The Work‐Related Curriculum: The New Entitlement?

Abstract

In this paper I take the opportunity to explore some ideas about the work‐related curriculum which arise, both directly and indirectly, out of several projects with which I have recently been involved, namely, the national evaluations of the Lower Attaining Pupils Programme (Stradling and Saunders, 1991), the management of TVEI Extension (Saunders et.al. 1991), and the operation of Compacts (Saunders and Morris, 1992). The initiatives are (or were) all concerned with providing a work‐related curriculum for young people in their last two years of compulsory schooling, with the aim of easing the transition to adult and working life.

But these evaluations show that if the principle of ‘entitlement’ is not built into work‐related provision, its key messages ‐‐ on relevance and incentives ‐‐ are likely to be unrealised. That the work‐related curriculum needs to be developed through partnership between education and industry is now almost a truism; but partnership is harder to achieve than to eulogise. In particular, clear and precise objectives and consequent criteria of partnership success need to be established, together with a recognition that partners do not necessarily share the same starting points or compatible perspectives. Some process of ‘power‐broking’ may be called for, in order to mediate and match their different needs.