Scottish Government

School Pupils' Attitudes to Further Education

Carole Millar

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Main Findings

Introduction

FE Colleges currently offer school pupils a range of courses thus widening their access to subjects which schools due to lack of expertise, facilities or pupil numbers cannot offer. Whilst some courses can take place within a college setting, they may be delivered within a school environment by college staff.

FE Opportunities within schools

Opportunities to attend college whilst still at school vary considerably across Scotland. Whilst some schools start college experiences as young as S2, others confine their provision to the S5 or S6 year groups. College courses cater for a wide range of pupil from non exam courses to courses at Higher level.

Younger age groups more typically attend short introductory courses. Vocational education, often provided via SVQ/NVQ or Access Units, starts as early as S3. Higher and Intermediate examinations are typically undertaken in the later years of school.

Choice

When examined across Scotland, the subject range offered at college is extremely wide but within the vocational options can be narrow at individual colleges. The choice of Higher subjects can also be narrow. Many pupils would like to see a wider choice of subjects made available.

Constraints to providing more choice were:

Pupils could also restrict their own choices through lack of confidence.

Timetabling was for most schools the key constraint and teachers stressed the need to ensure that whatever college provision was made it did not compromise the pupil's school education or disadvantage him/her in any way. Finding this balance was not easy.

Demand for college courses

Demand was seen to be higher than places, especially on vocational courses, resulting in a selection process being employed for some courses. Pupils are often selected for vocational courses via the learning support or guidance systems within schools. Pupils themselves are very unclear as to how the selection process works and it lacks transparency.

There is also evidence of a notable drop out rate in some areas and this requires further investigation. This seemed to occur even where there had been a high demand for courses and a selection process. These places are therefore not utilised effectively resulting in some pupils losing out on a college opportunity.

There is little support for minimum qualifications to be set for entry into most college courses. However some are of the view that pupils must demonstrate a motivation for the course and a standard of behaviour and attendance.

Finding out about college

Pupils typically find out about college courses via school, most commonly via guidance teachers. Information was provided in a range of ways:

There were some criticisms of the information and advice received. Some pupils felt they were given insufficient time to make their decisions. Others would have liked more information on the course content and in particular what focus there was on practical aspects within the course and how much was desk-based. They would also like to be clearer about what qualification, if any, the course led to.

Parental involvement in pupils' choices did seem to be minimal. However teachers acknowledged the potential resistance to some college courses by parents if this meant that their child would miss out on a standard grade or similar. There was much debate as to how the college option should be incorporated within the school week, with some advocating that it be additional to school subjects and others arguing that it should replace some school subjects.

Perceptions of college

Pupils tended to enjoy their college experience. The minority who didn't were usually disappointed because it did not live up to their expectations, often being more classroom based or less practical than they had hoped. This suggests a need for better advice and information from the outset. Other drawbacks of college noted were: having to miss classes; being away from friends; having to travel to get there; having to mix with other students; not getting any qualification out of it, or issues relating to their lecturer.

The best thing about college was often just that it wasn't school and that they were treated quite differently. The first thing a pupil was likely to say is that they were treated much more like adults. Whilst school was seen as overly strict, college was quite relaxed. Where teachers were seen as lacking in trust, there was a sense of mutual respect between lecturer and student. There was much more freedom at college and with this, greater responsibility. Some pupils clearly thrived in this different setting.

Motivation was seen as being enhanced by not being forced into doing something but by undertaking work out of choice.

Not all found it easy. Some of those undertaking more classroom-based study found the lecturing style difficult to adjust to and found that there was less support available than they had been used to in school. Others noted that college lecturers were much less able to deal with disruptive pupils.

Impact

College was not thought to impact significantly on staying-on rates at school, which were identified as rising.

Experience of college was however thought to impact favourably on the numbers going on to full time FE or HE courses. This was attributed to their greater awareness and experience of what college can offer and their experience of different styles of teaching. College was seen as helping pupils clarify their future options and the majority saw their course as having been useful.

Perceived benefits of college

There were many benefits of having attended college. The key benefits were cited as:

Pupils were keen that their efforts at college were recognised. Some however prized the promise of an apprenticeship or a full-time place at college more than the qualifications themselves.

Welfare

Pupils' welfare was of paramount importance to the teachers interviewed and they placed an emphasis on the need for good liaison between the school and the college on issues relating to attendance, behaviour and any problems that arose. Equally college lecturers need to be provided with background information about the pupils. There was also a need to recognise that pupils from an ethnic minority or with special needs may have particular requirements that need to be taken into account.

Despite the more relaxed environment in college, pupils reported few incidences of disruptive behaviour. However, there were reports of pupils just not attending classes.

Improved behaviour was attributed to:

Transport and lunch arrangements were fairly straightforward for pupils although some had to rush or were late due to the transport arrangements. Teachers did however find transport much more burdensome in terms of both finance and administration.

Delivery of college courses

The majority of pupils had their courses delivered in college. A minority were delivered in school and this was particularly common for some Higher classes. Obviously classroom based classes lent themselves to being delivered in school more than practical based subjects.

Some pupils liked the arrangements of having a lecturer come to school, but as they tended to be the more academic courses these were typically pupils who were quite content with the school environment anyway. They were in a familiar environment, didn't have to travel and didn't have to miss as many classes. The disadvantage is that they did not get to experience college properly and the benefits that brought such as adjusting to a new environment, improved facilities and meeting with others.

Widening access

There was little support of extending college options to younger pupils. The youngest that might be considered was around S3 and then only in a very targeted way. Young pupils were thought to be too immature, couldn't cope with the responsibility and already have a very busy timetable. Older pupils felt that having younger pupils in college would lose them the advantage of being treated as adults and they thought that the lecturers would end up spending their time disciplining younger pupils. It would then just end up being like school.

While there was support for a wider range of subjects or more places for existing subjects, there was little demand for more time to be devoted to college.

Reasons for not attending college

Pupils who had not attended college were typically aware of what was offered to some degree. Their main reasons for not opting for college were:

Conclusion

Overall, the option to go to college was strongly supported by both pupils and teachers alike. They would like to see a wider range of subjects offered and more places made available to allow them to take advantage of the opportunities on offer. The teachers saw a particular gap in the availability of vocational options and could identify more pupils who might benefit from this than there are places available.

Improvements were also desired in the areas of information about courses to help pupils with their choices.

About the study into school pupils' attitudes to further education

The study aimed to further understanding of:

The study comprised of two key strands. They were a quantitative survey of school pupils who have attended college and a qualitative study. In total 21 schools participated in the quantitative survey. Fourteen schools were selected for the qualitative strand of this study. At each school, we aimed to speak with three groups of pupils: one younger group up to S3; an older group S4-S6 and pupils who had had no experience of college.

In all schools, an interview with the teacher responsible for college liaison was also undertaken.