Solubilidad de gases en soluciones acuosas de BTBA

4.2.2(i) Education and learning

This theme focused on ‘how well young people felt that education helps to prepare them for adult life’. Many young people acknowledged the value of education, particularly as a means to gain qualifications, and recognised that not having qualifications limited the job options available:

Interviewer: Erm, how is this you know this time at [training provider], how does it fit with what you hope to do with your life later on?

C: “Because I need to get the grades.” Interviewer: OK.

C: “To do what I need to do.” Interviewer: OK.

C: “Like to do what I want to do. Because If I have no grades then I’m not gonna get anywhere.”

Many of the young people were critical of the preparation for adulthood they had received at school, although they had often found individual staff to be

supportive. They commented that schools only focused on grades; that able students were pushed towards the sixth form and university; that schools didn’t cater for the needs of students who wanted jobs or apprenticeships; and that in general there was insufficient advice and guidance in school to help students to make choices, to know where to look for further guidance and to understand the

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need to take responsibility for their life paths. G described the assumption at her school that students would stay on at sixth form and apply to university:

Interviewer: ...do you think, advice could have been a bit better at school or…?

G: “Erm, I suppose it could of yeah I think, I think they thought that the majority was gonna go to the sixth form anyway I think so they didn’t really think about what other people might wanna do or what other colleges are out there to offer or jobs or apprenticeships or anything, I don’t think they really thought about the other people like. Not everyone wanted to go to sixth form.”

Interviewer: No, no.

G: “Not everyone wanted to go to college like some people might of just wanted a job straight off or something like that.”

There was little mention of receiving specific careers advice, though H told me that she had been helped with writing a curriculum vitae. H had found it helpful to be taken to an apprenticeship fair in the sixth form, having complained to her mentor about the emphasis on applying for university.

Some respondents described the kinds of preparation for adult life which they thought that schools should offer:

E: “…I think they need to kind of help more with the guidance and just getting people to understand that once they leave school or leave education like, their life’s like down to them then. Like they’ve gotta choose where they’re going.”

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H: “Well all the talks and stuff that, and trips that they do for uni they should do for other places.”

Interviewer: Right.

H: “And talk more about jobs and stuff ‘cause…” Interviewer: Yeah, yeah.

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Turning to educational opportunities after leaving school, the routes taken by young people have become increasingly complicated since the raising of the participation age and the wider range of providers. The literature review highlighted that the distinctions between ‘education’, ‘training’ and ‘work’ are becoming increasingly blurred. Deciding how to categorise young people’s experiences is therefore somewhat arbitrary, but I have included sixth form and college experiences under ‘education and learning’, while ‘on the job’ learning has been included under ‘training and work’.

The post-school experience of these young people included a period of NEET, interspersed in some cases with periods of trying different educational settings or jobs. Some had moved onto their sixth forms in Years 12 and 13. Sixth form provision has been categorised along with FE colleges, training providers, and employers as ‘post-school’, partly because sixth form seemed to be regarded by the young people as a different environment from school (even though their expectations of it were sometimes disappointed), and also because there was no automatic entitlement to a place there, even if the young person had

attended the school.

Those in a post-sixteen educational setting not attached to a school, generally spoke very positively about the environment and teaching input compared with their experience at school. They perceived staff to be more approachable and the environment to be more relaxed. C, who had experienced poor relationships with teachers at school, felt very positive about the staff at the training provider:

122 Interviewer: ...what do you feel is, is positive about being at [training provider] especially?

C: “You get your grades and they help you a lot. Just everything here, here like they just help you with everything.”

D described how the staff motivated her and made her feel comfortable to ask for help in a way that she hadn’t been able to at school:

D: “Dead brilliant. They’re really motivating. I mean I think if you don’t, if you’re not comfortable in doing a course or you’re not made to feel in your comfort zone, if it’s something, ‘cause I’m not very good at maths I really struggle with it but they’ve all made me, I wouldn’t say enjoy it because I don’t particularly like it, but I enjoy learning ‘cause I’ll go away and I know that I’ve learnt something new and I’ll think, actually if I didn’t have the motivation and the help off them, I’d just sit there and be like, not understand. But I’m not scared to ask for help now whereas that was my main problem in school I would not ask for help. But they make you feel comfortable where you can say, actually I need help with this.”

Some interviewees acknowledged that their attitude to education had changed since they had left school:

D: “My attitude to education then is completely different to my attitude to education now if that makes sense?”

Interviewer: Yeah it does. What was your attitude to education then? D: “I was just really half soaked. I just thought well I can do it another time. And then I didn’t realise what was gonna happen from when I dropped out until when I come back into education.”

4.2.2(ii) Training and work

This theme was defined as ‘how well young people felt that training and work helps to prepare them for adult life’.

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The young people’s motivation to work came through strongly in all nine interviews and they all expressed aspirations to get a good or a better job through obtaining qualifications and skills. The benefits of work were described in terms of earning money, doing something worthwhile and developing social relationships with colleagues. Earning money was the most frequently

mentioned theme, and seemed to be important not only for enabling young people to support themselves but also for their sense of security and sense of self-worth. For interviewee I, not being paid at her previous placement while working for her Level 1 NVQ had been a factor in causing her to lose the motivation to continue there:

I: “And then with my Costa I enjoyed it but I did it for three months and