Shifting foundations: the impact of NVQs on youth training for the building trades.

Steedman, Hilary ; Hawkins, Julia

Introduction

Following the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in Yout Training (YT) in 1990, this article reports the consequences of this change for the scope and standards of general education in British courses of initial training for the building trades. Evaluation of these changes is situated withi the wider context of recent (1990) government reform of the financing and statutory basis of youth training programmes in Britain. This article is arranged as follows. Section 1 describes the methodology used in this study and assesses changes in skill requirements in the building industry. Section 2 traces recent developments in government policy for youth training in Britain and examines the origins and implementation of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Section 3 compares the mathematics requirements of City and Guilds and NVQ building qualifications while Section 4 examines problems arising from new modes of assessment and the introduction of output-related funding into Youth Training (YT). Section 5 provides conclusions and policy recommendations.

1. Methodology

For the study of standards and scope of general training for the building trade in Britain it was decided to concentrate on one occupation, bricklaying. This article further concentrates on examining mathematics courses in training for bricklaying. The mathematical syllabuses set out and aimed at in training courses were chosen for detailed study, first because the capacity to measure and calculate accurately is essential to efficient working in the building trades (this was confirmed in interviews with employers) and, second, because comparisons of standards are facilitated by the common symbolic language and notation of mathematics.

The principal data employed in this study are national statistics on numbers attaining qualifications, the mathematics component of recognised training syllabuses, the examinations set by recognised examining bodies in Britain and internal assessment papers supplied to us by individual colleges. These were supplemented by observation of classes of trainees in three different Colleges of Further Education in the Greater London area, and by discussions with teachers, school inspectors and local employers. It is one of the less well-known features of NVQs that the list of competences to be demonstrated in order to gain an NVQ certificate at a given level is regularly and--in the case of the building qualifications considered here --frequently reviewed and revised. Our first round of visits in Britain took place in 1991 when British Y trainees were working to the provisional NVQ Level 2 specification issued by th Construction Industry Training Board/National Council for Vocational Qualifications (CITB/NCVQ) in 1990. In 1992, a full (revised) NVQ 2 specification for building occupations was issued by the CITB and we subsequently undertook a further round of visits in Britain in 1992. On these visits we discussed with lecturers the changes introduced by the (1992) NVQ Level 2 specification and this revised specification together with lecturers' interpretations was used for the analysis of mathematics content at NVQ Level 2 presented in this article. In fact, the NVQ2 specification considered here is current at the time of publication but is due to be replaced by a revised specification later in 1994. On the basis of enquiries made, we do not anticipate that the revised specification will differ so markedly from the one considered here as to invalidate the main thrust of the points made in this article.

Changes in skill requirements

Technical progress, and in particular the off-site production of pre-fabricated components and the great variety of materials that must be delivered in correct sequence and coordinated on site have profoundly changed the nature of construction activity. A recent study (Gann, 1991) on the skill requirements of the construction sector points out that the skill requirements for employees ar changing rapidly as a result of the technological developments mentioned here; he nevertheless underlines the findings of earlier work: 'increasing emphasis o skills associated with positioning and alignment' means that 'calculation skills, reading drawings and the ability to access information on computers' ar increasingly important at craft and operative level.

In fact, the opinion of industry experts is that there appear to be two simultaneous trends apparent in building skill requirements in Britain today. The first of these is to specialisation (requiring narrow and limited skills) whereby firms take on contracts to undertake one specialised part of a large building contract--for example, bricklaying or plastering. The other, typical o many small and medium-sized general building firms undertaking small build and repair and maintenance work is to lateral skilling (requiring employees able to work with some degree of autonomy and with knowledge and skill in more than one trade). It seems likely that, if they wish to maximise their chances of employment, building employees will need to be capable of switching between the two sectors, and will therefore need to acquire, in addition to occupational competence, the general educational skills which can serve as a basis for further learning.

The views of small employers in the building trades

In the course of our research we interviewed managers in five small building firms in Britain to ask their views on the mathematics that they would expect craft trainees to master and how this would be used when working.

The British employers questioned had modest expectations of employees and appeared to use additional layers of supervision to compensate--this phenomenon has already been analysed in relation to the engineering industry in an earlier paper, and would merit further investigation.(2) It would be wrong to give the impression that the British employers with whom we spoke were not anxious for trainees to acquire proficiency in building calculations; they had, however, adapted their work organisation to cope with the existing low levels of mathematics among their employees and their expectations were consequently lower. Previous work comparing this industry with France and Germany (Prais and Wagner, 1983, Prais and Steedman, 1986) has consistently found the standards required of trainees in City and Guilds examinations to be similar to those of France and Germany. There is, therefore, no suggestion that trained craftsmen are of a lower standard than elsewhere. However, unlike Germany, at least, a large number of those working in 'craft' positions in Britain are untrained or inadequately trained and thus of lower quality. It is undoubtedly this mass of untrained workers who help to shape employers' expectations of skill levels.

