A new report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and the Oxford University Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) at the Department of Education has revealed major differences in the provision of post-16 education and training across the UK nations and exposed stark inequalities in outcomes for young learners.
The report, funded by the Nuffield Foundations, identifies a significant and growing divergence of education and training policy across the four nations. Wales has the highest share of pupils (11%) ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’, and Welsh school leavers with working class backgrounds are the least likely to hold A-level equivalent qualifications or be in employment. Fewer apprenticeships are taken by young people in England and Wales (20%) than in Scotland (37%) and Northern Ireland (52%).
Higher Education participation among students from lower socio-economic backgrounds is highest in England, with 20% of 18-year-olds in the most deprived areas attending. Across all four nations, female school leavers are more likely to progress to Higher Education.
Dr James Robson, Director of the Oxford University Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), said: “This interim report highlights the important ways in which education and training policy approaches are converging and diverging across the four nations and how these shifting policy logics shape learner experiences and outcomes. It shows excessive levels of policy churn across all the UK nations which has had a damaging impact on the stability of the education and training sector.
“Our analysis highlights a need for more cross-party policy work that unpacks the challenges of different approaches to coordinating education and training, both market and systems-based thinking, and deals proactively with growing inequalities in the UK.”
Based on the report’s findings, the researchers make a set of recommendations for policymakers, including more active and urgent action in Wales, a greater policy focus on inequalities, a new stable policy settlement, and more comparative data across the four nations.
Sarah has a background in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management and Rural Community Development.
She has been working for the past 8 years in the sustainable development sector. Aware of the importance of educating students about biodiversity, natural resources, and environmental issues to promote the sustainability of the environment and our societies, Sarah is currently conducting her DPhil in environmental education. She will be assessing the integration of environmental education in the Lebanese curriculum, assessing the status of students’ environmental awareness, and identifying ways to enhance environmental education via the Threshold Concepts framework and via partnerships between the developmental and educational sectors.
Supervisors
Jenny Wynn and Steve Puttick
Publications
- Karam, S., Kreidy, C., Bechara, N., Bou Harb, C., Abu Nasr, Y., and Hamadeh, S. (2022) Promoting Innovative Alternatives – The Urban Oasis Case Study, The Blessed Tree Magazine November 2022
- Abi Said M., Bou Shroush J., Karam S., Shaib H. 2022. Intestinal parasites of Apodemus mystacinus along altitudinal stratification of Ibrahim River – Mount Lebanon. Annals of Parasitology, 68(2): 227-239.
- Karam, S., Martiniello, G., Chalak, A., Abi-Said, M., & Hamadeh, S. K. (2021). Biosphere Reserves in Lebanon: Rifts between Conservation Discourse and Practice. Sustainability, 13(22), 12411.
- Tawk, S. T., Chedid, M., Chalak, A., Karam, S., & Hamadeh, S. K. (2019). Challenges and Sustainability of Wheat Production in a Levantine Breadbasket. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 8(4), 1-17.
- Chedid, M., Tawk, S. T., Chalak, A., Karam, S., & Hamadeh, S. K. (2018). The Lebanese Kishk: A Traditional Dairy Product in a Changing Local Food System. Journal of Food Research, 7: 16.
- Abi-Said, M.R. and S. Karam. 2017. Morphological, cranial study and habitat preference of Mus macedonicus (Petrov & Ruzic, 1983) (Mammalia: Rodentia) in Lebanon. Jordan Journal of Biological Sciences 10(4): 235-237.
- Karam, S. & Issa, D. (2015). Évaluation de la biodiversité sur deux sections du LMT. The Magazine of the Lebanon Mountain Trail Association, 4.
Pat is the Deputy Chief Executive of a large College Group.
A qualified accountant, she is accountable to the Corporation Board for the Group’s Estate, sustainability and for maintaining the Group’s outstanding financial health grade. Her specialisms include Leadership and Management, Identification and Application of Funding Streams as well as leading the Group in new acquisitions, ventures and developments. Pat is using her vast experience of public sector finances to explore the intersection of accounting, leadership and purpose.
Supervisors
James Robson and Ariel Lindorff
Louise was born and raised in Glasgow and moved to Oxford to pursue a DPhil in Education.
