‘Hungry for hands-on’: talented, inner-city engineering students, applied learning and employer engagement in a vocational-learning trajectory

Abstract

This paper analyses the findings of a case study into the attitudes and experiences of engineering students and teachers on a vocational education trajectory from the 14-19 Diploma in Engineering through post-16 vocational courses to a university Access course. The research took place in 2008-2009 in a deprived inner city area of London. A baseline survey of nearly 100 participants sought the views of secondary and further education (FE) students as to learning preferences, attitudes to the subject, motivation and aspirations. These issues were investigated in more depth through interviews with secondary, vocational and university access students nominated by their teachers as talented. Engineering teachers at secondary, FE and higher education levels were interviewed regarding their understandings of talent in engineering and their approaches to nurturing such talent. The paper overviews the findings on these questions, and focuses in more depth on issues surrounding applied learning and employer engagement. The study found strong preferences among learners and teachers in all phases for applied and workrelevant learning approaches in engineering education. Opportunities for these were unbalanced through the phases, however, with work experience, enrichment events and access to professional engineers more available to the younger, 14-19 Diploma students than to further or higher education students.

Re-conceptualising graduate employability: the importance of pre-professional identity

“…Course discipline may produce significant variations in the perceptions and realities of the HE landscape with extant literature indicating that both classical liberal arts and more specialised degree programs produce different discipline-based identities among students (see Dahlgren et al, 2008). Age and gender (see Clark et al, 2011;Nystrom, 2009), socio-economic status and ethnicity may affect identity formation (see Haight, 2012). Some students, for example, may not have the middle class cultural capital which employers relate to (Greenbank et al, 2009).…”

A typology of students in intermediate vocational education and training programmes based on student engagement factors, sociodemographic characteristics and intentions of dropping out

“…This could certainly be a line of action for interventions with students in the “Low Family Support” cluster. Other studies have indicated that practical and applied work have a positive effect on students who were less successful in the past (Bruin & Ohna, ; Haight, ; Karling, ; Kwong, ; Raffington, ). This line of action could be useful for students in the “Work‐Oriented” cluster who are more focused on the job market than on continuing their studies.…”

Predicting the Future Competence Needs in Working Life: Didactical Implications for VET

“…Society continuously changes; therefore, future competency needs involve more than academic disciplines. Several studies to date have confirmed the effectiveness of work-re-Sylte levant learning at both levels of VET, which provide a stronger coherence with workplace competence (Canrinus et al, 2015;Haight, 2012;Hiim, 2016;Smeby & Heggen, 2012). For instance, Loo's (2012) research in teacher education points to positive effects when students have both professional experience and teaching experience prior to undertaking the education.…”