Equal opportunities good practiceThese examples of good practice were identified in eight pilot areas from a review of equal opportunities for the key stage 4 engagement programme. The examples have grouped into the following sections :
Devon
The programme provided by the Youth Service in Devon enabled students to discuss diversity issues and to confront their own and other people’s stereotypical views. A workshop on racism was considered to have been effective in raising students’ awareness to the consequences of racism. Other workshops discussed issues such as prejudice against those with HIV and general diversity issues. Methods adopted in the workshops included not only discussion, but also the use of creative media, such as art and movement. This variety of approach helped to keep students involved and engaged.
Warwickshre
South Warwickshire Training challenged stereotypical views about different groups of people by setting up an activity in which the young people were asked to decide who they would want to live in a new village being built. The young people were initially given small pieces of information about a potential resident. This focused on external characteristics such as their gender, their race, their age, if they had a physical disability, their mode of dress. If the group rejected, for example, a young black man who wore a hoodie, they were then given more information about this person. In this case, the further information might be that the young man was a talented and successful musician who had set up his own recording studio and employed four members of staff. The young people were, through this type of activity, encouraged to examine their own attitudes towards different groups and also their more generally held stereotypical views about certain groups.
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Knowsley
All students on the programme in Knowsley are given a student handbook which gives details of the programme, the qualifications that may be obtained, and the responsibilities of the students, amongst other information. The handbook includes a section entitled ‘equality and diversity’, which promotes the idea of an inclusive and supportive learning environment.
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Parental involvement
Durham
Some young people on the programme may come from backgrounds where there is a long history of family unemployment and a lack of value attached to education, whether academic or vocational. In Durham, home visits to parents are undertaken at the recruitment stage to inform the parents fully of the aims and content of the Programme and to try to win their support. This also makes it easier to follow-up those who stop attending.
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TastersLeicester
In Leicester, the work-related aspect of the programme afforded the students the opportunity to try three different occupational areas, each for a period of nine weeks. The students said they found this useful in helping them decide what they might like to do post-16 and also what they would not like to do.
Wirral
By Year 9 many pupils have narrow views about the employment opportunities within, for example, construction and have largely decided that this work is better suited to boys. Wirral is therefore planning some taster programmes on construction for Year 8 pupils, in which the programme content would present a broader picture of the types of employment to be had.
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Knowsley
Some young people were reported as reluctant to join the programme because, in the vocational element of their course, they would have to be with groups of students from other local schools, with whom there had been a history of incidents of aggression or threats. In Knowsley, the managers of the Programme had resolved the problem by carefully selecting the students for each training provider venue, to avoid the possibility of such incidents occurring.
West Yorkshire/Leeds
Some recruits to the programme in the West Yorkshire/Leeds Partnership were children of asylum seekers. An 'e-inclusion project was added to the programme to provide a computer-based course for students who have recently joined Leeds schools from abroad, some of whom are from asylum seekers families, and so cannot immediately be integrated into the mainstream curriculum. It is a roll-on, roll-off programme providing work largely focussed on literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, leading to the ASDAN Certificate of Personal Effectiveness.
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Durham
In Durham, the programme coordinator spoke about specific activity that was being conducted with every student on the programme. This was known as ‘The Buzz’, which comprised a range of activities for schools to use with students, covering learning styles, personality traits, social skills, and identification of the types of employment for which they might be best suited. The programme coordinator regarded this as being ‘the evidence’ that was necessary to challenge a stereotype. So, for instance, if a particular male student were shown to be suited to a caring profession, but was considering construction, then work could be conducted to encourage him to re-consider his curriculum/career choice.
One school had recently been visited by a company delivering a drama-style workshop to a group of Year 9 pupils with the aims of promoting their career options and raising awareness of the skills needed to support career development. This could be extended to provide a workshop with a specific focus on challenging stereotypical curriculum/career choices for those students identified for the Programme.
Although a training provider company had not deliberately set out to challenge gender stereotypes, it found it was in fact doing so by delivering a customer services qualification at the school. Because this qualification entailed developing young people’s personal and social skills in dealing with the public, this was supporting male students and widening their potential career choices. Otherwise they were more likely to pursue careers in which they had very little contact with the public.
