BTECs Soar From Coast to Coast
It's mid-May, and students at Lytham St. Annes Technology and Performing Arts School on England's northwest coast are busily preparing for the term-ending school play - a modern adaptation of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm.
"This pig is not for turning," says one character, a playful reference to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's famous quotation: "The lady's not for turning."
More than 200 miles to the south, in Exeter, trainee aircraft engineers are admiring an emerald-green field that will soon be the site of a new 5,000-square-meter training academy for Flybe Ltd., Europe's largest regional airline, based in Exeter, that flies to 66 destinations in 13 European countries including France, Germany and Spain.
"You'll be able to certify one of these as fit to fly," Simon Witts, Flybe's Director of Safety, Quality and Training, tells the trainees, pointing to a 118-seat Embraer 195 jet landing at the Exeter airport, adjacent to Flybe's headquarters, on a clear but blustery spring day on Britain's southwest coast.
The two educational experiences both reflect the increasing popularity, and utility, of the BTEC qualifications offered by Edexcel, part of Pearson Plc. From schools to colleges, in the U.K. and elsewhere around the world, BTECs are helping to raise performance and enthusiasm for work-related education. They are engaging young people interested in particular careers, including media, engineering and hospitality, and they provide timetable flexibility for students interested in other academic disciplines.
Students in a BTEC performing arts course at Lytham St. Annes perform in a production on cyber bullying
Students taking BTECs are engaged in active learning, in which they learn by doing. Teachers assess BTEC students continually on what they currently can do, rather than testing what they know many months later through an end-of-course exam, and such demonstrated ability is welcomed by employers.
Growing BTEC enrollments
BTEC enrolments have soared from 290,000 in 2004 to 775,000 in 2008, and are expected to top 1 million this year. The fastest growth has been in U.K. schools, where BTECs are now offered in more than 2,500 schools, up from 1,400 in 2005-2006, as alternatives to GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) qualifications. The number of students taking BTEC qualifications rose from 6,000 in 2004 to 66,000 in 2006, 157,000 in 2007 and 246,000 in 2008. GCSE entries totalled 5.67 million in 2008, down from 5.83 million in 2007.
BTECs are also a major part of the curriculum at colleges in Britain, for students age 16 to 19. About 450 U.K. further education colleges now offer BTECs, including Exeter College, which is a partner with Flybe and Edexcel in a four-year programme launched last year to train new aircraft engineers.
BTECs are a proven mechanism for supporting the transition from education to work for young people, which is a subject of great interest to British policymakers. The U.K. government is investing in a new Diploma system for 14-19 year olds that comprises a mix of classwork and hands-on experience.
"BTECs prepare students for the world of work, because their learning through the BTECs complements their academic qualifications," says Jerry Jarvis, managing director of Edexcel. "The more academic students benefit from BTECs because they provide a blend of learning. BTECs teach kids how to be people: they learn about legal issues like employment law, how to undertake skills for their sector of choice and how to deal with statistics. And for the non-academic students, it gives them some space to be successful."
The model developed for BTECs in the U.K. also is proving increasingly popular around the world. BTECs are now offered in dozens of countries including China, India, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Cyprus, sometimes in conjunction with multinational companies for their own training programmes.
As in the U.K., other governments are embracing practical and vocational experience for young people due to concern about so-called NEETS - those who are not in education, employment or training.
In a skills-based era, in which skilled jobs are increasing and non-skilled jobs are declining, the growing popularity of BTECs reflect the fact that employers value BTEC qualifications because they demonstrate that students have the practical and vocational know-how needed for the 21st Century workplace.
"A generation ago, a British prime minister had to worry about the global arms race; today, a British prime minister has to worry about the global skills race," Gordon Brown said last year in launching a new apprenticeship system. The U.K. skills gap is particularly acute in such areas as retail, hospitality and tourism, health and engineering.
Expanding the BTEC Offerings
Under U.K. government guidelines, a BTEC First Diploma is the equivalent of four GCSEs in grades A* to C. BTEC Firsts are offered in fields that include business, construction, public services, horticulture, performing arts and motor vehicle technology.
"We introduced a whole range of BTECs beginning in September 2007, in 10 different subjects," says Cherry Ridgway, deputy headteacher at Lytham St. Annes, which serves nearly 1,800 students ages 11 to 18. "We were looking for a situation where students were more responsible for their own learning."
That's exactly what's happened, and Ms. Ridgway credits the BTEC expansion with raising the percentage of students achieving A* to C success rates in five or more GCSE and equivalent from 59% three years ago to well over 90% this year.
"All my staff are very positive on the BTECs," says Lisa Fitzpatrick, head of the school's information and communications technology (ICT), business and economics faculty. In one ICT course, students were required to create four-page websites, but some were so enthusiastic they built 10-page sites.
