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EUROPEAN STUDIES SENIOR CONFERENCE

EUROPEAN STUDIES SENIOR CONFERENCE. Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle March 2012. Structure. Presentation focuses on educational issues linked to employability of young people in Wales and educational responses to them

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EUROPEAN STUDIES SENIOR CONFERENCE

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  1. EUROPEAN STUDIESSENIOR CONFERENCE Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle March 2012

  2. Structure • Presentation focuses on educational issues linked to employability of young people in Wales and educational responses to them • Important to emphasise that there are also a number of recent political and economic initiatives to address issues of youth unemployment

  3. Wales and Work pre 1914

  4. Wales and Work pre 1914

  5. Economic Dominance Late 19th Century Wales • 90% of copper smelted in Britain smelted in Wales • 70% of world’s slate quarried in Wales • 70% of world’s zinc mined in Wales • 90% of world’s tinplate smelted in Wales • 50% of British coal exports from Wales By 1930 all these industries suffer severe decline and lead to huge unemployment and migration

  6. Wales and WorkPost War Revival

  7. Wales and WorkPost War Revival

  8. Wales and WorkPost War Revival

  9. Now and Then1972 and 2012 1972: A large amount of semi-skilled and unskilled jobs, alongside growth in white collar work. Very low unemployment rates 2012: Over forty years a massive contraction of heavy industry and manufacturing and a more recent decline in white collar. Growth in service, finance, ICT and tourism Outcome: Long-standing levels of high unemployment and economic inactivity in parts of Wales and a recent increase in unemployment rates in all parts of Wales. One of the groups most severely affected young people with few qualifications.

  10. Educational Barriers • Literacy • Numeracy • The impact of disadvantage on: • basic skills • aspiration • expectations • Limited focus in schools on oral work, team work, independent learning and decision-making

  11. Current Perspectives The Wales 2030 – Perspectives on the Future report commissioned by Wales Quality Centre asked 90 leading industrialists how Wales could face the challenges of a changing world. • One of the key themes to emerge from the research was that the Welsh education system is failing employers • One respondent said: “Coming from school and further education, many young people have indifferent or negative attitudes and don’t know or appreciate the world of work. • “They often lack basic communication, numeracy and literacy skills – and can seem unemployable.”

  12. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) • The Pisa assessments of 15-year-olds show Wales falling further behind since the 2006 tests. • Out of 67 countries taking part, Wales was ranked 38th for reading, 40th for maths and 30th for the tests for science. • Wales again ranked lowest of the UK countries  “These results are disappointing. They show an unacceptable fall in our overall performance - everyone involved in the education sector in Wales should be alarmed. There can be no alibis and no excuses. Countries with less money spent on education than Wales have done better than Wales.” Leighton Andrews, Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills. Welsh Government

  13. Current Perspectives ESTYN: ANNUAL REPORT: 2010-11 • The chief inspector, Ann Keane, said it was time to "face the facts" and "raise standards relative to other countries". • 40% of children entering secondary school had a reading age below their chronological age. • "Teachers and leaders need more training in how they deliver literacy and numeracy, not just in English and Welsh lessons but across the whole curriculum," she said. • "That doesn't just mean that basic skills are not being taught well enough, but that we're not delivering in the higher order skills of literacy and numeracy either."

  14. Current Perspectives ESTYN: ANNUAL REPORT: 2010-11 • Mrs Keane said the assessment system was also "not good enough". • "We do not have robust comparable data on the literacy and numeracy levels of pupils because schools and authorities measure them in different ways,” • "This makes it difficult to identify gaps in basic skills and to plan support in a consistent way.”

  15. Current Responses • Initiatives to reduce the number of young people in the category of NEETS(not in education, employment or training) • Earlier intervention to work with pupils who display qualities associated with those who, on leaving school, are most likely to fall into the NEETS category (attendance, behaviour, low achievement, disengagement) • Initiatives aimed at improving the achievement of boys • Initiatives aimed at improving the achievement of pupils entitled to free school meals

  16. Current Responses • From September 2011, the Welsh Government has decided that funding for the first year of Early Professional Development (EPD) will be linked to the national priorities of literacy, numeracy and reducing the impact of poverty on attainment and to the developmental priorities identified by the review – Additional Learning Needs (ALN), behaviour management and reflective practice.  • new professional standards for head teachers and teachers, which have literacy and numeracy requirements embedded • Introduction of a national reading test; all pupils in Year 2 (7 year olds) to Year 9 (14 year olds) will be required to sit the reading test.

  17. Current Responses • numeracy tests for learners in Wales, to be implemented alongside reading tests from 2013 • establishment of National Literacy and Numeracy Advisory panels to support the work that is ongoing to develop National Literacy and Numeracy Frameworks, that will set out clearly year on year expectations for pupil’s progress in all aspects of literacy and numeracy. • ensure that Key Stage 2 (for 11 year olds) teacher assessments are robust and consistent with the nationally defined standards, especially in respect of literacy. 

  18. Current Responses Curriculum Developments: • Foundation Phase (3-7 year olds) • Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification (14-19 year olds) • The Learning Pathways (14-19 year olds) Expectation that each promotes oral work, team work, independent learning and decision-making Curriculum Initiatives: • Promotion of science, technology, mathematics • Promotion of modern foreign languages • Promotion of bi-lingualism

  19. Final Thoughts ESTYN: ANNUAL REPORT: 2010-11 • Standards are generally good or better in about four-fifths of the primary schools inspected. • Provision overall is good or better in just over four-fifths of the schools inspected this year. • Standards are good or better overall in about three-fifths of the secondary schools inspected. They are excellent in about one-in-eight schools. • Performance is good or better overall in 65% of these secondary schools. It is excellent overall in 13% of these school

  20. Final Thoughts • much good and very good practice • a majority of pupils achieve their potential BUT • many challenges remain and a significant minority of pupils are not achieving their potential • good and very good practice is still not shared and developed consistently There is now a very firm focus and clear strategies to enable young people in Wales to achieve their potential. This is all the more critical given the difficult employment conditions that they are likely to face in the coming years.

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