Setting them up to fail? Disempowerment and barriers to progression for disaffected 14-16-year-olds.

This paper looks at post-16 progression opportunities for a group of previously disaffected 14–16-year-old students who undertook vocational learning in their final two years at school in the UK. The paper argues that advanced forms of vocational learning at Key Stage 4 are leading to over-skilling and educational limbo for many young people. Students are identified as disaffected by their school and are then allocated to a vocational learning provider, as part of a local initiative designed to re-engage young people in learning. Questionnaire data was obtained from 109 participants in total. These included 16-17-year-olds looking to enter further education or employment with training (n=84), 14 vocational learning tutors, and 11 further education teachers. While the vocational training leads to a nationally recognised qualification in a particular vocational area, and the students are seen to excel in their chosen trade, their literacy and numeracy levels are often below the standard of their practical ability. Thus, the students become vocationally over-skilled and their vocational learning pathway is put on hold until their academic achievements are brought into line.