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Count Us In: We're still here: Successful Transitions from Secondary School

Partnerships

Dimension 5: Works in partnerships with other agencies and its community
Dimension 6: Works together with parents to improve learning

The agenda for schools in accepting significant responsibility for the progress and destinations of young people after they leave school, is huge. They cannot do this alone. Schools that have gone some way to achieving successful learning for all have often taken a proactive approach to developing partnership working with other agencies to help reduce barriers that are experienced by individual learners. A key area for transforming practice is in ensuring smooth transitions for young people to sustained positive destinations and progression in learning. Some local partnerships have successfully brought services together in a coherent way to support young people at the transition stage from secondary to post school and have made such support sustainable. Schools need to be aware of the range of services that can be brought to bear and which need to be coordinated, again in a proactive way. As well as taking preventative action by ensuring success for all, including the use of coordinated support plans, individualised educational programmes and close tracking of the progress of all pupils, secondary schools can help ensure that young people have access to services in relation to careers advice and guidance, post-school psychological support and college provision. The recognition of emerging adulthood and fostering of mutual respect between school staff and young people at the time of transition is vital.

Careers Scotland offers targeted and tailored services for those who need most support to enable them to make effective post-school transitions, including a follow-up service beyond school. All secondary and special schools in Scotland are expected to have effective, meaningful and appropriate partnership with at least one college in delivering the curriculum for S3 pupils and above³.

Much of the support to young people at risk of missing out on post-school opportunities is provided by agencies and voluntary organisations working in partnership with the school. Specific programmes such as Get Ready for Work, Activate and Breakthrough provide enhanced support beyond standard careers provision. Careers Scotland runs the Activate programme in about 120 schools. It is designed to provide extra support to young people in S4/S5 who are likely to have difficulty in moving into a job, college or training place. Delivered in the school by a Careers Scotland adviser Activate focuses on employability skills and enterprise activities, and aims to improve self-esteem, confidence and communication skills. The programme includes ongoing mentoring and post-school follow-up. Activate achieved an overall positive destination rate of 89% for 1,818 project participants in 2006-2007.

Voluntary organisations run programmes which can play a key role in providing supported transitions for young people. They may have as much effect on changing young people’s attitudes to school attendance and learning, and on their aspirations and confidence as on easing them into immediate employment. They appear to be particularly effective with those who are at risk of becoming disengaged from the education system, before they have already become so, another argument for early intervention. The timing of these interventions and of the liaison between partners necessary to ensure appropriate support is available at the right time for young people at the point of transition is crucial. A mismatch can mean vulnerable young people ‘slipping through the net’.

Supporting transitions through partnerships

In the Borders School Plus project, a strong education authority, college strategic partnership linked all schools to the college through a common authority protocol. A clear statement of values was shared within a schools-college partnership agreement. An Education for Work Development Officer provided an effective conduit for education authority, school, college partnership working. The School Plus project operated in local communities from bases throughout the authority. Pupils came to the college campuses for their vocational classes but lecturers also taught some of the courses through outreach at Peebles and Hawick High Schools. Lecturers attended school parents’ evenings to report on pupils’ progress, and college and school reports were issued together. Classroom assistants played a key role in the School Plus classes. Their views were taken during evaluation exercises and they attended staff development sessions with lecturers.

Glasgow’s Enhanced Vocational and Inclusion programme (EVIP) offered full-time places to young people who are looked after or who have social, emotional and behavioural needs. EVIP provided access to a range of vocational options as well as access to core and life skills and literacy and numeracy support. EVIP was developed in partnership with Social Work, Education and Building Services and several Glasgow colleges to enable young people to gain the skills to access jobs. A dedicated vocational coach supported a specific group of young people, working in partnership with college lecturers and providing feedback to schools, parents, carers and referrers.

Auchinleck Academy, East Ayrshire, had a range of partnerships to support young people at risk of not making successful transitions to employment, training or further education. The main focus was on employability, setting goals and the development of skills for work. The school worked in partnership with the East Ayrshire Strategy for Youth project, Careers Scotland and Ayr and Kilmarnock Colleges to help equip young people with life skills and possible future pathways into employment. Together they delivered a range of activities and interventions through, for example, the Prince’s Trust XL group where school staff and community link workers helped young people to build self confidence and teamwork skills. Multi-agency assessment teams met regularly to plan and review pupils’ progress. School staff also met regularly with their partner colleges to negotiate appropriate courses and inserts that would meet the needs of their current pupil groups. Young people could access Skills for Work courses in a wide range of disciplines, including hospitality, health and social care and construction crafts. Places were offered to pupils following individual interview by college staff. Formal review meetings ensured that placements continued to meet learners’ needs. A specialist careers adviser supported young people to ensure that they benefited from the college experience. All subject departments delivered enterprise education in its broadest form and ensured that all pupils could clearly see the links between the subject they are studying and possible vocational outcomes.

In Glasgow’s Bridges to Work project, a dedicated careers adviser, funded by the City Council, worked with 24 targeted pupils each year, four from each of six schools for pupils with moderate learning difficulties in Glasgow. The project was for young people in their final year and gave support in entering the job market. They were prepared through:

• phone calls or visits to employers which involved finding out about jobs, writing reports and presenting them to classmates, resulting in a certificate;
• individual interviews with employers followed by matched work experience placements, with the careers adviser keeping in regular contact with young people and employers, such experience often leading to a job offer;
• contact and support maintained for up to a year after leaving school; and
• short further education courses negotiated to improve preparedness, for example, car valeting.

Occupational destinations of these young people included jobs in supermarkets, gardening, offices, catering, department stores, sport and leisure.

The Tullochan Trust, based in West Dunbartonshire, worked in partnership with all the secondary schools in West Dunbartonshire, Clydebank College, social work services, the police, and community groups. Staff supported eight major projects which were designed to tackle personal development, healthy living and employability, through early intervention. The projects included sport, arts and craft, music and drama, outdoor education, IT and literacy. The first project Hop, Skip and Jump was aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and the support continued with different projects until participants left school, or were in further education, employment or training. The Trust was very successful in supporting young people to first decide on personal goals and then to meet them. The key factors were the long-term support offered to young people, the very strong partnership working with schools and the other key partners, and the early intervention approach. This had resulted in the many pupils involved in the Trust demonstrating successful outcomes in relation to the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.

Signposts to excellence

• School staff identify aspects of their work with young people which would benefit from joint working with other agencies. They are proactive in developing and sustaining these partnerships.
• School staff engage effectively with staff in other organisations to identify approaches which enhance young people’s learning experiences and increase their awareness of opportunities for progression to work or further learning.
• All staff involved in delivering pre-vocational programmes – school staff and staff from partner organisations – are involved in planning, reviewing and improving these programmes. Parents and young people are consulted and their views taken into account.
• School staff and their external partners are aware of the aims of programmes, what success looks like, and the processes and indicators used to evaluate successful delivery and share this with parents and young people
• School staff work closely with staff in other agencies including Careers Scotland, Scotland’s colleges, post-school psychological services, employers, local enterprise companies, community learning and development services and voluntary sector organisations to plan how the identified needs of young people would be best met. They promote and ease access to further learning and work opportunities, taking appropriate account of the Additional Support for Learning Act.
• Schools incorporate into their programmes work-based and community-based activities which promote young people’s involvement in the community and develop their sense of social responsibility and their social skills.
• All staff involved in multi-agency approaches are clear about where overall responsibility and accountability lies. Young people and their parents know whom they can approach for support and guidance.

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