Post-14 Research Group
Curriculum Change: general
national vocationaL
qualifications
Jeremy J S Higham
School of Education
University of Leeds
CONTENTS
Page
Abbreviations1. / General National Vocational Qualifications
1.1 The Principles and Structure of GNVQs
1.The GNVQ Curriculum Model
1.3 The GNVQ Assessment Model
1.4 Responses to the Introduction of GNVQs
1.5 Summary / 1
1
7
10
14
20
2. / GNVQs and CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION AND CHANGE
2.1 The Implementation of GNVQs
2.2 Curriculum Implementation and Change
2.3 Summary / 22
22
29
43
3. / COURSE TEAM RESPONSES TO GNVQ
3.1 Analysis of Course Team Responses to GNVQ
3.2 The 'Implementation' Approach
3.2.1 Business Intermediate at Stanton College
3.2.2 Business Intermediate at Portland College
3.2.3 Business Advanced at United College
3.2.4 Health & Social Care Intermediate at United College
3.2.5 Health & Social Care Intermediate at Peterson School
3.2.6 Health & Social Care Advanced at Highgate College
3.2.7 Manufacturing Advanced at Meadow VI College
3.2.8 Leisure & Tourism Intermediate at Meadow VI College
3.2.9 Leisure & Tourism Advanced at Peterson School
3.2.10 Leisure & Tourism Intermediate at Highgate College
3.2.11 Summary of Implementation Responses / 46
48
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54
55
57
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61
63
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71
3.3 The 'Adaptation' Approach
3.3.1 Business Intermediate at City School
3.3.2 Business Advanced at Appletree School
3.3.3 Art & Design Intermediate at Morton College
3.3.4 Art & Design Advanced at Oakland School
3.3.5 Health & Social Care Advanced at Meadow VI College
3.3.6 Summary of Adaptation responses / 74
75
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84
3.4 The 'Assimilation' Approach
3.4.1 Leisure & Tourism Advanced at Portland College
3.4.2 Manufacturing Advanced at City School
3.4.3 Manufacturing Advanced at Morton College
3.4.4 Manufacturing Intermediate at Oakland School
3.4.5 Art & Design Intermediate at Appletree School
3.4.6 Art & Design Advanced at Stanton College
3.4.7 Summary of Assimilation Responses
3.5 Overall Summary of Course Team Responses / 86
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91
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95
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99
4. / GNVQ CURRICULUM REALISATION
4.1 GNVQ Curriculum Implementation Reinforcement
4.2 GNVQ Curriculum Design Flexibility
4.3 Local Constraints and Influences
4.4 Summary / 100
100
104
110
120
5. / GNVQ AND Curriculum innovation / 122
Bibliography / 135
Tables
1. Grading Criteria - Theme 4: Quality of outcomes / 17
2. GNVQ Centres and Courses / 47
3. Categorisation of Course Teams' Responses to the GNVQ Curriculum / 52
4. Form of Course Organisation / 53
ABBREVIATIONS
ACCAC-Awdurdod Cymwysterau, Cwricwlwm ac Asesu Cymru/ Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority
for Wales
A&D-Art and Design
A level- Advanced level
AQA-Assessment and Qualifications Alliance
AS level- Advanced Supplementary level
AVCE-Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education
BTEC- Business and Technology Education Council
C&G - City and Guilds of London Institute
CCEA-Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
CDT-Craft, Design and Technology
CLAIT-Computer Literacy and Information Technology
CPVE-Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education
CSE-Certificate of Secondary Education
DENI - Department of Education Northern Ireland
DES-Department of Education and Science
DFE -Department for Education
DFEE -Department for Education and Employment
DoE-Department of Employment
DVE-Diploma of Vocational Education
ERA-Education Reform Act (1988)
ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council
EV-External Verifier
FE- Further Education
FEDA- Further Education Development Agency
FEFC - Further Education Funding Council
FEU-Further Education Unit
GAD- General Art and Design
GATE - GNVQs and Access to Higher Education Project
GCE- General Certificate of Education
GCSE- General Certificate of Secondary Education
GNVQ - General National Vocational Qualification
H&SC-Health and Social Care
HE-Higher Education
HMSO-Her Majesty's Stationery Office
IT-(Use of) Information Technology
JCVAB - Joint Council of Vocational Awarding Bodies
L&T-Leisure and Tourism
NEAB - Northern Examinations and Assessment Board
NCVQ- National Council for Vocational Qualifications
NVQ - National Vocational Qualification
OFSTED - Office for Standards in Education
QCA - Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
RSA - Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board
SCAA - School Curriculum and Assessment Authority
TVEI - Technical and Vocational Education Initiative
UCAS - Universities and Colleges Admissions Service
VET-Vocational Education and Training
1.General National Vocational Qualifications
