Vocation, vocation, vocation

The Government wants to get disaffected teenagers interested in education by sending them to FE colleges. But, writes Grace McCann, not all the youngsters are staying the course

Crikey! They're tiny," said David Le Breton, an assistant principal of Canterbury College, on seeing 14-year-olds in the campus canteen last September. Similar remarks were echoed at further education centres around the country, when school pupils arrived to take up vocational GCSEs as part of the Government's new push to broaden the options for children in years 10 and 11.

The initiative marks a big step forward in liaison between schools and colleges, but such links are not new. The FE sector has a long tradition of offering vocationally based programmes to schools' less academic pupils. And for the past few years, many colleges have been whetting children's appetites for FE and for various careers by offering "taster" courses (Canterbury offers subjects such as construction, plumbing and hair and beauty to pupils who pop in once a week for a term). Colleges may also offer full-time education to young people that schools can't handle, such as those who have been excluded or bullied.

According to the Learning and Skills Council, which funds all further education, there are 275 new vocational GCSE schemes – known as "flexibility projects," involving 1,780 schools and 33,000 young people. The programme was set up to cover one cohort of 14-to 16-year-olds over the two years of a GCSE course, but this has already been extended for a further two years.

The cash for the scheme – £38m was earmarked for the first round – is being made available through local LSCs and it's up to colleges to get schools on board and put in a bid. Further education has been notoriously underfunded for years and colleges are keen to claim a share of the money. According to Mr Le Breton, Canterbury College has been pleased with the interest from local schools. "We formed a consortium of nine schools, and five of them are actually running with the project this year," he says.

There is a national syllabus for the programme, with eight double-award vocational GCSEs currently available: art and design, business, engineering, health and social care, information and communications technology (ICT), leisure and tourism, manufacturing, and science. Participating colleges are offering one or more courses – Canterbury has launched art and design, manufacturing and ICT, and hopes to get engineering off the ground next September.

With subjects such as business and manufacturing, colleges are able to run a curriculum which may not otherwise be available to 14-to 16-year olds; and for staple areas such as art and design and ICT, they can offer superior facilities to those found in schools. The manufacturing course at Canterbury is popular. Pupils whose hands-on experience in school craft, design and technology lessons may be limited to sawing and hammering can be found using alarmingly grown-up equipment such as gas welding torches.

"Schools don't have access to industrial machinery," says Julie Russell, the scheme's co-ordinator at The Abbey School, Faversham. "We're offering just the manufacturing course to our pupils this year, and looking at this as a pilot." Russell is having weekly meetings with the Learning Support Assistant (LSA) responsible for taking the children to the college, and is pleased with the scheme so far. "The kids are enjoying the classes," she says. "Nobody''s missed the bus!"

The only girl taking part in The Abbey's classes, 14-year-old Christine Pike, exemplifies the vocationally orientated pupils the scheme is aimed at. At school, she's taking food technology, IT and work-related learning. Although she wasn't sure what the manufacturing course entailed when she opted for it, she has happily donned her overall and got stuck into making a range of items including a tool box, a one litre jug and a wall bracket.

Julie Russell points out that the scheme is open to all pupils. "Some may see the course as vocational, others may just think it's fun – as long as it helps them to get the best possible GCSE grades it doesn't matter too much," she says. Canterbury's course leader for art and design, Sue Freeman, agrees. Two of her pupils are showing a flair for the subject and may want to continue with it; the others are simply going for two of their GCSEs in an environment that they find stimulating. "It seems that some respond really well to a more adult setting, and the bell not going every 40 minutes," explains David Le Breton.

The LSA from The Abbey School, Jean Kemsley, is excited about the difference the scheme has made to some struggling pupils. "We've got some really low ability students," she says. "There are a couple here that barely know how to read and write, but this has given them confidence." However, she has found that some pupils have problems with the level of theory the college was expecting to teach. David Le Breton confirms this. "Schools may not have realised that these vocational courses are still rigorous."

Jean Kemsley has also noticed that the scheme has improved some difficult pupils' behaviour. "We've had no backchat since he's been here from a pupil who was one of our awkward ones," she says. "Not being the biggest person in the building seems to have calmed him down."

So far so good for most of the children, but not all FE staff are comfortable with the increasing links with schools. According to Jefny Ashcroft, a part-time lecturer at colleges in the West Midlands, many of the pupils coming to colleges have behavioural problems. "The worst class I've ever taught was a school age class -– we had to ask half of them to leave," she says.

Canterbury College initially had five schools taking the manufacturing GCSE, but two groups were so badly behaved they were axed from the scheme. "Health and safety is a big issue in our workshops," says the course leader, Kevin Marsh. "The children have to make sure they are dressed for the job and their behaviour is tip top, otherwise they're out."

As things stand, it's up to individual colleges to look at the implications of having children on site. "We have discipline and health and safety protocols worked out," says David Le Breton.

Some FE lecturers are concerned about the lack of regulations in this area. "Schools have in loco parentis status," says Jefny Ashcroft. "Procedures are fairly clear – whereas in FE the implications of having 14 or 15-year-olds in colleges have not been spelt out. For example, schoolteachers have to be cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau – most FE lecturers haven't been."

"We also have to be aware of adult students' needs – they can be sensitive about kids coming in," says Ashcroft. Sue Freeman is enjoying teaching her group of children, but has been surprised by the contrast between their needs and those of older students. "I feel like a mother hen trying to protect them," she says. "They're very touchy feely with objects, and have such raw emotions!"

As with manufacturing, some of the children who registered for the art and design course are no longer attending. "My class went down from 12 to five at half term," says Sue Freeman. The college-style timetabling meant that the children did not go home until 4.45pm on a Friday, when they were used to finishing at 3pm, and more than half of them weren't prepared to put in the extra hours.

David Le Breton insists that the exclusions and drop-outs from Canterbury's project are no more than "teething problems". "We delegated recruitment to schools – with hindsight we can see that we should interview applicants here to assess their reliability and motivation," he says. He's convinced that there's a bright future for links between schools and FE. "As the projects become a regular part of what we and schools are doing, things will lock in more smoothly."

education@independent.co.uk