Brenda Gourley: Getting a head start on further education
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Your support makes all the difference.Giving gifted secondary school students an early experience of university study is part of the Government's 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper released last week. This is an area where The Open University has already taken a leading role.
Giving gifted secondary school students an early experience of university study is part of the Government's 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper released last week. This is an area where The Open University has already taken a leading role.
The Open University is currently providing higher education programmes to more than 1,000 of these clever students in some 80 schools across England, Wales and Northern Ireland through the Young Applicants in Schools Scheme (YASS). Indeed, one scheme in Cumbria where sixth-formers were offered short courses including astronomy, life in the oceans and robotics was featured as a case study in the White Paper. The Government's intention, outlined in the White Paper, is to enable young learners to stretch themselves and broaden their academic experiences before they leave secondary school and provide increased incentives for schools and universities to look more flexibly at progression. Many young people will benefit from the knowledge and confidence that comes from pursuing higher education while still at school.
Successful YASS students need to be able, motivated and committed. Gaining HE credits via OU study can differentiate them and demonstrate they can succeed at university level study. The YASS scheme is in an ideal position to expand in line with Government objectives. The OU's national reach, flexibility and expertise in distance learning, together with a commitment to make higher education available to all, ensures the capability and vision to deliver HE programmes to many school students utilising economies of scale.
YASS was piloted in 1996 with Monkseaton Language College in North Tyneside, enabling final-year students to pursue the Open Mathematics course. Hundreds of school students across the country, in partnership with the Specialist Schools Trust, are now taking courses offered by the OU including science, mathematics, computing, technology, humanities, social sciences and languages. Through YASS the OU showed it has the quality programmes, student support processes, infrastructure, school network and technological capability to deliver higher education to gifted school students across the country. In the same week as the Education and Skills White Paper was published, the OU gave evidence to a House of Commons Committee looking at HE funding and part-time learners, a major issue for Government. The model of an education for life delivered in one burst from 5-21 is being challenged. If we can get the funding and the models right, this straitjacket constraining bright young people could be removed.
Brenda Gourley is Vice-Chancellor, The Open University
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