The Labour Market

1
The Labour Market

• Demography Economic change
• 1950-1960's
• sustained economic development
• boom in employment and living conditions
• rise in birth rate in early 60s until pill in
  1964

2
The Labour Market

• Demography Economic change
• 1970's
• 60s birth rate rise led to 70s rise in school
  leavers
• Economic decline, automation etc unemployment

3
The Labour Market

• Demography Economic change
• 1980's - present
• More staying on at school and college
• More on training schemes etc.
• New areas eg IT needing higher skills
• More vocational education introduced GNVQs,
  NVQs etc

4
The Labour Market

• Government Training Schemes
• Governments since the 1970's have tried a number
  of various schemes aimed at solving unemployment
  - particularly for youths. .
• Many of these schemes have tied state funding in
  with private industry. More recently the focus
  has switched to schools and the types of skills
  being taught for 'our future workforce'

5
The Labour Market

• Structural Changes
• 1. National Curriculum
• for pupils 5-16
• this has changed a number of times since
  introduction
• a key instrument for measuring school performance

6
The Labour Market

• 2. Schools Independence
• schools given more independence from LEA
• - financial and governance

7
The Labour Market

• 3. Grant Maintained Schools
• Independent of LEA
• Ballot of parents
• Funded directly from central govt

8
The Labour Market

• 4. Parental Powers
• Parents right to choose where to send their kids
• Schools to compete for pupils
• funding awarded per head

9
The Labour Market

• 5. NVQ GNVQ
• vocational qualifications
• ie. more relevant to the workplace

10
The Labour Market

• 6. FE HE Colleges
• Became independent
• removed from LEA control
• funded directly by the gov through funding
  councils

11
The Labour Market

• 7. Training Schemes
• Various schemes have been introduced
• Recently named Modern Apprenticeships in an
  attempt to enhance their image

12
The Labour Market

• 8. TECS
• Training and Enterprise Councils
• -to encourage local training for small firms

13
The Labour Market

• Most of these changes took place between 1988-93
  and were carried out by the Conservative
  government. This has been the biggest change in
  the education system since 1944.
• 3 main lines of research have been followed in
  sociology since these changes-
• How young people form a 'vocational identity
• Consequences of these changes
• Grant maintained schools

14
Vocational Identity

• As mentioned before, since Willis' study,
  increasing unemployment and a plethora of
  training schemes have changed the world beyond
  school for young people.

15
Vocational Identity

• Bates 1988/9 - YTS
• She used observation in classroom and interviews
  with YTS students going to Caring profs with
  children
• Students realised that there were very few jobs
  with children and were pushed to the elderly
• Dealing with incontinence, death etc was a severe
  shock to many.
• Many students survived and went in to this line
  of work

16
Vocational Identity

• Bates 1988/9 - YTS
• In a 2nd study of fashion students at a college
• Many wanted the jet set life of designers
• in reality most became machinists,cutters etc
• But saw themselves as working in these positions
  temporarily

17
Vocational Identity

• Evans Heinz
• Studied towns in England Germany, following
  young people through the transition from school
  to work over a period of years..
• Via interviews they found that individuals
  created their own personalities through decisions
  made at the time of transiation. From this they
  put forward 2 models

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Vocational Identity

• 1. Active
• Young people found a career goal early on and
  worked towards it

19
Vocational Identity

• 2. Passive
• Decisions were narrow
• take whats available
• Like the care workers in Bates study

20
Vocational Identity

• Conclusions
• Active model more common in high staus
  occupations Eg doctor
• For most other occupations most students are in
  passive mode
• This gives greater flexibility - students
  transfer between segments of the labour market

21
Policy Studies

• Salter Tapper 1988
• Analysed the New Right influence on educational
  policy and identified 4 main components

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Policy Studies

• 1.
• There is a desired social order of individual or
  local choice

23
Policy Studies

• 2.
• The education and production of individuals to
  support that order
• (typical functionalist views)

24
Policy Studies

• 3.
• Educational institutions to be managed by these
  principles

25
Policy Studies

• 4.
• A clear conception of human nature that limits
  both what is educationally desirable and possible

26
Policy Studies

• Ball 1994
• Follows Bourdieu and Foucault in seeing the
  intertwining of power and knowledge
• Domination comes through possessing the
  knowledge, language and hence cultural power.
• There can be resistance but those with
  knowledge are aware and can deal with it

27
Grant Maintained Schools

• Grant maintained schools have only been around
  for a few years so it is still early days for
  research into them !

28
Grant Maintained Schools

• Halpin et al 1993
• Predictions that once one school in an area
  opted out - others would follow is being borne
  out
• LEAs were unanimously against the policy
• Schools threatened with closure often went GM
• -LEAs then had to close other schools
• GM schools heavily into image

29
Grant Maintained Schools

• Gerwitz et al 1995
• Bourdieus cultural capital is used to explain
  entry to secondary schools
• GM schools aim to attract the best pupils
• Those parents labelled skilled choosers have
  the knowledge to play the system.
• Schools pick and choose parents as well as
  students
• But we all pay for the privileged through the tax
  system