University Technical Colleges show mixed outcomes for students, research from LSE shows
Schools that were set up a decade ago to offer a combination of vocational with academic education, focussed on STEM subjects, have been found to have a mixed impact on learners, according to research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The success of the University Technical Colleges, whose aim was to ‘integrate technical, practical and academic learning and create an environment where students can thrive and develop the abilities that industry needs’, tells a different story depending on the entry points of students.
Young people can move to a UTC at 14, described in the report as an “uncommon transition time during secondary school” and at the age of 16, following the traditional end of compulsory education in England. There are currently 48 UTCs, educating some 16,000 students.
The study, Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England, published today by the LSE’s Centre for Vocational Education Research (CVER), found striking differences in UTC performance at these two stages. For young people who entered at 14, UTCs “have a detrimental effect on the probability of reaching an acceptable level of English and maths in GCSE exams”.
“These results are of great concern because performance at GCSE is crucial not only to continue academic studies, but also for progression within technical education and for the youth labour market,” the report said. UTCs were also found to deliver better performance outcomes for relatively higher achieving students.
The report suggests that a potential explanation of why lower-achieving students struggle in a UTC is that combining the standard academic curriculum (GCSEs) with additional vocational subjects may be too ambitious.
Dr Camille Terrier, research associate, said: “Switching school between Year 9 and Year 10 may disrupt students’ preparation for GCSEs, given a growing number of schools are starting GCSE preparations in Year 9. Newly opened institutions might also not be the best place to help struggling students when staff have little knowledge of the pupils’ background.”
However, among students who enter at the more conventional transition age of 16 years, the impact is more positive. Although UTCs do not improve enrolment or achievement in academic outcomes, such as A-Levels, they are good at getting students to enrol and achieve well in higher technical programmes and in STEM subjects.
In particular, the research found, UTCs are good at placing students on to apprenticeships, “an outcome that is beneficial for students as high-level technical education and apprenticeships both have high payoffs in the labour market for young people”.
UTCs also reduce the probability of being ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET) at age 18, and strongly increase the probability of enrolling in a university degree in a STEM subject, — an outcome which has been associated both with higher earnings and with improved productivity and economic growth.
Researchers said their report showed that the overall performance of UTCs was improving over time, despite early criticism of their effectiveness.
Professor Sandra McNally, director of the CVER, said: “Amid fervent discussions on the under-performance of these schools, we provide the first causal evidence on UTC effectiveness,” the report said. “Consistent with the negative selection of students into UTCs, and whilst there are concerns, we show an overall picture that is somewhat less negative than the one that has been depicted so far.
“By identifying several sources of (under-) performance, our analysis also shows in which directions these institutions could improve. It is still early days in the lifetime of University Technical Colleges, but the model has already evolved in directions that are supported by our results.”
Researchers said that with more UTCs moving to recruit at 11, which was a more natural transition point, this “might improve their performance to the extent that they become better able to attract a higher attaining group of applicants”.
They also held up the UTCs as a possible model for other countries seeking to set up hybrid institutions that combine the vocational and academic. “Pinning down the sources of performance and failures of the UTC model is therefore of first-order importance for the development of successful vocational and technical education in other countries in the coming years,” the report said.
