step in the right direction. This not only enriches the student experience, but the regular faculty also benefits from the practical expertise of the visitors. The directions of the white paper are still in the process of being implemented, while reviews of the reforms are simultaneously being done, which augurs well for the Achievement of goals. The notable one is Foster review (November, 2005). The foster review has emphasized on curriculum choice with a network of schools, colleges and employers working together to fill in the key skills gap, which is the primary reason for the usual lack of choice for learning discipline and place. Quite notably, the Government now has an official position on the concept, acquisition and performance of key skills and its contribution to the nation and its economy. Moreover, it has detailed information on key skills performance, which it makes public online on a regular basis (DCSF, 2008). Furthering the accountability discussion it is significant that AQA, the largest English exam board has special plans for functional or key skills’ successful completion (AQA, 2009). Thus from an accountability perspective the efforts seem to be satisfactory, however as mentioned earlier, administering the specific key skills has certain flaws that need to be addressed, which the accountability regime can only identify and address, but not rectify. References: AQA, Functional skills, (2009), Web. Accessed on March 15, 2009 DFES (Feb. 2005):14-19 Education and Skills White Paper. DCSF, Key skills,( 2008), Web. Accessed on March 14, 2009 Flint C. (2004), ‘Further Education and Adult Learning,’ NIACE. Foster A. (2005), ‘Realising the potential: A review of the future role of the Further Education Colleges’ Illeris K. (2000), ‘Learning Theory and Adult Education, Web’. Accessed on March 13, 2009 Kelly J (1980), ‘How Managers Manage’, Prentice Hall. Maslow A.H. (1943), Classics in History of Psychology: A Theory of Human Motivation, August 2000, Web. Accessed on March 16, 2009 Tomlinson M. (October, 2004): Report on 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform. The learning age (1998): A Renaissance for a new Britain-Green paper. Read More