The young ones

Next month, 20,000 youngsters returning to school will take part in a radical new educational pilot, the 14-19 diploma. They will be pioneers of a curriculum that mixes vocational and academic learning to provide a fundamentally different way of qualifying for higher education and/or a career in industry. And battle lines are drawn before they even start. On the one hand, Sir Alan Jones of Toyota is urging employers to follow the lead of 17 major companies in the Diploma Employer Champions Network "to ensure that future generations have the skills, learning and attitudes that business really needs". On the other hand, the CBI is frankly unenthusiastic and the National Audit Office reports that over two-thirds of the consortia delivering the qualification report problems in recruiting enough employers to provide the crucial element of work experience. So who's right? That's difficult; even some of those who laud the reforms publicly express private doubts about how they will work in practice. The only certainty is that something had to change. As a launch pad to a successful career in engineering and manufacturing, GCSEs and A levels are, by most accounts, deeply flawed. In contrast, diplomas aim to give students a career headstart. They combine specific learning about their chosen sector; fundamentals such as thinking skills, project work and maths, English and ICT; plus specialist subjects reflecting the individual youngster's ambitions. Companies are invited to form partnerships with schools and colleges to offer practical advice, guidance in the teaching of the diploma and hands-on experience. The two diplomas in our sectors are engineering, with pilots starting this September, and manufacturing and product design which starts in 2009. They have been developed by sector skills councils (Improve, Proskills, Cogent, Semta and Skillfast-UK) which have consulted manufacturers on the diplomas' structure and content. It sounds good on paper but what does it really mean for manufacturers? Will it deliver what they need? As chairman of Metskill, the strategic skills body for the metals industry, Stephen Tilsley obviously backs the diplomas but he also firmly believes that it will make a difference to his own company, Metsec. "What I like about the qualifications is that they have employability skills effectively delivered within them. So we will have kids coming out for apprenticeships who will be better candidates." He has also heard several consortia saying that they will be able to teach in a much more exciting way: "That will encourage more youngsters into technology and engineering, not only those who are going into apprenticeships but those good enough for university." He feels that youngsters will be drawn to this applied style of learning: "Boys particularly like to see the relevance of what they are doing." He accepts it is not going to be plain sailing and that some concerns are justified. Although the input to the diploma has been employer led, employers don't know what their role is now and the consortia haven't spelled it out. "They have started to link up with business now, but there are only 62 of them so understanding has been fairly limited." He is convinced the situation will improve as the pilots advance and more employers come on board: "But some consortia are not working closely enough with employers yet to identify where the learning is going to come in the workplace; how that is going to happen and how it fits into the curriculum. The curriculum is there - the real challenge is getting teachers out of their comfort zone and out into businesses." Overall, his enthusiasm about the qualification is undimmed but he feels there will have to be some serious work in the next year to promote it with good, practical examples of what is being achieved. There is undoubtedly a widespread feeling that there has not been enough groundwork to fill the demand pipeline. Nicola Eagleton is campaign manager for the Manufacturing Institute's UK-wide 'Make It in Manufacturing' initiative which aims to attract the best new talent into manufacturing by promoting it as an exciting and rewarding career destination for young people. She thinks the diplomas are a great idea in principle, but she has some real concerns: "Getting placement in specific areas and sectors is going to be very difficult. There are manufacturers genuinely committed to working with young people. Anything that promotes the breadth of opportunities - and the content of the diploma will show that full range - is a good idea. But we have to do a lot of work to get kids fired up to choose it." She is unconvinced the whole process of manufacturer involvement has been properly thought out. The educational business partnerships (EBPs) are already stretched and under-resourced: "From what I have heard, there isn't going to be a glut of funding to support employer engagement. So I can't see how the brokers that already exist are going to be able to support the diploma in the detail it needs." There are currently several routes for connecting employers, schools and colleges, including 'speed dating' managed by the sector skills councils (SSCs), the EBPs and direct approaches from consortia. Eagleton foresees confusion. "Simplification is essential so you don't get lots of people mithering employers. You need a good broker to make it successful. Schools don't always manage those relationships very well." She also worries about manufacturers' willingness to participate: "They will only invest in programmes in which they see a return." With Make It, she uses attitude surveys at the beginning and end to demonstrate how youngsters' views of manufacturing and their motivation have improved. She actually quantifies the PR return, usually running at about £1,500 for every £1,000 invested. "Those are the types of analyses that manufacturers want - if someone simply asks if their group can take a look at the factory, they don't necessarily get what they want from that relationship." The diplomas