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This podcast is a collaboration between FE News and Edge UK. This season is all about pushing the boundaries and delving into the depths of edgy thinking in the further...
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This podcast is a collaboration between FE News and Edge UK. This season is all about pushing the boundaries and delving into the depths of edgy thinking in the further education sector. We'll be exploring topics such as the latest teaching and learning methods, the use of technology to enhance the learning experience, and how to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to staying up to date with the latest trends and research. We'll be discussing the challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions that come with edgy thinking in further education. Get ready to learn something new and be inspired to think outside the box!
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3 NOV 2021 · Reflecting on Party Conferences 2021 – What can we hope for in education?
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s 2020 party conferences took place virtually with members contributing and joining online. Fast forward to 2021, and there was a tangible sense of anticipation at the fact that some party conferences would be taking place face-to-face once again.
Here at Edge we’ve enjoyed a busy conference season, joining the Liberal Democrats online, the Labour Party in Brighton, the Conservatives in Manchester and the Green Party in Birmingham. We learnt so much from the chatter, the networking, the dangerous questions and passionate audience members – all of which would have been impossible to replicate online. Safe to say, we’re now glad to be back, and looking forward to reflecting on lessons learnt. We’re also unlikely to eat any more sandwiches for the next month, having consumed our fair share at conference…
Why conference – what is the point of going?
Firstly, given that conference takes a lot of energy, can involve a substantial cost and time away from home, it’s important to ask ourselves why we should go, and whether it is a good investment of our time. This is a question we explored last week with colleagues from across our wider education policy network who also attended the conference, and it was fascinating to hear a range of perspectives.
Many of us found conference to provide an important opportunity to expand our horizons and join the dots between different areas of education – similar to a ‘reading week’ by immersing ourselves in multiple topics including “How do we fund an education recovery plan?” “The reform of assessment” “Bridging the skills gap” and “The future of work” among many others. By doing this, we heard about new pieces of research and became alive to a range of different perspectives – with teachers, students, parents, policy makers asking challenging questions and highlighting their lived experiences. For example, we heard about the difficult mental health challenges that young people have faced this year. We heard from passionate teachers about how much joy their work brings, but how difficult it has become to teach amid increasing timetable pressures and accountability measures. These perspectives and new nuggets of information are important in helping us expand our thought and in bringing better policies to life.
Conference also provides an opportunity not only to join the dots within education, but to attend discussions on broader areas – transport, digital skills, the future of AI, and the green economy. After all, many of us often call on our own policy officials within Whitehall to better connect across government departments. So we must ensure that we practice what we preach and conference provided an important opportunity to expand our own thought and connect education to broader areas across our economy and society.
Some may also ask “Why bother going to the conferences of parties who are not in power?” For us, it provided a chance to hear important counter arguments and evidence that highlights where current policy is not working. Impartiality, honesty and integrity are important qualities for all policy makers – so we must continue to hold government to account, stay alert to diverse perspectives, and ensure that sensible policy proposals continue to serve the needs of its stakeholders.
After the past year of lockdowns and online events, this year’s conference provided a particularly welcome opportunity to network in person, and to finally put a real face to the zoom name. Not only this, but MPs and their teams were visible and approachable, which provided a welcome chance to directly interact and share ideas.
Some reflections on the main themes and shared messages
Education at the core of a prosperous economy and society
This year it was clear that education was at the core of all of the parties’ vision for a better economy and society.
At the Liberal Democrats conference, Ed Davey spoke passionately about the Liberal Democrats previously being the party of education, and their strong desire to be the party of education once again. Indeed, education was set out as one of their core pillars, alongside supporting small businesses and caring for our loved ones.
At the Labour conference, education and the reduction of child poverty came hand-in-hand. Education also featured heavily in Keir Starmer’s speech where he highlighted “if you can’t level up our children, you’re not serious about levelling up at all”. He also highlighted the importance of a “curriculum for tomorrow” and the importance of work experience, careers advice and mental health support across schools.
At the Conservative conference, the headline message from Boris Johnson’s conference speech was “skills, skills, skills” with a clear focus on skills at the core of the Conservatives’ agenda for levelling up and addressing the impact of Covid-19.
At the Greens conference, although in the process of updating their key policy recommendations for education, the party’s key philosophy of lifelong learning was highlighted, where no one should be left behind. There was an understanding that the current curriculum and assessment system is too narrow and sets a third of young people up to fail. Instead, compassion and inclusiveness are crucial across the board. A holistic education that nurtures curiosity and creativity is needed and for this more financial investment is key.