2. Youth training in Britain in the 1980s

During the 1980s training for young people entering the building trades was provided through the Youth Training Scheme (YTS). The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) was the principal managing agent for the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in the building trades and supplemented the government contributio to YTS by making additional grants to employers taking YTS trainees. The total YTS 'package' offered to building employers during the 1980s appears to have been attractive enough to keep numbers of training places offered by employers steady over the period 1981-91 following a long period of decline in the 1970s. Numbers of trainees coming forward for training in the building trades remained similarly level over this period despite demographic decline, an indication tha the quality of the YTS schemes managed by the CITB was sufficiently high to attract and retain trainees.(3) In 1981, some 14,000 City & Guilds Part II certificates were awarded in building-related occupations; in 1991, ten years later, the number awarded had increased to 24,000.(4)

It can therefore be argued that increasing numbers of individuals gaining City Guilds awards in building were, in part, at least, a result of this joint government/industry action within the framework of the YTS scheme--and that, in the case of the building trade, significant improvements in stocks of skills ha been achieved.

New objectives for employment and training in Britain In 1988, a government White Paper entitled 'Employment for the 1990s' set out a significantly new vision for the British labour market, embracing industrial relations, pay and training. The overall aim was the creation of a flexible workforce and a flexible labour market which, it was hoped, would enable the British economy to respond more rapidly than in the past to changing technologies and world tradin conditions.

Despite the progress of the 1980s, which had resulted from the setting up of th Youth Training Scheme, government dissatisfaction centred upon two issues. The first was that Britain still lagged behind competitor countries in the quantity of training achieved, both of young people and of mature employees. The second was the insufficient degree of employer involvement in financing training and i contributing to the development of training programmes and policies. This dissatisfaction led to far-reaching changes in the conditions under which youth training was provided in Britain from 1990 onwards and formed the context for the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) into Youth Training.

Implementing the White Paper proposals

The White Paper proposed the abolition of virtually all the remaining tripartit Industrial Training Boards. In their place, locally-based Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) would be set up composed of local employers. TECs would administer government funds for the training of young people in a revised Youth Training (YT) scheme and for the training of the long-term unemployed. They would also be charged with encouraging local companies to invest more heavily in the training of their employees--for this last item, however, no government funds were forthcoming. These measures were intended to promote greater employer investment and involvement in training at all levels. By the end of 1991, 82 TECs had been established, covering the whole of England and Wales.

The government also intended to reduce the subsidy paid to employers to take on young people in Youth Training, and a policy of reducing the government contribution was implemented from 1990 onwards.(5) To compensate employers taking on Youth Trainees for this additional financial burden, important concessions were made to employers in the way the scheme was administered. The YTS scheme had entitled the young trainee to off-the-job training and specified a duration for training--two years by the end of the scheme. Youth Training, introduced in 1990, offered a work placement on employers' premises to young people aged 16 or 17 and paid a small trainee allowance set by the government a just below [pounds]30 a week. In these respects, the new YT resembled the forme YTS scheme. However, YT differed from YTS in that it could be of an entirely flexible duration according to the needs and circumstances of the firm providin training. Furthermore, the young trainee on YT was no longer entitled to off-the-job training (as he/she had been on YTS) but could receive all the training provided under YT on the job while working in the company. These two measures were clearly designed to reduce the cost of Youth Training to the employer and thus to compensate for the reduction in government subsidy.

Finally, the government decided to move to a system of assessing quality of training by output and allowing funding to follow the output rather than being determined by inputs to training. Thus the TECs which funded YT from 1990 onwards made payments for Youth Training to firms dependent on the trainees 'working towards' a recognised qualification with a proportion of funding withheld unless the qualification was achieved. The qualification which was to play the vital role of assessing the quality of Youth Training was the newly-established National Vocational Qualification (NVQ).

The origins of National Vocational Qualifications

National Vocational Qualifications had their origins in the increasing dissatisfaction in government, industry and education and training with what wa known as the 'jungle' of British vocational qualifications. A government-appointed Working Group which reported in 1986 recommended the establishment of a National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ).(6) Acceptance of this Report was marked by the establishment of the Council in October 1986 and by 1987 the Council had set out its framework and criteria for a revised system of vocational qualifications. This proved to be more radical than had generally been foreseen in that it required all existing vocational qualifications to be revised to conform to the criteria laid down by the Council. This requirement actually amounted to the abolition of existing vocational qualifications and their replacement by entirely new arrangements. These criteria, as set out in a document issued in 1991 by the NCVQ are as follows:

To be accredited as a National Vocational Qualification, a qualification must be:

1. based on national standards required for performance in employment, and take proper account of future needs with particular regard to technology, markets an employment patterns;

2. based on assessments of the outcomes of learning, arrived at independently o any particular mode, duration or location of learning;

3. awarded on the basis of valid and reliable assessments made in such a way as to ensure that performance to the national standard can be achieved at work;

4. free from barriers which restrict access and progression, and available to all those who are able to reach the required standard by whatever means;

5. free from overt or covert discriminatory practices with regard to gender, age, race or creed and designed to pay due regard to the special needs of individuals.