are fully supported by big names like Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Toyota, but Eagleton thinks that can sometimes be counterproductive in engaging SMEs: "They think they have no role because they have fewer resources. Manufacturing businesses are under pressure and if we want their support, we must be very clear about what we are asking them to do and what they are going to get out of it." The Manufacturing Institute believes a huge 'hearts and minds' campaign is needed to overcome negative perceptions and stimulate demand for diploma places. And, as Eagleton trenchantly points out, it's no good enthusing young people unless you reach their parents, too. Dave Eccles, who teaches at Rainford High Technology College in St Helens, understands the truth of that only too well. Rainford is part of a consortium piloting the engineering diploma. Eccles and his colleagues prepared the ground thoroughly, taking pupils to promotional events at Jaguar to give them a proper insight into what lies ahead. As a result, 30 students expressed a serious interest. "We aimed it at higher achievers. Obviously by doing that, we created problems; many of their parents envisaged them going to university and I don't think they see engineering and manufacturing as a career for their kids. After the options evening, we only had two students actually sign up for the diploma." To say he was disappointed puts it mildly. The other school in the consortium has enrolled 17 students so the pilot will go ahead; the schools are committed and confident the course will be of the highest quality. Eccles thinks, however, that diplomas have been poorly marketed; they needed a team prepared to get out on the road to let parents talk to universities and local industries as well as the schools. He says parents are becoming aware of diplomas but they are cautious, particularly about the effect on university entrance. "Some parents actually phoned up universities and asked them if the diplomas were acceptable for certain courses and they said no." Currently, about half the top universities have voiced doubts about diplomas meeting their admissions criteria. The possibility that they will be seen as inferior qualifications is worrying employers and parents alike. If diplomas are to work in manufacturing's best interests, they must be capable of attracting the brightest, not become a home for under achievers. Ian Moores, diploma development manager at Cogent SSC, is adamant that downgrading them is totally wrong: "In my view it is easier to get A levels than to get a diploma at grade A. In engineering, the maths alone is a lot more complex and there are additional units complementing it that will gain you entry to the Russell Group [an association of 20 elite, research-intensive UK universities that includes Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Imperial College and Manchester]." "Because of the word 'vocational,' a lot of people believe the diplomas will be an easy touch. I don't think they are. Many of the awarding bodies warned us early on we were making it too difficult. We changed some of the content and we have come up with a robust specification that is certainly the equal of A level." Indeed, influential academics are lining up behind the new qualification. Dr Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge, sees the engineering diploma as having the potential to be "a better and more suitable foundation for an engineering degree than the current maths A level". Moores is also confident that enough manufacturers will come on board. "Many have heard of diplomas but don't yet know what's involved or that they can take part. It's predominantly large employers who have been engaged with the content so they have more of a handle on what will be required. But even SMEs can give time on specialised projects. They can sit down with a pupil or talk about projects via a blog. Industry's engagement with this diploma is going to change; those we have talked to ourselves feel it is possible." He says everyone involved in managing the relationships wants to avoid burnout so they are defending their employers and constantly looking for more so the load can be spread evenly. Even he, however, acknowledges the strain imposed by teaching new diplomas alongside the existing curriculum. And Rainford's Eccles points out that no extra time has been made available. He will still be teaching A levels and GCSEs, and some of those are changing, too. Despite this, he is really looking forward to the difference it will make: "At the moment, you can see a lot of students studying things they don't want to study. It needed a complete overhaul, even if it's a huge thing to do all at once. For the students' sake, you can't say it's a pilot and we will get better. We have offered them a quality course and we will make sure they get it." Eccles spent many years as an engineer in industry himself before teaching. It is a hopeful sign for the eventual success of diplomas that he would far rather be teaching them than the traditional qualifications. So where does that leave us all? Why, when manufacturers are facing horrendous pressures in an increasingly turbulent world economy, should they stretch themselves to support an educational programme that shows every sign of being launched in a semi-ready condition? Because, frankly, it's the only show in town. Back to Stephen Tilsley: "It ticks the right boxes and enables businesses to have an input into the employability skills they will feed off in the coming years. What's more, it will help them now to develop their own employees through mentoring and coaching, giving them new communications skills. Community service is important for many of us, too. But the challenge is that schools and businesses are different cultures speaking different languages and there will have to be patience on both sides to make things work. If employers become involved in steering groups, reviewing what's going on, learning from it and giving feedback, it will work."