Stepping into STEM
Careers:Pathways for Young People and Adults
@alexsNIACE#citizenscurriculum
Alex Stevenson
Howard Gannaway
STEM Careers for Young Adults
Humber Local Enterprise Partnership
Employment in the Humber
Traditional Industries:
• Port activity
• Logistics
• Chemicals
• Food processing
• Steel production
New Flagship Industries
• Renewable energy
(wind turbine production
and servicing)
• Digital industries
• Tourism
A manufacturing hub
“The second largest employment sector (in the Humber) is
production, that is, manufacturing and processing,
representing 19% of all jobs across the food production,
basic metals, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fuel refining
sectors, but some 26% of output GVA (UK=10% and 11%
respectively).”The Capability of the Humber Region
University of Hull
2013
What’s happening now in the Humber?
• Siemens: new wind turbine facilities will create 1,000 new
direct jobs
• RB (formerly Reckitt Benckiser): new global Centre for
Scientific Excellence
• Humber PD Ports: expanding its container terminal
• DFDS Seaways: expanding its logistics operations
• GEV Offshore: wind turbine maintenance global HQ
located on the Humber
• Smith & Nephew: Hull is a major cornerstone of the
Advanced Wound Management Division
Challenge 1: Demographics
Humber LEP Area Population by Age in 2015
Humber Workforce Numbers
Challenge 2: Skills
• Compared to England, the Humber is over-represented in
terms of low skills and has a much lower population of
highly skilled residents when compared to other Yorkshire
LEPs
• By 2020, the number of jobs in the Humber requiring
people to be educated to degree level and above will have
risen while the number of jobs that do not require higher-
level skills will have fallen. The number of jobs that require
no qualifications will have fallen dramatically.
• There is a significant expectation of churn and and
replacement need within all employment sectors.Employment and Skills Strategy 2014-2020, Humber LEP
Challenge 2: Skills
HumberYorkshire and The
Humber England
Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage
Population of working age 586,600 3,420,100 33,545,100
with no qualifications 72,300 12.33% 436,200 12.75% 3,722,800 11.10%
qualified to at least level 1 467,400 79.68% 2,702,400 79.02% 26,924,800 80.26%
qualified to at least level 2 373,400 63.65% 2,196,400 64.22% 22,475,900 67.00%
qualified to at least level 3 269,700 45.98% 1,619,600 47.36% 16,997,700 50.67%
qualified to at least level 4 143,400 24.45% 904,300 26.44% 10,440,600 31.12%
People who are economically active: 449,600 76.65% 2,574,700 75.28% 25,623,900 76.39%
with no qualifications 36,000 6.14% 199,100 5.82% 1,810,000 5.40%
qualified to at least level 1 357,000 60.86% 2,046,700 59.84% 20,595,900 61.40%
qualified to at least level 2 289,300 49.32% 1,683,300 49.22% 17,387,800 51.83%
qualified to at least level 3 207,400 35.36% 1,237,700 36.19% 13,257,200 39.52%
qualified to at least level 4 125,500 21.39% 788,300 23.05% 9,112,700 27.17%
All percentage are of total population of working age
Career Pathway into STEM
What are traineeships?
“…traineeships are an education and training programme
with work experience. The core content of traineeships
is work preparation training, English and maths and a
high quality work experience placement. The
opportunity of a work experience placement with an
external employer in the sector they are interested in is
critical to making traineeships attractive and effective to
young people.”
Traineeship target group
Traineeships are intended primarily for young people who are
motivated by work or the prospect of it, but who do not yet have the
skills or experience to secure an apprenticeship or other sustainable
job.
young people who:
• are not currently in a job and have little work experience, but who
are focused on work or the prospect of it;
• are 16-24 and are qualified below a full Level 3 and who…
• providers and employers believe have a reasonable chance of
being ready for employment or an apprenticeship within six months
of engaging in a traineeship.
The proposition to training providers
Can you respond to the needs of employers by using the
flexibility afforded by traineeships to introduce STEM-
specific subject content and thereby increase the number
of young people eligible for apprenticeships?