The development of General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) offers a productive site for the study of curriculum change, with their mix of national qualification implementation reinforcement features and the flexibility in course design accorded by the GNVQ model to schools and colleges. Vocational areas such as Business and Health & Social Care specified in detail the assessment objectives and criteria across all the requirements of the qualification, but left the design of the course and the associated assignments as well as their assessment to the course provider. Given the onus on institutions in respect of curriculum design and assessment, it is instructive to investigate how different course teams with various histories and traditions in a variety of institutional and geographical contexts have responded to this model of a qualification in their course provision, and to relate the curricular patterns identified to these course contexts and curricular antecedents. These areas of investigation and their implications for the understanding of curriculum implementation and change are the focus of this book which centres round an analysis of data collected for a research project on the GNVQ curriculum funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and undertaken by the Post-14 Research Group at the University of Leeds.
1.1 The Principles and Structure of GNVQs
GNVQs represent a major and sustained attempt by central government to establish a third, general vocational, pathway between the vocationally-specific qualifications epitomised by National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and the academic, often subject-based, A level qualification:
we did have a big gap, we had an argument about A levels, about whether they were too academic, too concentrated, etc., etc., etc., etc., we had an argument about NVQs, but then sort of somewhere in the middle seemed to me to be a major weakness. We weren't catering for those youngsters who in practice were going to stay in some kind of training/education up to 18 rather than 16, either voluntarily or because there were no real other options there for them. A levels were by definition not appropriate for them, they weren't designed for that group of the age cohort and we had this loosely described sort of vocational/competence weakness in the system and so the GNVQs really emerged to fill that gap, that was the background. I mean it was rather more complicated than that. (Interview with T. Eggar, former Minister of State, Department for Education)
The policy process related to the emergence of the concept of GNVQs, and the development and introduction of the qualification, heralded in a government white paper in 1991 (DES/DoE/Welsh Office, 1991), was indeed somewhat more complicated. While it is not the purpose of this present work to focus on the origins of GNVQ and the process of policy development (see Sharp, 1997 and 1998, and Raggatt and Williams, 1999 for comprehensive and detailed accounts), it will be important to highlight below a number of the features of this period of development in order to connect the work in schools and colleges with the wider social and political context.
In this white paper, Education and Training for the 21st Century, it was announced that:
'General NVQs should cover broad occupational areas, and offer opportunities to develop the relevant knowledge and understanding and gain an appreciation of how to apply them at work. General NVQs should also:
-offer a broad preparation for employment as well as an accepted route to higher level qualifications, including higher education;
-require the demonstration of a range of skills and the application of knowledge and understanding relevant to the related occupation;
-be of equal standing with academic qualifications at the same level;
-be clearly related to the occupationally specific NVQs, so that young people can progress quickly and effectively from one to the other;
-be sufficiently distinctive from occupationally specific NVQs to ensure that there is no confusion between the two;
-be suitable for use by full-time students in colleges, and, if appropriate in schools, who have limited opportunities to demonstrate competence in the work place.'
(DES/DoE/Welsh Office, 1991, para. 3.8)
In the light of this the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) was asked to develop 'general National Vocational Qualifications' (DES, 1991) and, following consultation (NCVQ, 1992a), in May 1992 NCVQ was able to confirm that a pilot of the qualifications would take place in 100 schools and colleges from September 1992. Initially the qualifications, now designated GNVQs, would be available at levels 2 and 3 of the NVQ framework (NCVQ, 1987), now termed Intermediate and Advanced levels for GNVQ, in 'five broad occupational areas: Leisure & Tourism; Manufacturing; Health & Social Care; Business; Art & Design' (NCVQ, 1992b, p. 2), before becoming more generally available in September 1993. Later level 1 would be added and, by 1996-97, a further ten vocational areas would be offered, though in the event, with the exception of Manufacturing, the original five areas were to remain the most popular.