Importance of skills and lifelong learning
Indeed, it was good to see the importance of skills and lifelong learning emerge as another clear priority.
For the Liberal Democrats, policy motions called for every adult to have the chance to access education and training opportunities throughout their lives by introducing Skills Wallets. There was also an emphasis on local skills gaps to explore how different parts of the country can cluster expertise and build networks.
At the Labour conference, Starmer highlighted the importance of digital and creative skills that are in low supply, and the importance of rounded learners, who can emerge from school “ready for work, and ready for life”.
At the Conservative conference, ministers highlighted that we are on the “cusp of a skills revolution”, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak highlighting his ambition for “good work, better skills and higher wages”.
At the Green conference, the party stressed the importance of subjects such as the arts and music, which should complement a STEM education rather than replace it. After all the creative sectors is one of our country’s greatest exports, as well as being hugely beneficial for individuals.
Given the changing nature of work and increasing megatrends such as automation, the move towards net zero and the implications of Brexit and Covid-19, the world of work will continue to change and initiatives to support skills and lifelong learning will be needed more than ever before. Here at Edge, we will continue to push hard for this through our Skills Shortages bulletins.
Reform of Assessment
We were also surprised by the strength of debate around assessment reform, and the opportunity to reform assessment alongside curriculum and pedagogy. This is something we are particularly passionate about at Edge, alongside a number of other organisations including Rethinking Assessment, the New Era for Assessment, NCFE, the National Baccalaureate Trust. Appetite for reform is clearly growing, and we must seize this momentum for change.
The use of narrative
We also saw discussions explore the use of narrative in the sector. For many, phrases such as a ‘broken’ education system, reference to “snowflakes”, the “lockdown” generation or “low skills” suggest negative connotations, and many agreed on the importance of using more thoughtful language, to highlight the excellence work taking place across the sector. We also saw the re-emergence of terms such as “vocational” a term that hasn’t been popular for a while now – and it is good to see vocational skills re-emerging as part of the broader skills debate.
There was also a broad desire for us to now use bolder, more urgent messaging around education. Many agreed that education is often seen as the “political football” that is often politicised or tossed about – but we can no longer afford to do this.
Importance of evidence
Discussions also highlighted the importance of research and evidence in guiding sensible policy decisions in education. Indeed, this was referenced multiple times by the new Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi who said “I promise you that I will be led by evidence in the decisions that I take. We will relentlessly focus on what works.” We hope that this offers the sector an opportunity to work with policy makers on sensible policy proposals, based on rigorous research and data.
18 OCT 2021 · The Cure for Policy Amnesia?
Edge’s Learning from the Past project aims to do exactly what it says on the tin, learn from past experiences. We often talk about the loss of policy memory or policy amnesia and our project aims to revisit past educational policy initiatives in England that have influenced and driven change across the education system in order to learn from them.
We have mainly focused on policy initiatives related to technical and vocational education, and those that have supported disadvantaged groups of young people, such as young people not in education, employment and training.
Since February 2021 we have published a series of policy reviews developed by Edge’s Emerging Researchers Network members. Each review offers a brief summary to support the understanding of policy context at the time and summarises what went well and what the challenges were. We aim to offer a neutral summary for the reader to draw their own conclusions. We also draw parallels with current policy initiatives where appropriate. The reviews are based on past policy documents, research evaluations and academic articles.
So far we have reviewed, for example, Connexions, Entry to Employment, Young Apprenticeships, Technical Vocational Educational Initiatives and Education Business partnerships.
Future reviews will include, for example, Train to Gain, the National Scholarship Programme and the Polytechnics.
For example, we have reviewed two very topical past initiatives that have direct relevance now;
Education Maintenance Allowance. and
The 14-19 Diplomas
The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots were launched in England in 1999 to raise participation, retention and achievement rates in post-16 education among young people from lower income families. EMAs offer financial incentives, including weekly payments and achievement bonuses, to young people. The pilots were subject to one of the largest evaluations ever commissioned in the UK, and positive impacts were demonstrated. EMAs were subsequently rolled out nationally in 2004 and remained operationalised in England until 2011, when they were replaced by a less generous post-16 bursary programme. EMAs continue to be offered to young people in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Over a fifty-year period, an array of youth employment initiatives has been introduced across the UK. For example, starting in the 1970s, the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) offered six-month work experience placements to the young unemployed. This resembled the current Kickstart scheme, although the latter offers wage incentives rather than a fixed training allowance. By the early 1980s, youth unemployment had escalated to such an extent that YOP was the destination for more than half of all school leavers entering the labour market. In 1983, YOP was replaced by the much larger Youth Training Scheme (YTS), which attracted an enormous £1 billion annual budget, with an emphasis on expanding training opportunities for unemployed 16-18-year-olds. In contrast, the current Kickstart scheme has a total budget of £2 billion to meet the needs of a much wider age cohort, namely unemployed 16-24-year-olds across Great Britain until March 2022.
