Whilst working in youth projects over the past decade or so, I have often noticed the predominance of highly gendered career guidance for young people. Too often, when discussing what career options girls were considering, the ‘holy trinity’ of beauty, hair and child care cropped up repeatedly in young women’s visions for their future and their Year 10 work placements. Such options were further cemented in areas such as ‘alternative’ education provision, or vocationally orientated training aimed at ‘NEETS’ (Not in Education, Employment and Training), that seemed to guide working class, young women into courses and apprenticeships in beauty or child care, and their brothers into motor mechanics and bricklaying. Continue reading “Hair, Beauty and Child Care: Gender and Careers Education for Girls”
Review of Vocational Education: The Wolf Report for the Department of Education
The Second Gender and Education Association Policy Report (March 2011)
Alison Wolf’s report on education for 14-19 year olds, commissioned by the English Government in Autumn 2010, has received rapturous acclaim in the media, policy and government circles. For example, the Guardian’s editorial on March 4th 2011 was entitled FE colleges. Who’s Afraid of Alison Wolf? It argued that Wolf ‘has blown a gale through the cosy consensus. She understands that overly involved employers will grab subsidies for specific training that they would anyway have had to provide.’ And her recommendations are commended for their ‘acuity’. Continue reading “Review of Vocational Education: The Wolf Report for the Department of Education”