With the overall structure and specifications designed by NCVQ, these first five GNVQ vocational areas were developed by three awarding bodies: Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC), City and Guilds of London Institute (C&G) and the Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board (RSA). GNVQ was first offered at level 2 which was deemed to be 'equivalent to four to five good GCSEs' and level 3 which was said to be 'equivalent to two A levels' (DES, 1993, p. 2) to schools and colleges from September 1993, with some 40,000 students registering at Intermediate level (level 2) and 34,000 at Advanced level (level 3) in the first year of operation. A further 5,000 students were registered on a pilot programme of Foundation level GNVQs (level 1). By the end of 1995-96, nearly 150,000 students had been awarded GNVQs with over a quarter of a million post-16 students then working on GNVQ programmes (DFEE, 1996). GNVQ thus quickly established itself as a major post-16 qualification route.
Inserted between NVQs and GCE A levels, the distinctive features of GNVQs were their general vocational nature, which was reflected both in the broad areas of vocational activity (as opposed to specific occupations as with NVQs) and the general nature of the 'outcomes' which were not specified as occupational competences but as pre-specified assessment objectives. This point is discussed further later.
With regard to their structure at the time of the GNVQ Curriculum research project data collection (1995-7), GNVQs were organised in terms of units (similar in some ways to the concept of modules at GCE A level). At GNVQ Intermediate level, there were six vocational units, four of which formed a compulsory core (Mandatory Units, common to all awarding bodies) and two of which were selected from a range of options (Optional Units, varying by awarding body). A further three Core Skills units (now termed Key Skills units) had to be successfully completed at level 2: Communication; Application of Number; Information Technology (each common to the three awarding bodies).
An Advanced GNVQ followed a similar pattern to Intermediate GNVQ and had eight mandatory units, four optional units and the same three core skills unit areas but at level 3. The following selection illustrates a sample overall unit pattern for a programme of a student on an Advanced Leisure and Tourism course offered by City and Guilds in 1993-1994.
Advanced Leisure & Tourism GNVQ
Mandatory Units
Unit 1Investigating the leisure and tourism industry
Unit 2Maintaining health, safety and security
Unit 3Providing customer service
Unit 4Marketing in leisure and tourism
Unit 5Planning for an event
Unit 6Providing management information services
Unit 7Working in teams
Unit 8Evaluating the performance of facilities
Optional units
Unit 9Organising an event or service
Unit 13Investigating international leisure and tourism provision
Unit 14Running a promotional campaign
Unit 15Evaluate the impact of leisure facilities and activities
Core Skills Units
Level 3 Unit:Application of Number
Level 3 Unit:Communication
Level 3 Unit:Information Technology
(Source: C&G, 1993, pp. 23-24)
Each of the mandatory and optional units was divided into a number of elements. For example, the elements for Unit 3 above were as follows.
Unit 3: Providing customer service
3.1Identify the function of customer service in leisure and tourism facilities
3.2Plan a customer care programme
3.3Provide customer service
3.4Evaluate the operation of the customer care programme
(Source: C&G, 1993, p. 23)
Each of these elements was specified in terms of 'performance criteria' which are statements of what a student must be able to achieve. For example:
Element 3.1Identify the function of customer service in leisure and tourism facilities
Performance criteria:
1Situations when customer contact or service is commonly needed are correctly identified.
2The main service needs of different types of customers in the facilities are correctly identified.
3The likely consequences of good service in the main customer contact/service situations are described.
4The likely consequences of poor service in the main customer contact/service situations are described.
5The importance of prioritising customer service needs is described.
For each element a 'range' statement indicated the extent of the areas in which the performance criteria should be met. In the case of the above example:
Range:
Situations:when customer contact is expected (e.g. with reception staff), when customer contact is not expected (e.g. with maintenance staff); face-to-face, telephone, written
Customers:satisfied, dissatisfied; internal, external; different age groups; those with special needs; different cultural groups; individuals, groups
Consequences for: the facility; staff; customers.
Possible products of student work were suggested by 'Evidence Indicators'. Those relating to the present example are:
Evidence indicators:
A report on customer service in two contrasting facilities providing on-going services in different contexts, to incorporate an awareness of the service needs and expectations of different types of customers.
