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The new widening participation in HE: involving ordinary people Alison Fuller

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION. Policy backgroundCharacteristics of new WP target group

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The new widening participation in HE: involving ordinary people Alison Fuller

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    1. The ‘new’ widening participation in HE: involving ‘ordinary people’? Alison Fuller UALL Annual Conference, York 17-18 March 2008

    3. WP POLICY BACKGROUND From 50% of 18-30s (Tony Blair 2000) To 40%+ of workforce (Leitch/gov 2006/7) “widening the drive to improve UK’s high skills to encompass the whole working age population…” (Leitch p.14) Bringing together of employer engagement, LLL and WP ‘agendas’ Demographic changes: 70%+ of 2020 population already 16+

    4. TARGET FOR THE NEW WP Those with L3 as highest qualification are a key group for ‘new WP’ Level 3 (in the LFS) – what’s included? Distribution of highest qualification attainments (LFS 05-06): approx 30% L4+, 20% L3, 50% L2 and below Characteristics of the ‘potentially recruitable’ pool in the LFS

    5. L3 (IN LFS) 2+ A levels, 4+ AS levels or equivalent 3 or more SCE higher, Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate International Baccalaureate GNVQ Advanced NVQ level 3 RSA advanced diploma OND, ONC, BTEC City and Guilds advanced craft Access to HE qualification Trade apprenticeship

    6. CHARACTERISTICS OF L3 (LFS) Older males (30+) more likely to have L3 as highest than females Unemployment rate among those (men+women) with L3 below overall unemployment rate L3s slightly more likely to be in full-time employment than overall figure 22% males and 29% females with L3 are studying for additional qualifications

    7. LIMITATIONS OF EVIDENCE-BASE LFS data confirms there is a sizeable group of adults ‘potentially recruitable’ to HE Limited knowledge about this group The problem of participant proxies Studies of “existing participants in education … [are] difficult to generalise from, and tell us nothing about non-participants” (Gorard et al. 2006: 115)

    8. CURRENT RESEARCH ‘Non-participation in HE: decision making as an embedded social practice’. The project aims to: To examine the extent to which HE is conceived as within the bounds of the possible for 'potentially recruitable' but 'non-participating' adults To explore how attitudes to HE and decisions about participation are distributed across, embedded and negotiated within inter-generational 'networks of intimacy

    9. PROJECT METHODOLOGY Stage one: desk research (lit reviews), analysis of large scale data sets, key informant interviews Stage two: sixteen case study 'networks of intimacy‘: 16 ‘entry point’ interviews plus approx 5 additional interviews per network, followed by second entry point interviews

    10. OUR NETWORK SAMPLE 16 entry points and their inter-generational + friend networks – approx 100 interviewees in total Sample aged 13 to 96, most 21-60 yrs old 60% female Nearly half have dependent children 40 have L3 as highest qualification; 32 have L4

    11. L3 SAMPLE Type of L3 qualifications: 90% voc quals including NVQ3 (5 out of 40) About 60% (25) achieved L3 by age 21; 5 at 40+, but most (85%) left full-time ed before 18 29 (72%) in NS-SEC classes 3 and below, most of these in class 3 – skilled/supervisory level work

    12. NETWORK PERCEPTIONS Mostly living comfortable stable lives – not in deficit! Mostly negative or neutral experiences of compulsory education Mostly positive experiences of & attitudes to post-compulsory education, training and LLL Mostly very positive experiences of & attitudes to informal learning

    13. POST-COMPULSORY & LLL Vignette: Sharpe Network

    15. MUTUAL SUPPORT “I have supported him loads and loads and loads, and Joanna has brilliantly supporting [sic] Peter for four years …Everything is about a team effort you know, if you think you can just do everything in your life without accepting any help from anyone else, then you are a fool… my friendship with Joanna has been her supporting me in times of need, and me supporting her in times of need.” (Susan)

    16. POTENTIALLY RECRUITABLE? Influence of gendered standpoints “she could do more with education but now she’s focused on the children…[she could do more qualifications] …in time, yes.” (Peter, husband)

    17. CONCLUSIONS Relevance of HE/L4 qualifications to those seen as ‘potentially recruitable’? Making the case to L3s that higher level participation beneficial and that they ARE qualified to enter HE The ‘new widening participation’: are ‘ordinary people’ really invited to the HE party?

    18. FURTHER DETAILS Visit: www.education.soton.ac.uk/nphe For further information about the research project: ‘Non-participation in HE: decision making as an embedded social practice’ and to download working papers End of award conference: 22 May 2008, University of Southampton Email: a.fuller@soton.ac.uk

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