"Some of the students' Dreamworks and Fireworks skills are phenomenal," says Ms. Fitzpatrick, referring to two popular web-design tools. "I'm blown away by it. If you saw us now in ICT compared to four years ago, it's a world of difference."
Dramatic License With Animal Farm
The Animal Farm drama is part of a Year 12 (ages 16-17) BTEC performing arts course at Lytham St. Annes, and it also includes dialogue based on President Barack Obama's inaugural address.
"It's been modernized, so it's not so Stalinesque" as Orwell's 1945 original, says Owain Jones, age 17, who plays a silver-tongued character (also a pig) based on Tony Blair, another former British prime minister. "He puts a spin on words," Owain says of his character.
Earlier this year, BTEC drama students in Year 12 presented their own take - with original words and music - on the Pendle Witches, an episode in local history in which 10 men and women were hanged in 1612 for the crime of witchcraft.
A scene from the Lytham St. Annes original drama on the Pendle Witches, a part of local history
Although many of them are aspiring actors, Owain and his classmates are reminded that there are other careers in performing arts besides those on stage.
"It's not just about the acting," is the title of one spring assignment brief for the performing arts BTEC - in which students work as a small theatre company responsible for everything from administration and costume care to publicity and rehearsal planning.
Celebrities who have enrolled in BTEC qualifications include television gardener Charlie Dimmock, star of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Ground Force series, and world-class lightweight boxer Amir Khan.
Besides performing arts, BTEC Firsts now offered by the school include applied science, engineering, ICT, sport and children's care, learning and development.
"I really like the way the BTEC works," says Owain. "Everything you do leads to the next thing. At the start of the BTEC you're given a problem to tackle with other kids," which in his performing arts class included projects on underage drinking and cyber bullying. There was also a field trip to London to see a stage version of On the Waterfront directed by and starring Steven Berkoff, the actor who played the art-dealer bad guy in the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.
BTECs in Inner-City London
The enthusiasm for BTECs at Lytham St. Annes is shared at a very different school, Northumberland Park Community School in London. Whereas the former is located in a quiet and prosperous coastal community, Northumberland Park is based in one of London's poorest districts, just behind the White Hart Lane football stadium, home to the Tottenham Hotspurs team. The 1,000-pupil school hosts students speaking 70 different languages, with about one-third of all students coming from Turkish speaking backgrounds.
"Through BTECs the students can succeed and see real progression," says Diane Liversidge, Northumberland Park's assistant headteacher. "They can keep improving their work and feel a sense of achievement. They feel more encouraged."
BTECs are offered at the school in subject areas including construction, sport, engineering, music, acting, design and science.
"There's been a massive change" since the BTEC acting course was recently introduced, says Sarah Tompkins, head drama teacher at the school, taking a break from a class in the school theatre. "With the BTEC it's very collaborative, there's a sense of what can be achieved."
At a BTEC design course, students have been preparing illustrated posters and books about leading designers and design styles, using their own research and original artwork.
"I like the BTECs because you basically learn the knowledge as you go along," says student Hodan Farah, age 16, whose parents came to Britain from Somalia. "For the designers, instead of a test, you write about them as you learn about them."
Hodan's favourite fashion designer is Vivienne Westwood, because "her designs are a little bit different." In her research project, Hodan wrote that for Ms. Westwood's "Portrait" collection in 1990 she "carefully chose each fabric as a painter would select elements of a dress for a portrait."
Flexibility in Scheduling
BTECs have proved popular both among students who aren't engaged with more exam-based academic study and with students who are already drawn to a given vocational career. In addition, as at Lytham St. Annes, BTECs are popular among students who are pursuing academic studies in particular areas, such as languages, because the BTECs give them more flexibility in arranging their class schedules.
"We may have a talented linguist who will take a science BTEC, instead of a GCSE in science, and that frees them up to take three languages," says Ms. Ridgway. "In a few cases students are taking French, German and Spanish."
Under British school regulations, students take a science course as part of the national curriculum. As a result, some students gifted in drama or languages "spent 20% of their time in GCSE science and hated it, so their attendance was poor," says the deputy head teacher. "But if you can give them three languages, attendance is good, so we've got them back."
Jane Mason, aged 16, says she especially enjoyed a BTEC applied science exercise in which students "had to pretend we were forensic scientists" to solve a mock "Murder at Lytham St. Annes" mystery along lines of the popular CSI television series. A body was found on a school field, and students had to figure out the culprit through fingerprinting, handwriting analysis and examination of fibres. In this fictional scenario, Miss Corry, a science teacher at the school, "did it."
Jane, whose courses include French and German, aims to be a lawyer who practices in France and Britain.
