Work-Related Learning Baseline Study
(2004)
A report by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
(QCA)
Prior to the September 2004 introduction of the statutory
requirement that all Key Stage 4 (KS4) pupils in English schools
should experience some work-related learning (WRL), the QCA
undertook a baseline study to elicit attitudes of students and
teachers towards WRL, prevailing structure and provision of WRL and
the quality of this provision, with the key aim of establishing
data for future comparison studies of the impact of the new
requirement. This report summarises this research, based on the
MORI School Omnibus survey of 838 KS4 students and questionnaires
plus telephone interviews of 500 KS4 teachers as well as the QCA's
Monitoring Curriculum and Assessment (MCA) questionnaire of senior
managers and WRL co-ordinators. The latter sought to elicit
schools' opinions about the importance of WRL and its prominence in
the curriculum, as well as teachers' and parents' attitudes towards
it, and the report includes the responses of 342 schools. Seminars
and in-depth interviews with employers, case-studies and conference
monitoring also contributed to the findings, which are presented as
baseline statistics and graphs.
Findings relating to attitudes:
- The majority of students and teachers consider learning about
jobs and working life to be important (79% of KS4 students and 82%
of KS4 teachers with no responsibility for WRL, rising to 87% of
teachers with such responsibilities).
- 86% of students consider WRL helpful in achieving their goals
regardless of their intention to go to university, although
teachers tended to see it as most useful to lower-achieving
students. For example, 38% of teachers thought WRL 'highly
significant' for upper attainment level quartile students, compared
to 82% for lower quartile students and 50% for middle quartile
students.
- While the majority of teachers claimed to be familiar with
their school's WRL provision, they often failed to recognise
certain activities as 'work-related' and did not mention their
school's provision of certain activities without being prompted to
do so. Teachers with WRL responsibilities were predictably more
likely to be aware of such provision, but even so, 84% of teachers
with, and 78% of teachers without, WRL responsibilities mentioned
their school's extended work-related programmes when prompted.
However, when unprompted, this response fell to 47% of teachers
with, and 22% of teachers without, WRL responsibilities.
- Other information about attitude is provided, such as listing
the sources of learning about working life that students judge to
be the most helpful. Other factors appearing to affect attitudes
towards WRL are also mentioned, such as urban/rural location,
gender and socio-economic background. For example, students in
urban areas are significantly more likely to say they enjoy WRL
than those in rural areas (52% and 41% respectively, although this
may be related to the fact that urban students are more likely to
have done certain WRL activities than students in rural areas).
Many employers state that they would like to engage in schools, but
many are unsure as to how to go about this. Parents were either
very positive or generally positive about WRL at 64% of schools
(research is planned to further investigate parental
attitudes).
Findings relating to structure and provision of WRL:
- Statistics reveal the proportion of schools offering different
amounts and kinds of WRL, such as use of workplace visits and
industry days. For instance, 93% of schools said that their
'students take part in activities to develop their skills for
career management, including a guidance interview focusing on
career progression', and 43% said that their 'students are involved
in at least two tasks to develop an awareness of the extent and
diversity of local and national employment opportunities'.
- 80% of schools offered at least one new vocational GCSE, with
12% planning to do so for the following year (2004-5). 30% offered
at least one NVQ (11% planning for this in 2004-5). 47% offered
other qualifications such as GNVQs and BTECs (17% planning for this
in 2004-5).
- 69% of 500 KS4 teachers reported using work contexts in their
lessons, particularly in careers education (75%), PSHE (40%),
design and technology (35%) and ICT (33%). Very low use was
reported in music, RE and history, teachers claiming the subject
nature and syllabus constraints as the main barriers to doing
so.
- The proportions of schools providing work-related activities
were as follows: work experience (98%), careers education and
guidance (98%), involvement with local Further Education colleges
(84%), extended work-related programmes (80%), enterprise
activities (60%), industry days (56%) and business mentoring (36%).
45% of schools reported having increased their time spent on
work-related visits off-site.
- The proportions of students who reported taking part in WRL
activities were as follows: "been on a work placement" (80%),
"discussed what job you want to do" (69%), "been taught how to
write a CV" (67%), "learnt interview techniques" (58%), "visited a
workplace" (54%), "listened/spoken to visitor from business" (46%),
"learnt how to look for a job" (43%), "taken part in exercises
about the world of work" (42%), "taken part in an enterprise
project" (18%).
1Students' KS4 options choices influence the WRL available to them,
and it was shown that they could only cover all aspects of the WRL
framework if they studied business studies at KS4. Information is
also given regarding teachers' experience of the world of work and
their use of this in student learning contexts.
- Regarding management and co-ordination of WRL, 66% of schools
had a work-related learning coordinator in place, 51% had WRL in
the school development plan and 27% had a school policy on
work-related learning, although significant numbers planned to
adopt these in the 204/5 academic year.
- Connexions provided the most overall support, with Education
Business Partnerships providing most support for work placements
and LEAs providing most funding support.
- Differences between grammar and non-selective schools in terms
of their WRL and new GCSE provision are also outlined, grammar
schools tending to give less prominence to WRL in the curriculum
and to see it as less important. Fewer than 10% of grammar schools
offered, or planned to introduce, the new vocational GCSEs,
compared to 80% of non-selective schools). 78% of grammar schools
said either that they already have, or would have, WRL in the
school development plan by 2004-5, against 92% of non-selective
schools. When asked whether they planned to increase or decrease
the prominence of WRL in the school curriculum, 58% of grammar
schools said they would be increasing prominence (86% for
non-selective schools) and 25% said they would neither be
increasing nor decreasing their school's provision.
Findings relating to quality of WRL provision: Poor data
availability limits the analysis of this strand of investigation
(e.g. 322 Ofsted reports mentioned WRL but only six areas of WRL
provision could be judged in terms of their quality). Adequate
management of quality and its effect on uptake and progression is
beyond the scope of this study but is recommended for further
studies.
The report calls for further research of parents' attitudes, WRL
practitioners and WRL qualifications, pointing out that the timing
of research is very important as time of fieldwork affects the
accuracy of data about activities that have/have not taken place
during the respective academic year. Of particular interest for
further study are patterns of participation and effects on
attainment, especially as this relates to gender and ethnic
difference.