EEL research report series
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Item Towards a New Zealand system of skill ecosystems(Lincoln University. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, 2012-09) Dalziel, Paul C.This final report from the ‘Employer-Led Channels’ theme of the Education Employment Linkages research programme addresses how to help young people make effective education employment linkages, focussing on institutions that use direct contact with employers to channel information to young people in secondary school or in further education or training. The report develops stylised models of employers and employees and integrates the two models to produce a model of a ‘skill ecosystem’. It discusses a case study involving the Careers, Internships and Employment centre at the University of Canterbury, using the soft systems approach. A ‘rich picture’ shows the heart of their work to be an integrated set of menus of services provided to employers, students and faculties. The report proposes a New Zealand system of regional skill ecosystems anchored by Careers New Zealand. It further recommends that careers offices in secondary and tertiary education organisations (or the tutors performing that role in a small private training establishment) be regarded as key actors in the regional skill ecosystem. A very important step in this direction has been the recent development by Careers New Zealand of Career Education Benchmarks for secondary schools and for tertiary education organisations.Item Towards a learning identity: early school leavers becoming learners(Lincoln University. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, 2012-09-30) Higgins, Jane F.This report presents findings from research with fifty-one Christchurch young people who left school with low or no qualifications. Most of these young people experienced a period when they were not in education, employment or training (known as NEET) but at the time of this research they were all in a learning environment of some kind. The report explores the ways in which many of these young people rejected their former NEET identities and were building learning identities for themselves. It examines what facilitates this process and the processes by which these young people make education employment linkages. The report concludes that some current policy directions risk excluding members of this group from assistance.Item Learning to fly: Career management competencies in the school subject classroom(Lincoln University. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, 2012-07-01) Vaughan, K; Spiller, LThis report is concerned with the key transition support system of school-based career education. We argue that long-standing deficiencies in career education require a new framework to address young people’s needs. We discuss exploratory research with two schools on how career management competencies can be put into practice to provide this new framework. We suggest that career management competencies have the potential to be a transformative “core service” in career education. They can re-invigorate the direction of schools and sharpen the focus for the New Zealand Curriculum principles and vision of young people becoming confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners.Item ‘It is all about feeling the aroha’: successful Māori and Pasifika providers(Lincoln University. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, 2010-07-01) Phillips, Hazel; Mitchell, Moana E.It‟s all about feeling the aroha”: Successful Māori and Pasifika providers reports on 15 key informant interviews with Māori and Pacific post school training providers. These key informant interviews were designed to provide insight as to why the current education employment system is operating as it is in Māori and Pasifika communities. Positioned as a kaupapa Māori research project the focus was on highlighting successful education and training initiatives arising out of Māori and Pasifika communities. Historical and contemporary cultural, social and policy contexts impact on these organisations ability to fulfil the aspirations and visions they have for their young people and their whānau, and the communities within which they operate. The PTEs embedded cultural knowledge, values and practices in to their programmes and services to provide holistic support to fulfil the learning, training and cultural needs of their young people. The organisations that participated in this research spent considerable time talking about the increasing challenges they faced in delivering their services and consequently their ability to make sustainable changes to the lived realities of their young people. Despite the moving ground of the policy environment, diminishing funding opportunities and rising social alienation of young people and their communities, the organisations continue to deliver creative and innovative community programmes so that their young people can flourish. In doing so they talk back to government agencies and the standard story of Māori underachievement and talk forward to reflect and uphold the visions of their young people and communities.Item Career education networks and communities of practice: a report from the school–communities strand of the education employment linkages project(Lincoln University. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, 2010-07-01) Vaughan, Karen; O'Neil, PaulSchool-based careers advisors have been given a key role in assisting young people in transition from school to work and further education. Their role is especially significant in light of the strategic importance attached to career development for workforce preparation and development policies. However major changes in the nature of work and in contemporary transitions from school, as well as shifts in career education theory and delivery, mean that careers advisors are often left playing continual ―catch up‖ challenge in terms of knowledge and expertise. Meeting the needs of young people today now involves establishing a far wider range of working relationships inside and outside of the school and managing far larger volumes of constantly changing information than ever before. Some careers advisors have addressed these challenges by working closely with the School Support Services pathways advisors to form dynamic, cross-linking, networks alongside and outside of existing organisational structures. These decentralised networks include careers practitioner associations and policy developers and crucially also include a range of people formerly considered peripheral to career education - industry consultants, school support staff, and community coordinators. Far from being a simple personal engagement, the activity of networking on an informal face-to-face and virtual basis is a source of shared learning, knowledge production, and knowledge management. It allows a community of practice to be built across schools, education sectors, and community organisations (including employers and industry) on a regional and national basis. This inclusion of new community membership helps shape the ongoing development of career education. However it also signals a thorny issue around the role of nonteaching support staff in career education models that are moving towards curriculum-based, teacher-qualified activity and delivery. We suggest that the selection and training of careers staff needs to take account of new network and community membership and to enhance individuals‘ capacity to engage in networking. We also suggest that networks and networking be recognised and valued as a professional activity. Networks can be further developed as communities of practice, perhaps with the assistance of a "professional spine" to give cohesion to what is a diffuse set of ideas, activities, and actors in a very dynamic environment.