Louise’s research interests are education policy, particularly higher education policy, as well as qualitative research into the experiences of students in higher education and reducing inequalities in access to higher education. Louise is also interested in educational capabilities, educational purpose, aspirations and philosophical debates about knowledge construction and co-construction. Louise has a First Class BA (Joint Honours) in Social Policy and Education from the University of Strathclyde, and two Masters degrees with Distinction also from the University of Strathclyde in Applied Educational and Social Research and Social Policy (Research Methods). Louise also participated in the University of Oxford’s UNIQ+ Graduate Access Programme in the summer of 2022, where she worked at the Department of Sociology with Melinda Mills, Bo Zhao and Evelina Akimova on research into the impact of socio-economic status on inequalities in access to veterinary care in Scotland. Louise’s DPhil thesis is interested in evaluating Lorella Terzi’s educational capabilities framework through the lens of contemporary higher education in order to gain an understanding of what graduate capabilities are identified by students and stakeholders as being necessary for enabling graduates to successfully thrive and adapt in a post-pandemic society.
Supervisors
Alis Oancea and Kelsey Inouye
Studying a humanities degree at university gives young people vital skills which benefit them throughout their careers and prepare them for changes and uncertainty in the labour market, according a new research by Oxford’s Department of Education.
The report, called ‘The Value of the Humanities’, followed the career destinations of over 9,000 Oxford humanities graduates aged between 21 and 54 who entered the job market between 2000 and 2019, cross-referenced with UK government data on graduate outcomes and salaries. This was combined with in-depth interviews with around 100 alumni and current students, and interviews with employers from many sectors.
After the onset of COVID-19, further interviews with employers were carried out to test how the report’s findings held up in a post-pandemic world. In fact, the report suggests that the pandemic has accelerated trends towards automation, digitalisation and flexible modes of working, and the resilience of humanities graduates makes them particularly well suited to navigate this changing environment.
Dr James Robson and his co-authors for the report concluded: ‘These findings clearly show that Oxford Humanities graduates are successful at navigating the labour market and financially rewarded, but also see value as existing beyond measurable returns and linked with knowledge, personal development, individual agency, and public goods.
‘They highlight the need to take a more nuanced approach to analysing the value of degree subjects in order to take into account longer term career trajectories, individual agency within the labour market, the transformative power of knowledge, and broader public contributions of degrees within economic, social, and political discourses.’
The full report can be found on the University of Oxford website.
Photo credit: ©OUImages/John Cairns Photography
I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre on Skills, Knowledge, and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). I work on the OFS and Research England’s ‘Close the Gap’ project.
‘Close the Gap’ is a collaborative initiative between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, dedicated to understanding and transforming doctoral admissions cultures, systems, and practices. The project aims to foster a research culture that is more socially and epistemically just, as well as inclusive.
My research focuses on the dynamics of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, particularly within elite universities. I am particularly interested in exploring how social class, race/ethnicity, and gender hierarchies and inequalities perpetuate and reproduce themselves, impacting access and success in higher education. My work aims to promote more equitable and inclusive practices within academia.
Leesa Wheelahan is a professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto where she holds William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership. Prior to commencing at the University of Toronto in 2014, she was an associate professor of adult and vocational education at the University of Melbourne. She is a past editor of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training.
Her research interests focus on the role of theoretical knowledge in qualifications; pathways between the sectors of tertiary education and between tertiary education and the labour market; relations between colleges and universities; and tertiary education policy. In recent years, her research has focused on baccalaureate degrees in colleges; marketisation and privatisation in vocational education and in the college sector; and the role that colleges play in society and in their communities.
Gavin Killip is Professor of Buildings & Energy Policy at Nottingham Trent University and an Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Education’s Research Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE).
Gavin’s research is motivated by finding solutions to climate change, particularly in relation to energy efficiency and energy systems in buildings and cities. He has an interest in the development of supply chains and business models, which intersects with issues around jobs and training in the construction sector. Gavin has previously collaborated with SKOPE colleagues on the state of provision for construction training in the FE sector. He has worked with innovators in the construction sector on new courses and with industry bodies on the wider policy context for the energy system and the built environment.
Gavin was previously a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford before taking up a professorship in the School of Architecture Design & Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University. As an Honorary Research Associate, Gavin seeks to deepen the existing links with SKOPE, bringing closer together the research on construction skills and the practice of HE and FE on the ground.