Evidence should demonstrate understanding of the implications of the range dimensions in relation to the element. The unit test will confirm the candidate's coverage of range.
(Source: C&G, 1993, p. 29)
Where a GNVQ centre, i.e. a school or college approved to offer GNVQ qualifications, offered a range of optional units a student might have the possibility of choosing optional units to reflect his or her own interests or desired specialism. In the case of Advanced Leisure and Tourism, a student might perhaps wish to select units that lie more on the tourism side than the leisure side, or might prefer to focus more specifically on outdoor activities and sports. Thus decisions regarding the provision of optional units gave course teams and, potentially, students the opportunity to tailor the curriculum to their particular requirements. One third of the vocational units in the GNVQ curriculum can be determined locally since of the six units at GNVQ Intermediate Level, four are mandatory and two are optional, and of the twelve units at GNVQ Advanced Level, eight are mandatory and four are optional.
Students could also take additional units to supplement their GNVQ award. Like the optional units, these additional units differ according to the awarding body. The additional units might be further optional units in the vocational area, units from another vocational area, non-compulsory core skills units (Working with others; Improving own learning & performance; Problem solving), or self-standing NVQ units or foreign language units. Students could also undertake an additional qualification such as an A level or Advanced Supplementary (AS) level.
The core skills units fall into two categories: those which are compulsory as indicated above, and those which are non-compulsory and which would therefore serve as additional units: 'Working with others'; 'Improving own learning & performance'; 'Problem solving'. It should be noted that the core skills units are now referred to as key skills units though, as the GNVQ Curriculum project data collection took place before they were re-designated ‘key skills’ following the Dearing Report, they are referred to here by the original term of core skills.
In order to be awarded a GNVQ qualification, a student had to complete all the mandatory, optional and core skills units by meeting all the performance criteria in each unit.
All unit work submitted for the GNVQ took the form of course work prepared by the student and assessed by his or her tutor. This work was then checked and moderated in a process of internal and then external verification. Only tutors who had passed NCVQ-specified assessor units could be Internal Verifiers. External Verifiers were employed by the relevant awarding body to safeguard national standards.
The system of grading, that is awarding a Merit or Distinction grade rather than a Pass, was dependent on the student meeting additional and different criteria. One feature of the GNVQ was that since these grading criteria (organised by grading themes) were not related to the content of the unit but to the student's ability to plan, organise and evaluate their work, they did not reflect the quality of the work assessed against the performance criteria outcomes, which could only be judged on a Pass/Fail basis.
Nearly all mandatory units, but not core skills nor optional units, had associated tests which were designed to confirm that the student had covered the range of knowledge content of the unit. These were multiple choice tests with a pass mark of 70% (originally 80%).
While the GNVQ specifications outlined above indicated in detail the performance criteria against which students were to be assessed, it should be noted that 'Institutions will be free to devise their own programmes of learning to suit their circumstances and resources within the parameters laid down by the awarding bodies.' (NCVQ, 1992b, p. 5). This key point is discussed further below.
1.2The GNVQ Curriculum Model
Although the various structural features of GNVQ have been outlined, one might well query just how distinctive the GNVQ model is in curriculum terms and, if so, what the essential defining features might be. In this respect many commentators have been clear that, whereas NVQs are occupationally specific work-based qualifications for employees, GNVQs are based on broader employment sectors with only optional work experience and are designed for students in schools and colleges. Equally there has been little confusion regarding the fact that GNVQ awards, unlike NVQs, all share the same unit structure, include core skills units, are graded, and are only offered in a limited number of vocational areas by three awarding bodies (FEU, 1993). Nevertheless, as has been noted, in some quarters there has been a lack of clarity regarding the distinctiveness of GNVQs from NVQs in terms of the way that the content of the two qualifications is specified and assessed. This is hardly surprising, for apart from their common 'stable' in NCVQ (now the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority), their joint proponent in Gilbert Jessup (Director of Research and Development at NCVQ and later Deputy Chief Executive) and the similarity of the two qualification titles (GNVQs even being announced as general NVQs), GNVQs and NVQs are both qualifications designated at a particular level of the NVQ framework and are both broken-down into units and elements with specification of assessment requirements in terms of 'performance criteria' to be achieved across a breadth of areas indicated by 'range' statements.