The proposition to employers:
When your apprentices turn up on their first day, you probably
find they are often something of a blank canvas as far as your
own business is concerned. How would it be if they turned up
already having a grounding in some of the core technical skills
that are important to your business?
Would that help to shorten the period when they are a net cost to
your business and bring forward the day when they are a net
contributor to revenue?
The Citizens’ Curriculum: Engaging
and Supporting Adults into Learning
The Skills for Life Survey (2011): 1 in 4 adults have
low levels of numeracy skills; 1 in 6 have low levels of
literacy skills.
OECD Survey of Adult Skills (2013): 16.4% scored at
the lowest level for literacy; 24% for numeracy.
Census data (2011) records around 850,000 adults
‘non-proficient’ in the English language.
BIS / SFA data shows that from 12/13 to 13/14, adult
(19+) participation in English, maths and ESOL
provision has fallen by 7.6%, 10.7% and 4.8%
respectively.
The English and maths challenge ...
More flexible, creative and innovative
models are needed to engage and
motivate learners and meet the
challenge of poor basic language,
literacy, numeracy and digital skills in
the context of rapid social change.
So ....
“A citizens’ curriculum is learning which
is locally-led, developed with the active
participation of learners, and interlinks
the life skills of language, literacy and
numeracy with health, financial, digital
and civic capabilities.”
Citizens’ Curriculum Capabilities
LLN
Health
Digital
Financial
Local context and setting
Learner Involvement
• Schuller and Watson
( 2009)
• NIACE / NRDC
Evidence on impact
of embedded basic
skills – Eldred (2005);
Casey (2006)
• Co-design of the curriculum - A New
Curriculum for Difficult
Times (Beer, 2013)
Our pilots helped us to learn more about how a
Citizens’ Curriculum approach works
The participating pilots were: St Mungo’s Broadway,
Ashley Housing, English for Action, Leicester
College, Women in Prisons, Tomorrow's Women
Wirral, Milton Keynes College (HMP Ranby), The
Manchester College (HMP Deerbolt, HMP New Hall,
HMP Blantyre) Outsource Training, Rochdale
Borough Council, Bradford City Council,
Birmingham City Council, Manton Children’s
Centre.
Our work
Added value to the curriculum offer, which
became more engaging through the
interlinking of English, maths and language
skills with other capabilities
An improved curriculum offer which,
through greater learner involvement, was
felt to be more responsive to the needs of
learners
Key Overall Findings - Providers
Improved ability to make learning relevant to
adults’ lives and articulate the wider benefits of
participation in learning, through a focus on the
interlinked capabilities of the Citizens’ Curriculum
approach.
For practitioners with less experience in the creation
and co-design of flexible provision tailored to the
needs of individuals, a greater appreciation of the
value and benefits of this approach and keenness
to embed this further in their practice.
Key Overall Findings - Practitioners
Improved attitudes to learning, particularly with
regard to English/language and maths, leading to
progression into further learning opportunities.
Improved skills and attitudes supporting
employability, including increased motivation to
seek work and/or participate in voluntary work, and
for some learners, progression into employment or
work placements.
Improved engagement in the wider community
and improved confidence and ability to use public
services
Key Overall Findings - Learners
Do we have to deliver all of the
capabilities?
What content should we teach for each of
the capabilities? What about resources?
Tutors don’t have expertise in some of these
areas, what can we do?
What’s the role of accreditation in the
Citizens’ Curriculum approach?
Frequently Asked Questions ...
“More emphasis on informal, non-formal, as well as
formal learning to enable people to gain
economically and socially useful skills.”
“Continued investment by the UK Government in
Community Learning in England, with a review of the
distribution of the funds.”
“A new study-programme approach, using the NIACE
Citizens’ Curriculum, to meet the needs of those with
the lowest skills levels, which incorporates informal,
non-formal as well as formal learning”.
NIACE Policy ‘Asks’
More pilots in new settings – English and Maths for
unemployed adults, ESA claimants and plans for
work with young migrants
More detailed evaluation and impact assessment
including longer term analysis
Further practitioner support around health and civic
capabilities
A ‘technical consultation’, looking at how the
Citizens’ Curriculum might form the basis of any
‘study programme for adults’
Next Steps for the Citizens’ Curriculum
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