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County Durham's use of NVQs within the key stage 4 engagement programme

Summary

Young people in Year 11 at a County Durham school gained a Level 1 NVQ in Customer Service as part of the key stage 4 engagement programme. The NVQ was fully delivered during long term work experience placements for young people at local employers. This required a dynamic, innovative partnership of training providers, employers and school staff.

Introduction and background

Roseberry Sports and Community College started a two year vocational programme with 19 young people in year 10 in September 2005. The programme was designed to give young people appropriate skills and qualifications and prepare them to move from school into post-16 education, training or work. The aim of the programme was for learners to maintain long term work placements by year 11 and achieve accredited qualifications.

The programme involved a group of young people who needed support and guidance to identify individual and personal interests, and they were selected in accordance with the QCA key stage 4 engagement programme template. These young people had a wide range of interests, skills and competencies and needed a bespoke, personalised programme that capitalised on their own individual strengths.

They worked as a full group in a stable, known environment on generic and transferable skills. For the first year of this two year programme, the training provider supported and directed the delivery of the vocational programme in the school for one day per week, rather than the learners going to a training provider. In the second year, the young people either went to training providers or employers to work towards an NVQ.

Given the wide range of placements necessary to meet the different needs of the learners, a customer service NVQ was appropriate as it incorporated transferable personal and social skills, and using a single, generic qualification also helped ensure consistency in delivery and assessment. The planned curriculum supplemented and complemented school-based qualifications, and also included a level 1 portfolio-based qualification on preparing for employment, health and safety qualifications and food hygiene qualifications.

Four training providers were involved in the delivery of the programme. They were all contracted to deliver post 16 qualifications in County Durham by the local Learning and Skills Council and were chosen for their specific skills in working with specific groups of learners or qualification delivery.

Approach

Delivering a single NVQ across a range of work placements required very careful planning and co-ordination to ensure that all units of the qualification were being delivered successfully. It was important to maintain good relationships and effective communication between all partners and take account of changing views, attitudes and pressures and balance school-based and work-based activity. School staff were fully and completely involved in all aspects of the delivery, for example by ensuring that underpinning skills and knowledge were supported and reinforced in school.

The young people had a wide range of interests, skills and competencies, and it was very important to maintain their interests when they moved onto their external placements for the second year of this two year programme.

The training providers sourced and selected work experience placements with great care to take account of the specific needs and requirements of the young people on the programme. As this was a two-year programme, the training providers had already worked with these learners over the previous 6-9 months. The range of placements was extensive from museums and care homes to retail and construction, with a learner who was interested in music working in a music shop, another interested in joinery working in a local fencing company.

All placements were vetted in accordance with very strict procedures and involved specific risk assessments based on the named learner, their age, the employer and sector, and learners had to have taken a health and safety qualification before the placement.

The learners were introduced to their work placements in a structured, controlled manner and at a time that was suitable to them. The young people already had an appreciation of portfolio-based qualifications and therefore had an understanding of their responsibility in the achievement of the qualifications. The NVQ training provider also had to work closely with the awarding body to ensure compliance with the requirements of the specification. Each young person had regular access to their training providers, and the school received weekly reports on their young people.

Signs of success

The high levels of preparation, care and support given by everyone involved in this programme has resulted in learners being given opportunities to be recognised for what they can achieve, which has resulted in mature, self-confident young people.

The most important outcome of this two-year programme was not the achievement of an NVQ level 1 qualification in itself, but the development of employability, personal and social skills to enabled these young people to effectively move into education, training or work and away from their school environment. Most of the young people also gained other nationally recognised qualifications, including GCSEs and the City and Guilds Preparing for Employment qualification.

The school has also seen benefits of this programme for students who were not identified for this programme, and are continuing to develop this curriculum model for a range of students.

The employers involved in this programme were so impressed with the young people that they have offered either full or part time employment to a number of students. Working for nearly a year in a chosen sector (for example in beauty therapy) also enabled some of the young people to access a higher level post 16 course than originally anticipated.

Conclusions

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this successful programme but some of the main points to stress are:

• the commitment, care and dedication of everyone involved in the programme 
• the trust, faith and understanding required to work with employers and external partners to deliver qualifications to young people
• the importance of open communication between all partners in this programme
• the investment of time and funding required
• the preparation and support available for every stage of the programme
• the need to identify the right placement at the right time for each learner and 
• the selection and recruitment of suitable employers to help learners progress.
  

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