Search results

BTEC courses have not always been accorded the status for which the Business and Technician Education Council would have hoped. Aspects of the climate into which the precursor BEC courses were introduced are outlined before a presentation of a selection of views on BTEC recently expressed by employers – the “central engine room” which BEC′s First Policy Statement identified as the target for its courses. The relationship between BTEC National and A levels is highlighted as a critical comparison. Some traditionalist employers are not impressed by the educationally “progressive” aspects of BTEC, but many have now gained a considerable respect for the courses.

Vocational courses in England support the progression to higher education (HE) of large numbers of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, yet there is little research exploring the college experiences of these young people prior to entering university. The purpose of this paper is to consider the experiences of young people on Level 3 Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) vocational courses in their progression to HE from differently positioned post-16 colleges in England.

A qualitative study was undertaken into the experiences of students on BTEC courses in four subject clusters (science, technology, engineering and maths, arts and humanities, social sciences and health) at both a Further Education College and a Sixth Form College in an area of multiple deprivation and low HE participation. Young people’s experiences of BTEC courses and the support and guidance they receive are explored through the conceptual lens of “possible selves” and using Bourdieu’s ideas of capital, habitus and field.

Pedagogies and practices on BTEC courses are found to support the development of relevant social and cultural capital and help young people formulate well-articulated “possible selves” as university students, even amongst students who previously had not considered university as an option. The findings illustrate how differently positioned colleges support students’ progression and identify challenges presented by an increasingly stratified and marketised system.

The study highlights the transformative potential of BTEC courses and their role in supporting progression to HE amongst young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The current emphasis on standardisation and rigour as mechanisms to better equip students for HE neglects the unique contribution BTEC pedagogies and practices make to encouraging HE participation. A Bourdieusian and “possible selves” theoretical framework has provided new insights into these valuable learning processes.

BTEC courses have not always been accorded the status for which the Business and Technician Education Council would have hoped. Aspects of the climate into which the precursor BEC courses were introduced are outlined before a presentation of a selection of views on BTEC recently expressed by employers ‐ the “central engine room” which BEC’s First Policy Statement identified as the target for its courses. The relationship between BTEC National and A‐levels is highlighted as a critical comparison. Some traditionalist employers are not impressed by the educationally “progressive” aspects of BTEC, but many have now gained a considerable respect for the courses.

Until recently, BTEC courses have been seen as part of further and higher education. Schools could not teach BTEC First and many of them laboured under the illusion that they could not independently offer National courses. The experiences of one school, which recently successfully underwent the process of becoming a BTEC centre for the National Diploma in Business and Finance, are outlined. Reasons for success are discussed with a view to providing a guideline enabling more schools to set up similar centres in the near future.

Prior learning and prior knowledge are among the most dependable and consistent factors in predicting students’ success (Richardson et al., 2012). Although for UK Higher Education, the traditional A-level (advanced level qualification) remains the principal qualification students use to gain entry to University, there has been a small but significant rise in alternative qualifications, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and vocational qualifications such as that from the Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC). The multidisciplinary nature of Psychology means students enter the degree program with a range of qualifications in differing topic areas. The current case study aimed to assess if science qualifications aided student success in the University of Liverpool’s Psychology course. Ordinal regression and correlations were used to examine the impact of prior qualifications on three first-year cohort module scores (Psychobiology, Social psychology, and Research Methods) and the overall degree mark across three cohorts of Psychology students (n = 1,072). University entry grades showed a significant overall and subject specific effect of scientific prior knowledge. However, the effects of previous qualifications were not cumulative and did not persist beyond the first year of study. These findings were strongest for Chemistry in the Psychobiology module suggesting that scientific literacy – the understanding of scientific concepts, phenomena, and processes, as well as an individual’s ability to apply such knowledge to new or non-scientific situations (Schleicher, 2019) – rather than domain-specific knowledge is driving such increase in grades. A negative relationship was seen for those holding BTEC qualifications, suggesting that vocational qualifications, specifically for this Psychology program, were of less use than academic ones, even if topic areas were similar – a finding which may also apply to other academic based courses, and warrants further study. Although the advantage of prior qualifications diminishes across the course of study, this small but distinct advantage suggests that making a science qualification a requirement for a place on a Psychology degree course would be a beneficial step for admissions tutors to consider.