No change there then: Perceptions of vocational education in a coalition era

Abstract

This paper explores the findings of a qualitative study carried out in summer 2010 on behalf of City and Guilds Centre for Skills Development (CSD), which explored young peoples perceptions of vocational education. The participants, drawn from schools and colleges across England, were pursuing a broad range of vocational programmes. Data were gathered using a series of focus groups and individual interviews and analysed using a thematic approach within a Bourdieusian theoretical framework drawing on notions of structure and agency, field and habitus as well as on the extensive body of literature exploring vocational education and school to work transitions for young people. The field work for the study was conducted at the time of the General Election and this analysis also contextualises the findings in terms of the Coalition response to the Wolf Review of Vocational Education (2011). The key findings of the study suggest that serendipity, contingent events and influence of significant others rather than Careers Education and Guidance (CEG) are most significant in choice of vocational programme and that young peoplesunderstandings of possible career paths vary in sophistication, differentiated by age group, level of programme and subject area. Further, their perceptions of the attractiveness of vocational education and training are closely associated with the value they place on their courses and wider societal perception of those courses which they consider to be negative, suggesting that pre-Coalition policy has been unsuccessful in addressing issues of parity of esteem. The paper discusses these findings in the context of contemporary educational structures in England which inhibit transfer from vocational to academic routes and ongoing issues around parity of esteem, and explores their implications for the most marginalised young people particularly those who are engaged with vocational education at its lowest mainstream levels and those who are NEET - in the context of current Coalition policy. The paper concludes that whilst some recent policy initiatives, such as the proposed introduction of University Technical Colleges for 14-19 year olds may be successful in raising the esteem of some types of specialised vocational education, broad vocational courses at lower levels, and those short courses associated with employabilityand reengagement, are likely to continue to be held in lower esteem and to confer little educational advantage on those young people, largely drawn from working class backgrounds, who pursue them.