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Vocational Pathways provide options for school students

Work has begun to develop five initial vocational pathways as a bridge to industry training, further study and employment. Vocational Pathways aim to give new and clear learning options to students, especially for the estimated 70% of secondary school students don’t go from school to university.

“The vocational pathways will open up new possibilities for students and provide a clearer route to a wide range of jobs and careers. Students will be able to see how what they are learning relates to what they will need to succeed in the workforce, and have clearly defined choices about how they get to where they want to go. The pathways will indicate the sorts of standards students should choose, the standards they need to achieve and the sorts of jobs and occupations they can aspire to,” says Ministry of Education Group Manager Dr Andrea Schollmann.

Industry Training Federation’s former executive director Jeremy Baker says under Vocational Pathways some students will be able to mix school and tertiary learning while others may opt to study full-time at tertiary organisations.

“It's a brilliant use of the NCEA that does not require major change to the system, but redefines how that system can be used more successfully,” says Jeremy.

“It’s about giving people a context for learning what they need to learn and making the core subjects relevant to their needs.”

Vocational Pathways is part of the Youth Guarantee scheme, the tertiary education initiative announced in the 2009 Budget. Youth Guarantee focuses on improving the educational achievements of targeted 16 and 17-year-olds by providing them with an opportunity to participate in a range of vocational courses and improving transitions between school, tertiary education and work.

The Ministry of Education has set up a Pathways Advisory Group (PAG) comprising leaders from the secondary and tertiary education sectors, business and industry, to oversee the development of the five vocational pathways. The pathways cover a very broad range of industries and occupations which make up 76% of the current workforce.

Vocational Pathways

The pathways are:

Construction and Infrastructure
Manufacture and Technology
the Primary Industries
the Service Industries
Social and Community Services.

Each pathway is being developed by a consortium of Industry Training Organisations and representatives of schools and tertiary providers, liaising with government agencies.

NZQA Deputy Chief Executive Qualifications Bali Haque says students will be able to achieve a certain number of credits from the standards included in the pathway.

“Defining what those standards will be is the next step. All pathways will include a shared set of standards in foundation skills, equivalent literacy and numeracy NCEA requirements; and other existing achievement and industry-set unit standards.

“The pathways will reflect the real knowledge and skill requirements of industry sectors, will be educationally robust, credible and work within the NCEA qualification framework.”

The pathways will be defined during 2011 and be progressively available from 2012.