Monday 21 July 2008

NEET statistics

In the news this weekend was lots of comment about NEETs. Government stats say that around 9% are NEET, LSC says it's double that.

Let's first look at how the Government counts. They exclude anyone who has been on any training at all in the previous 4 months (I think but I may be wrong) as in traiing. So even if a youngster goes to a one day course about writing a CV run by Job Centre Plus, then they are not NEET. So I think the LSC is probably right as most sensible people would say that someone is training means someone at College or School or in an Apprenticeship.

The bigger issue is the Government targets. They want 85% of 19 years to have a level 2 qualification by 2013, 80% by 2011. This actually means getting all the NEETs through a level 2 in just 5 years - now that's a big big challenge and I don't see how it can be done given the resources at the moment.

Unless of course the statistical counting changes ......

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Now I know what ....means

And part of the amplification document (see previous post) is the glossary. I have chosen some entries wich just make it all easier for all of us. I always wanted to know how to briefly descirbe a text message without using any jargon and in less than 200 words.

Web page: A unit of
information from a
website that can be
addressed using its URL.

Text message:
Sometimes known as
SMS (short message
service), available on
digital GSM networks
allowing text messages to
be sent and received via
the network operator’s
message centre to a
phone, or from the
Internet, using a so-called
SMS gateway website. If
the phone is powered off
or out of range,
messages are stored in
the network and are
delivered at the next
opportunity.

Amplification of the standards

I got all excited this morning when I opened up the 14-19 newsletter and saw that Amplification of the Funstional Skills standards hidden at the bottom of the newsletter.

Great, let's read it now I thought - 6 hours later and 148 pages and the amplification is now clear! I really do feel sorry for those people who have to plough through this - I mean, what has to be 148 pages long? It's simply too long to make sense and certainly so long that the majority of practitioners will not read it.

So if you're a teacher in a school who has just been asked to teach Functional Skills and you ask for guidance ....... you can see where I'm going.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

GCSE English changes

I was quite surprised by the announcement by QCA that English will be available to some students as a single subject called "English".

i had thought that the introduction of Funcational Skills into the pass requirement for ENglish Language was a big step forward, I guess this is an even beigger step forward!

Is it a bad thing? Probably not, providing it's targetted at the right students and it also means that QCA then have the space to demand more of students who do two GCSEs in Language and Literature.

I do like the sound of how the currculum will be split into "English in the real world" and "English in the imaginary world", I've always like descriptves that say what they do on the tin!