"BTECs reduce the pressure on a child who's already quite academic," says Jane's mother, Helen-Jane Mason, who teaches child care, learning and development at the school. "Jane's not good at exams, so it reduces the amount of stress."
BTECs are also helpful to less academically gifted students at the school, who find the learning-by-doing approach more suitable.
"I was horrible last year at science" on a GCSE course, says Jasmine Connor, age 15, who plans to begin a career as a hairdresser next year. "With the BTEC, we do all our coursework in school, and it's all organized." Ms. Ridgway credits the BTECs with helping Jasmine remain focused, because she's determined to achieve a high distinction this year in BTEC science.
Flying High at Flybe
At colleges in Britain, for students age 16-19, BTECs are often run as part of innovative training programmes developed by employers - and the Flybe programme certainly fits that innovative bill.
Although Flybe has trained its own aircraft engineers for more than 15 years, it was not training in sufficient numbers to meet its growth and applicants for jobs did not have the skills necessary for this demanding role. Also, the skills gained were not qualification-based so they weren't recognisable or fully transferable to other passenger-carrying airlines under European Union rules on engineer certification. So Flybe decided to develop its novel new programme, and that's where the BTECs fit in.
"Edexcel were quite proactive, saying we want to shape BTECs working with Exeter College," says Flybe's Mr. Witts. "We needed a programme that develops not only the practical skills, but also the brainpower to be able to say an aircraft like that (pointing to a twin-engine 195 model jet) is fit to fly. People will come out of this programme with a £31,000-a-year job guaranteed as a licensed aircraft engineer."
"For your second two years, you'll be based there," Mr. Witts, pointing to the site of the new training academy, tells trainees Paul Atterbury, Jo Langdon and Greg Hingston. Work on the new facility is planned to start in summer 2009 and is due to be completed by April 2010.
Flybe's Simon Witts points to artist representations of the airline's new 5,000-square-foot training academy, opening next year as part of a project involving BTEC qualifications
"My dad's an engineer and I've always wanted to do this," says Ms. Langdon, age 16. "I've always been a tomboy. I wanted to get into the Army but I couldn't because of a back problem." rendering
Under the four-year programme, trainees spend their first two years studying BTEC courses at Exeter College, in order to provide the academic background they will need in order to certify planes as airworthy. The second two years will be based at the new academy, working on aircraft that will include Flybe's twin-engine 195 jet aircraft made by Embraer in Brazil and twin-turboprop Dash Q400 aircraft made by Canada's Bombardier. Even in the first two years, trainees gain practical engineering experience, working on engine parts, landing gear and other equipment.
Besides maintaining its own 75-aircraft fleet, which carries more than 7 million passengers a year, Flybe provides maintenance for other airlines including regional carriers that are part of German airline Lufthansa, and it refits planes before they are sold from one airline to another as part of fleet-renewal programmes.
'He's Really Fired Up'
"You read a book and then you see an aircraft part and pick it up - it really helps you understand it," says trainee Mr. Atterbury, age 21, who moved to Exeter from his home in Manchester to attend the programme. He has long been an aviation aficionado: "I live two miles from Manchester Airport, and could hear the planes from my garden."
His father, retired pensions specialist Laurie Atterbury, says the programme suits his son well: "He's much more studious than he ever was before, he's really fired up. The feedback we get from Exeter is that it's all very professional. He's always been mechanically minded so it's very good for him. Paul's really found his feet with the Flybe programme."
Paul Atterbury, Jo Langdon and Greg Hingston, left to right, are part of the first class of Flybe's new training program. They are shown here with an aircraft's nose landing gear
The programme attracted 33 trainees in its first year, beginning in September 2008. Hundreds of enquiries were received for the second year, beginning in September 2009, and nearly 80 applicants were interviewed for 40 places.
"This programme is aimed at people who are really focused on a career," says Simon Friend, head of technology at Exeter College. "It's designed for people who are conscientious, ambitious and really enthusiastic to work for the airline industry."
"In Your Own Words"
Back up north at Lytham St. Annes, the weekend approaches at Annette Ashworth's Year 8 ICT course, as students evaluate websites ranging from Sky Sports to "The Official Website of the British Monarchy" to see if they meet their purposes to inform and engage.
Wrapping up her Friday lesson before the end-of-class bell rings, Ms. Ashworth, head of ICT at the school, says: "I want to keep you busy over the weekend, I'd hate it if you got bored" - so she gives the class a weekend assignment to discuss the U.K.'s Copyright, Design and Patent Act.
"I want it in your own words," she says. "I don't want three pages printed out from Wikipedia."
There are a few groans, as one might expect from 12 or 13-year-old kids for any weekend homework. But only just a few.