The United Kingdom’s Coalition government has introduced an education policy that is focused on increasing the opportunities to promote and advance social mobility for all children within state education. Raising young people’s aspirations through school-based initiatives is a prominent theme within recent policy texts, which are focused on improving educational outcomes and thus advancing social mobility. This article draws on qualitative data from paired interviews with 32 students in two academies to first investigate if our participants’ aspirations indicate a desire (...) for intragenerational social mobility and second, to explore our participants’ perceptions of the influences of their family background on their aspirations for the future. Analysis of our data highlights the mismatch between our participants’ aspirations for the future and the government’s constructions of what they should aspire to, as articulated in policy texts. By investigating aspirations, as part of a wider project to understand social mobility qualitatively, our data shows the important role of family in shaping our participants’ varied and diverse aspirations that are frequently at variance with government policy. (shrink)

This article investigates the experience of individual learners who have been allocated learning support in the further education system in England. The particular focus is on interviewees' constructions of their emotional and psychic experiences. Through the adoption of a psycho-social perspective, learners' tendency to 'idealise' their learning support workers is understood as a strategy for coping with the anxiety generated by a range of previous experiences. The implications for policy-makers are discussed.

ABSTRACT: This article investigates the experience of individual learners who have been allocated learning support in the further education system in England. The particular focus is on interviewees’ constructions of their emotional and psychic experiences. Through the adoption of a psycho-social perspective, learners’ tendency to ‘idealise’ their learning support workers is understood as a strategy for coping with the anxiety generated by a range of previous experiences. The implications for policy-makers are discussed.

Summary At a time when Britain's vocational education and training (VET) system and vocational qualifications are undergoing a major review and restructuring in response to critical reports about the model established under the former National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the British Council and associated agencies is currently trying to market National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) overseas. The chief weaknesses and failings of NVQs and the competence?based education and training (CBET) system on which they are based are outlined in terms of assessment (...) anomalies and the needs of firms, trainees and employers. Since these shortcomings are so so serious, it is suggested that??until they have been remedied through the current reforms under the aegis of the new Qualifications and Curriculum Authority??it is ethically unjustifiable to export a failed VET system to countries which may be unaware of the critical research surrounding NVQs and CBET. (shrink)