• What are the main aims of this guidance?
  
• How is the guidance structured?
  
• The Post-16 Citizenship Development Programme

What are the main aims of this guidance?

The main aims of this guidance are to:

• establish what post-16 citizenship involves
• promote and support the development of high-quality post-16 provision
• ensure progression from national curriculum citizenship
• provide information on with implementing, managing and developing post-16 citizenship programmes
• provide case studies showing post-16 citizenship programmes in action.

The guidance offers a framework for citizenship teaching and learning that reflects effective practice developing in both pre- and post-16 learning settings. It has been written for all organisations that are interested in offering post-16 citizenship, including voluntary organisations, the youth service, training providers, employers, colleges and schools. In particular, it is aimed at trainers, supervisors, leaders, teachers and tutors who are directly involved in citizenship provision (for the purposes of this guidance, these are known as ‘staff’).

How is the guidance structured?

This guidance contains the following sections:

• What is citizenship education? – explores the meaning of citizenship and citizenship education
• Citizenship education beyond 16 – explains the benefits to be gained from introducing post-16 citizenship
• Getting started – gives advice on preparing for post-16 citizenship, from carrying out an audit to planning staff development
• Planning provision – includes a framework for citizenship learning, with guidance about how to build on national curriculum citizenship and plan programme content and activities
• Setting up a programme – gives information to help organisations choose which forms of provision to include in their post-16 citizenship programme
• Assessment – provides guidance on assessing citizenship, from planning and keeping track to recognising achievement
• Support and resources – gives advice on selecting materials for post-16 citizenship.

The Post-16 Citizenship Development Programme

This guidance draws on the experiences of projects across England involved in the Post-16 Citizenship Development Programme, which is funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and managed by the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).

The programme began in September 2001, at the request of the then Secretary of State for Education and Employment and in response to a report by the 16–19 citizenship advisory group chaired by Professor (now Sir) Bernard Crick which recommended that:

• an entitlement to the development of citizenship – of which participation should be a significant component – should be established which would apply to all students and trainees in the first phase of post-16 compulsory education and training, and
• all such young adults should have effective opportunities to participate in activities relevant to the development of their citizenship skills, and to have their achievements recognised.’

You can download the report of the Advisory Group here: Citizenship For 16-19 Year Olds in Education and Training (FEFC 2000).

The aim of the programme is to try out different approaches to the provision of citizenship with a range of providers from post-16 education and training. As a result, more than 100 organisations – including school sixth forms, further education colleges, training providers and youth and community groups – have developed post-16 citizenship projects involving 11,000 young people across England . The National Foundation for Educational Research has externally evaluated the programme from 2001–4.

As Stephen Twigg MP stated in June 2004:

'Citizenship education is inspiring young people to take an active role in their communities and in national policies. The post-16 development programme has been hugely successful in building young people's confidence and motivation, with visible results that have benefited their communities.'