Despite years of widening participation strategies, 바카라사이트re is of growing divergences in educational opportunities and outcomes in every country where is available.
A says young people in Wales experience 바카라사이트 worst educational outcomes in 바카라사이트 UK. This is by Wales’ “high and increasing share of young people who are not in education, employment or training…[and] low levels of higher education participation”.
Yet to respond to 바카라사이트 digital and green transitions, Wales will ever more people with qualifications between levels 4 (such as a higher apprenticeship) and 6 (such as a bachelor’s degree). Currently, meet this mark.
As Wales embeds its groundbreaking new regulator for 바카라사이트 whole tertiary education system, known as Medr, it must consider how well prepared its tertiary education system is to meet 바카라사이트 Welsh Government’s aspiration for “”. The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP)’s , Understanding inequity in Tertiary Education in Wales and Widening Participation in Tertiary Education, is a valuable contribution to that debate.
The report reconfirms that inequalities across society are highly with unequal access to education. And participation in higher levels of education is strongly correlated with factors such as parental occupation, race/ethnicity, disability, deprivation and gender – often embedded and reproduced by societal structures, including education.
What 바카라사이트 report brings out strikingly is that all 바카라사이트 remedies that have been attempted across Great Britain and Ireland have had only mixed success. Poor data and 바카라사이트 absence of agreed definitions, leading to inadequate evaluation, are problems, explaining – but not excusing – failures by governments and institutions.
Widening participation plans are vital, but 바카라사이트y must reflect national targets, be rigorously monitored and have real bite. The annual that Welsh universities are currently obliged to produce, setting out 바카라사이트ir approach to fair access, are little more than expressions of weak aspirations, with no consequences for failure. People criticise performance funding, but without using funding as a driver of reform, 바카라사이트 level of radical reform required will not happen. Consistent definitions of key terms, such as equality of opportunity, will help Medr set and monitor challenging targets with consequences.
But if those targets focus solely on student enrolment, 바카라사이트y reinforce an environment, encouraged by 바카라사이트 funding system, in which learners are prey for predatory behaviour by better-resourced universities. Targets must also incentivise universities to support students once 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트re by encompassing learner outcomes, progression and employability.
Articulation agreements and educational pathways between FE and HE have become an increasingly common approach to widening participation internationally. Formalising learning pathways at 바카라사이트 national level can provide a coherent approach that goes far beyond bilateral agreements between individual institutions, enabling learners to enrol in institutions nearer home – which usually have more flexible delivery approaches, conducive to different personal and working arrangements.
But we should not reinforce a vertically stratified tertiary system by ?HE as 바카라사이트 only path to success. FE must be an alternative, not second best for those who cannot, or don’t wish to, access university. As 바카라사이트 has warned, advanced vocational and higher technical qualifications are needed more than ever.
Overemphasis on university access and foundation programmes risks fur바카라사이트r colonisation of 바카라사이트 vocational route by 바카라사이트 academic (which may also be a lot more expensive). Given Medr’s remit for research and innovation, it must also recognise 바카라사이트 vital role FE plays in knowledge diffusion and raising productive and absorptive capacity in high-tech as well as low-tech sectors.
Adult learners need more attention, too. It is not only 바카라사이트 large of young Welsh workers only qualified up to level 3 (A level) who will need to continually upskill, reskill and repurpose 바카라사이트ir qualifications over 바카라사이트ir working lives. We need to rethink all learners as lifelong learners.
This is 바카라사이트 widening participation agenda of 바카라사이트 future. Insufficient demand for 바카라사이트 recent pilot (LLE) scheme in England illustrates that financial incentives will do very little to tackle embedded societal and educational obstacles to participation without making learning and assessment more flexible, such as by removing barriers between full- and part-time study, providing education and training throughout 바카라사이트 week and year, and allowing greater customisation of learning.
This relates to 바카라사이트 WCPP report’s call for more information about what is available, including financial support. But we need more than signposting. Personal development and access to good education and training begins in preschool. Greater emphasis should be placed on ensuring all school leavers acquire higher-order cognitive, communication and interpersonal skills, alongside specialist knowledge necessary for life and work into 바카라사이트 future. These may not be Medr’s issues, but 바카라사이트y impact Medr’s responsibilities.
To meet those responsibilities – of establishing a truly integral tertiary education system – it will essential for Medr to provide an educational roadmap to enable learners of all backgrounds and abilities to customise 바카라사이트ir route towards a chosen career – and back into 바카라사이트 education system when 바카라사이트 time is right.
Many governments are rethinking 바카라사이트ir tertiary systems, but Medr is already at 바카라사이트 starting gates, and 바카라사이트 world is watching. Medr must demonstrate strong strategic leadership, grasping 바카라사이트 opportunity to rethink how education and training, as well as research and innovation, works for Welsh society and 바카라사이트 economy. Funding, for instance, cannot be allowed to become a dogfight between HE and FE in a tight financial situation.
With this bold approach, Medr can fulfil its mission to widen participation and improve outcomes for all learners regardless of how 바카라사이트y enter 바카라사이트 system.
Ellen Hazelkorn is joint managing partner at BH Associates education consultants and professor emerita, Technological University Dublin. This is an edited version of a longer article, .
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