 |
| Vocational Pathways |
I have been getting my head around Vocational Pathways
for a while and I do understand the premise. We have to as a Nation (and probably other Western Countries too) know how to educate ALL of our young people while they are at school not just the less than 20% of them who go to university in the Matamata Piako District, New Zealand; I have thought this for a long time.
Our pastoral team had a
really good presentation from the Ministry of Education about how to use Vocational Pathways in
relation to careers guidance - as all teachers are career teachers. I totally agree with this. The presenter was very thorough and I like
the way it now links to Kamar and therefore much easier to use. The
easier it is to use definitely increases the chance that people are going to use it! It also gives everyone a common language which is again a good thing.
I very much agree with the idea of the form teacher of the
being the first port of call in a pastoral sense - as this is the set up at our
school and Vocational Pathways does give a clear path to helping this process. Everyone needs at least one "warm and demanding" person
in their life (thanks to Maurie Abraham - Principal at Hobsonville Point Secondary
School) and this might be a form teacher or a mentor of a smaller group.
But as I said before everyone should be a careers teacher – we should all be
always asking students what they are planning for the future and how we can help them reach their goals and dreams. It doesn't matter if they don’t know but just by discussing likes and dislikes can be an excellent start!
I also find that when I am dealing with students with behaviour issues I always try and link them into their future plans and how what happens now can affect these plans. When people have a goal it can make them focused and really help them “get through” the subjects they don’t like or even school in general. This is another one of the reasons Vocational Pathways, linked to Kamar, is a good idea. You can look at what pathways the students might be strong in and this can give them career ideas at a click of a button (thanks Kamar - very good!) and this might kick start ideas for students. You can also discuss the students’ career plans and then see if they are doing subjects that link to their individual education and career plan.
I also find that when I am dealing with students with behaviour issues I always try and link them into their future plans and how what happens now can affect these plans. When people have a goal it can make them focused and really help them “get through” the subjects they don’t like or even school in general. This is another one of the reasons Vocational Pathways, linked to Kamar, is a good idea. You can look at what pathways the students might be strong in and this can give them career ideas at a click of a button (thanks Kamar - very good!) and this might kick start ideas for students. You can also discuss the students’ career plans and then see if they are doing subjects that link to their individual education and career plan.
So far, so good! But
I went away from out presentation last night and I have been thinking about it a
lot. Yes it is great for all the reasons
that I have stated above but I am not totally sold.
Education is about many things and your career is only one part of your life. Yes you might want to become a mechanic and should be strong in RED "manufacturing and technology" but is not just as important to develop your creative (industries) side too (YELLOW) or be part of the discussion in the "social and community services" (PURPLE) so you know how to be a NZ citizen in a global world?
I am not saying that Vocational Pathways isn't a good tool. I think it could be but we can't forget or get hung up on perhaps an "easy" way to look at education as it is a tick box idea about how we steer people into careers. According to this model our job as High School teachers will be complete - we have helped guide our students into a career - we will have reached the Government target of 85% of all students receiving NCEA Level 2 - JOB DONE!
However, learning is complex and therefore what we do as teachers is complex and can't just condensed to a set of tick boxes. This is what is so great about the NZ Curriculum and why at NCEA we have aligned our standards to link to it. Perhaps the next step at the Senior end of the school, as well as more focus at the Junior end is a greater focus on the NZ Key Competencies
- thinking
- using language, symbols, and texts
- managing self
- relating to others
- participating and contributing
We need to do this if we want to ensure that we create a society where people use the competencies to live, work, and contribute as active members of their communities. The issue is that Key competencies are not as straight forward as a tick box and therefore are not easily linked to Kamar - they are more complex to assess and difficult to track.
Therefore I believe that Vocational Pathways need to be just another tool in our teachers' tool kit along with things like elearning, literacy and numeracy strategies, Ka Hikitia, SOLO, being creative Creativity is the key to education etc etc that we use to engage our students so that they attend, learn and achieve in a wide variety of areas of life.
Let's not got so hung up on this as the be all and end all to our senior students' education - it is not. It is A tool not THE tool.
No comments:
Post a Comment