‘This is the plan’: mature women’s vocational education choices and decisions about Honours degrees

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses a piece of qualitative research that explored the narratives of a group of mature women when they discussed influences on their post-16 educational decisions. This encompasses their initial vocational education and training (VET) and their choice to study higher education (HE) programmes in England. The research draws on Nancy Fraser’s dual-perspectival notion of social justice to analyse how gender may have affected their educational choices. The research also explores some of the tension experienced in feminist research practice. Data collection was undertaken primarily via semi-structured individual interviews with six female Foundation degree graduates who decided to study an Honours top-up degree. In addition, a research journal was also used to explore a feminist standpoint approach and the research relationships. A thematic analysis of the data found that gender plays a crucial and complicated role in vocational choices. The findings also highlight that although VET is not a second choice, the low pay and misrecognition of ‘pink collar’ work leads the women into HE study. HE is used to gain credibility and employment security. The research concludes that top-up degrees offer the women individualised solutions to the low status and economic precarity vocational education provides.

KEYWORDS:

• Mature women
• gender
• vocational education and training
• foundation degree
• top-up degree
• Fraser

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the women who agreed to take part in my research. Thanks also to Dr Jan McArthur for her supportive comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally Welsh

Sally Welsh is a programme leader for the Masters degree in Education and Professional Development at Newcastle College, where she also teaches on BA Honours Education top-up programmes. She is a PhD student at Lancaster University. Her research interests include social justice, mature students in higher education, the experiences of student parents, and support for students in post-compulsory education.