The 14-19 Diplomas were announced in the 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper in 2005 but they never reached a full rollout. They were cut in 2010 when the Coalition Government took power. These middle track qualifications which could combine academic and vocational learning enabled learners to continue in further training, further studies as well as to enter employment. Diplomas were initially developed in 14 ‘lines of learning’ that were linked to industry sectors. (However, in 2007 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced the development of three additional general education subject Diploma lines in Science, Languages and Humanities.) Employer engagement in the Diploma qualification development was taken to a new level -employers were to contribute to and lead on the content of the new qualifications.
The Diplomas were complex composite qualifications that were challenging to understand for the learners, their parents and employers. However, learners were able to complete a number of qualifications as part of their Diploma. Drawing parallels with the T-levels that are currently being developed, there are striking similarities. T-levels broadly cover similar industry sectors. There has been yet again great emphasis on engaging with employers in order to meet industry needs. Considerably greater work-experience is a fundamental part of T-levels – about 45 days in T-levels as opposed to minimum 10 days in Diplomas. T-levels are qualifications that may lead to all further training, further studies as well as to employment. So, what have we learnt from the 14-19 Diplomas?
We consider it really important to understand previous policies – how they worked, what went well and what challenges they faced. This is essential to help us to identify the guiding principles, and build on and adapt the best ideas from the past to avoid repeating mistakes.
1 OCT 2021 · To mark the launch of Edge’s new grant fund – the Edge Innovation Fund – Jane Samuels, Director of Projects and Operations at the Foundation joined Gavin O’Meara to talk all things funding.
The Edge Innovation Fund is a new approach to funding for Edge. The fund, which opened on 14th September 2021 will stay open until the end of 2025. There is £300k available for the balance of 2021 and then the fund will be refreshed every 1st January until 2025. The minimum amount available is £20k and the maximum for a one year project is £100k. Projects which run for multiple years (up to a maximum of 3 years) can bid for up to the entire amount in the funding pot.
Edge is looking for disruptive innovators with ideas and plans to challenge the current approach to education in the UK. All projects must support Edge’s strategic aim for a broad, flexible and engaging curriculum, providing high quality vocational and professional education which is employer and community engaged. More details about the Fund, the criteria and how to apply can be found here.
In the first episode of Edgy Thinking, Jane and Gavin discussed the new grant fund and how important it is to provide a source of funding for innovative education. They were joined by two organisations previously funded by Edge. Stefano Pacelli, at Blackburn College talked about their two successful bids, one centred on automotive engineering and one on eco-construction. Stefano stressed the Edge funding had allowed the College to not only develop state of the art facilities but also to provide lecturers the time and resources to develop deep and long-lasting employment engagement. This enables the College to put learners at the heart of relationships with local and national employers and engage with their community,
The second guest was Harriet Bird, who is Senior Trusts and Grants Manager at the Barbican Centre. Harriet spoke about Edge’s support for their Careers Rewired programme which looked to raise awareness and understanding of careers opportunity within the creative sector. Edge funding allowed the Barbican to develop a new approach to engagement with local schools which brought inner city students to the Barbican Centre for the first time and took creative professionals into the classrooms.
Both Stefano and Harriet spoke about the challenges of securing funding and of the impact that the projects had had. Measuring the impact and evaluating the success of grant funded projects is key to Edge, who have recently released an Impact Report on the whole of their Grant Funding programme.
This podcast is a collaboration between FE News and Edge UK. This season is all about pushing the boundaries and delving into the depths of edgy thinking in the further...
show more
This podcast is a collaboration between FE News and Edge UK. This season is all about pushing the boundaries and delving into the depths of edgy thinking in the further education sector. We'll be exploring topics such as the latest teaching and learning methods, the use of technology to enhance the learning experience, and how to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to staying up to date with the latest trends and research. We'll be discussing the challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions that come with edgy thinking in further education. Get ready to learn something new and be inspired to think outside the box!
show less
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