One school was considering inviting in a female ex-student to talk to students who were likely to be recruited to the programme. This ex-student was currently working at a local engineering factory, and taking a vocational degree in engineering.
Greater Manchester
In Greater Manchester, a female student had been placed in a local garage for her motor vehicle course. She had a positive role model in the female garage proprietor and she was strongly supported in her placement by effective liaison between the garage owner and the school.
Warwickshre
In addition to the more traditional vocational courses, Warwickshire has integrated into its programme a creative technology course, run by Hybrid Arts, a local training provider. All the young people on this project have been referred by pupil referral units and are therefore amongst the most challenging of the cohort. In the first year, the course comprises a number of units, some of which develop the young people’s creative skills including design, desk top publishing, animation and music and video production. Alongside these are other units which focus on key life skills such as financial literacy and money management, and provide information and advice on the workplace and securing employment.
The environment is modern and attractive with the latest ICT resources which include a recording studio. Incentives and rewards, such as being allowed to download music from the internet, are built into the programme and the students respond well to these.
In the second year, one day a week is spent in a work place setting. The newness of the types of occupations covered in this course means they are not tainted by pre-conceptions about gender roles. Both males and females appeared to feel comfortable in this environment and all interviewed were enthusiastic about the course.
West Yorkshire/Leeds
In the West Yorkshire/Leeds Partnership, Year 9 options evenings for pupils and parents are regarded as one of the main opportunities to challenge stereotypes both with individual pupils and their parents, and pupils and parents collectively as a group. For instance, a presentation is given, part of which shows females working in construction. At these evenings, the possibilities of following non-traditional routes, such as a boy joining a Hairdressing course, are mentioned. The publicity material used on such evenings does not present stereotypical roles, but shows both males and females working in all areas.
Outside of the programme, Leeds College of Building runs women-only courses and courses specifically for Asian women, and these have been regarded as successful at attracting women who were unlikely to join mixed gender classes.
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Equal opportunities guidance and training
Greater Manchester
In Greater Manchester, the LSC was reported as having invested a substantial amount of funding in providing equal opportunities training for training provider staff across the area. In addition, each training provider had been issued with an equal qpportunities tool kit. All providers are inspected by ALI/Ofsted and the partnership would not contract with any provider with ess than a grade 3 in equal opportunities.
Wirral
In the Wirral, the 14-19 Partnership provides a ‘Good Practice Guide’ for all schools and training providers who are involved in off-site learning opportunities for young people aged 14-16. The guide is a comprehensive document detailing legislation relating to off-site provision, guidelines to be followed, roles and responsibilities of those involved, and checklists and forms to be used by schools and training providers. As part of the section entitled ‘Checklist for Roles and Responsibilities’ to help ensure that schools, training providers and the Wirral Alternative School Programme build equal opportunities into all aspects of provision, including publicity, recruitment to courses, induction, delivery and support materials
The ‘Good Practice Guide’ also contains an example of an Equal Opportunities Policy along with a simplified version to discuss with students on courses, which had been developed a few years ago by one of the training providers currently involved in the programme. Training providers are encouraged to adapt these documents to suit their own circumstances.
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Warwickshire
Warwickshire’s referral form collects data relating to: gender; ethnicity; disability; whether student is in public care; SEN status; current school-based support; any current intervention by external agencies; any relevant medical information. All forms are collated centrally by the project manager who also ensures that relevant data are made available to those working with the young person on the Programme.
Wirral
In the Wirral Partnership, Connexions Greater Merseyside undertook an ‘Impact Measures’ questionnaire survey towards the end of the year of Year 10 and 11 students participating in the programme. Altogether 64 male students and 34 female students completed the questionnaire, which represents about half the number of students on the programme. The aim of the questionnaire was to determine how students were prepared for the programme, their views on their courses so far, and how they were engaging with their schools and off-site provision. The data were analysed for males and females separately, and revealed some differences between male and female responses (which are probably statistically significant although tests of statistical significance had not been conducted). Connexions Greater Merseyside will also track the young people after they have left the programme, which again will provide useful information on the impact made by the programme on male and femail students.
These examples are taken from three documents produced for the key stage 4 engagement programme by G Haynes, K Mason and C Wragg from the University of Exeter:
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Page updated: 12 June 2008