The technical baccalaureate: providing excellence in vocational education?

Proposals for a technical baccalaureate have received cross-party support in England. The technical baccalaureate is intended to deliver the necessary training to enable young people to fill the UK's skills gap in intermediate-level occupations in STEM and other sectors. This paper explores how...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAssessment in education : principles, policy & practice Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 96 - 117
Main Authors Acquah, Daniel K., Malpass, Debra
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Academic Education
assessment
Bachelors Degrees
College Curriculum
Criteria
Curricula
curriculum
Curriculum Design
Curriculum Implementation
Educational Assessment
Employers
Excellence
Foreign Countries
Labor Force Development
Occupations
Qualifications
Skills
Strikes
Students
technical baccalaureate
Training
Undergraduate Study
Vocational Education
vocational education and training
Young Adults
United Kingdom (England)
United Kingdom > UK
England
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Proposals for a technical baccalaureate have received cross-party support in England. The technical baccalaureate is intended to deliver the necessary training to enable young people to fill the UK's skills gap in intermediate-level occupations in STEM and other sectors. This paper explores how to design and implement a high-quality technical baccalaureate and identifies some of the challenges that are likely to be encountered. We argue that the curriculum of the technical baccalaureate should aim to strike a balance between providing young people with skills needed to enter specific sectors whilst also providing a component of general academic education to help keep options open. We argue that the assessment needs to be both reliable and valid. We also suggest that hurdles - additional criteria that students must meet (e.g. must pass a maths exam) - to gain the Tech Bacc should be avoided, as should aggregating qualifications together to grade the technical baccalaureate. We conclude by discussing the challenges of implementing the technical baccalaureate, including obtaining the necessary employer engagement and provision of information advice and guidance.
ISSN:0969-594X
1465-329X
DOI:10.1080/0969594X.2015.1112253