Page 55 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

For example, in Finland the 10th grade is aimed at young people who are not
ready at the end of the ninth grade to progress to post-compulsory education.
The course can also ‘catch’ students who start upper secondary courses but then
drop out. The 10th grade curriculum is being further developed so that it can be
organised in conjunction with vocational training institutions as a way of
orientating young people to IVET and preventing drop-out. These courses are
normally accompanied by career guidance support and tutorials.
In Ireland, the Transition year programme is intended to be a broad
educational experience which encourages creativity and responsibility for
oneself. As illustrated by the example, the main aim of the programme is to
promote maturity, assist each individual to develop as a person and an
independent learner, and to help young people to prepare for adult life, especially
through contact with workplaces.
Studies on career guidance have found a frequent assumption that upper
secondary students do not need further transition support (or as much as lower
secondary level students do) as they have made specific educational and career
choices already (OECD, 2004b). This assumption is especially made for students
in vocational education pathways who receive less career assistance than
students in general pathways. However, it does not take into consideration the
increasing flexibility of IVET programmes, for example, in terms of improved
access to higher education studies, or the wide range of career options and jobs
that can flow from broadly designed vocational education and training (ibid).
Further, as the focus of career services at this level tends to be on preparing
young people for higher education studies, mainstream guidance services do not
necessarily pay sufficient attention to the transition support required by
vulnerable groups of young people who are under-represented in higher
education institutes (HEIs).

Transition year programme, Ireland

The subjects studied during the transition year range from essential core subjects, a tasting and
sampling of other subjects, various distinctive courses designed to broaden students’ horizons
and some modules and activities specifically aimed at promoting maturity. The emphasis is on
varied and continuous assessment with students themselves becoming involved in diagnosing
their own learning strengths and weaknesses. Project work, portfolio work, oral examinations,
project displays, personal logs, rating scales and exhibitions of students’ work are encouraged.

Currently over 27 000 young people are following a Transition year programme in approximately
540 Irish schools. This constitutes a third of the age cohort. Students in the programmes have
higher drop-out rates than the other school types, given the nature of their student intake.
However, the Transition year programme has a positive impact on the academic performance of
many students, although this is not the case for students who are not ‘willing’ participants in the
programme (Smyth et al., 2003). Transition year participants are twice as likely to enter higher
education than non-participants (ibid.). This is because many achieve higher grades in their
leaving certificate as a result of taking part in the programme.

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