The implementation of National Vocational Qualifications

National Vocational Qualifications were to be awarded at a number of different levels (a total of five levels is currently envisaged). A level is defined as, 'a measure of competence of an individual's capabilities to carry out a range o work to standards...agreed by industry'. NVQs have, therefore, been developed b employer-led Industry Lead Bodies in conjunction with the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the Employment Department. This systematisation o the skills and competences required in a wide variety of occupations and at different levels has many advantages for the organisation and promotion of training of adult employees in the workplace. Those with no formal qualifications but long experience in the industry can receive an attestation o competence on the basis of workplace assessment. Training plans and procedures for employees can be more easily formulated on the basis of NVQ qualifications even by small and inexperienced companies without a training department. There are no restrictions on access to these qualifications by age or training mode (as there were with traditional apprenticeships).

One serious disadvantage of codifying existing levels of competence is that, in industries where skill levels are seriously inadequate, inadequate skill levels are set out as standards to be aimed at, and are perpetuated rather than improved by NVQs. Taken all in all, however, the initiative can be judged to be a positive one as far as adult employees and training and retraining of adults in the workplace are concerned.

It is when these same qualifications are set as the target to be attained by young people in initial training that questions arise as to their appropriateness. Undoubtedly, in principle NVQs have the virtue of being formulated by industry and therefore of closeness to current requirements. However, by omitting to build upon and extend trainees' capacities in general educational subjects-mathematics and English--NVQs fail to provide a sound basi for progression in education and for further professional development.(7)

Constraints imposed by NVQs

The investigation of training for the building trades reported here was first undertaken just as training providers were preparing to switch from preparing trainees for the traditional City & Guilds qualifications to preparing them to acquire NVQs. The remainder of this article reports the impact of these changes on the scope of general education provided for building trainees and on the quality of teaching and learning provided for them.

As explained above, NVQs are awarded on the basis of the ability to demonstrate a number of specified occupational competences. Assessment is therefore criterion-referenced, with the criteria which must be satisfied for an award clearly spelt out in advance. The logic followed by the NCVQ further dictates that, where a given occupation has been defined in terms of a set of competences, the candidate for assessment must perform satisfactorily in each and every one of these competences in order to receive an award. Particularly i relation to the lower level NVQs this requirement imposes a severe constraint o the amount of general educational content that candidates can be required to demonstrate. It would clearly be unacceptable if an experienced craftsman were to fail to be awarded his NVQ Level 2 certificate when he can demonstrate the practical competences required. However, his mathematics and other general educational competences may not go much beyond the most elementary, and requirements in this area that are too demanding might cause him to fail the NV assessment. The mathematical requirements of NVQs have, therefore, had to be pitched at the most basic and elementary levels to ensure that experienced employees do not fail their assessments through lack of mathematics. These considerations, arising as they do from the intention that NVQs should be used by employers and employees to certificate experienced employees, have resulted in a training programme for young (16-19) employees which requires the demonstration of competence in only the most basic mathematical operations.(8)

The implications of requiring a candidate to demonstrate ability to satisfy all the competence criteria of an NVQ assessment are pointed out above. The extent to which this has led to the under-specification in NVQ certification of the mathematics that would be required of an individual competent in the full range of building activities relevant to the building trades is well demonstrated by the results of a project carried out at Mid-Kent College of Further and Higher Education (Touret and Ashley, 1993). This study attempts to make explicit the mathematics implicit in the practical competences required of a candidate for NVQ Level 2 (Woodwork and Joinery). The study shows that the implicit mathematics is indeed far more demanding than the mathematics the candidate is required to show understanding of to gain NVQ certification.

3. Mathematics in City & Guilds and NVQ qualifications for the building trades

Until 1990, the certificate of craft-level building skills, City & Guilds Part II, required the student to demonstrate some mathematical knowledge which was formally set out in the form of syllabus requirements and tested by externally-set and marked final examinations. Students were expected to demonstrate mathematical competence by answering a small number of general professional questions requiring mathematical calculations and to complete assignments (set by City & Guilds and marked by the college) demonstrating mathematical competence.

Using final examination papers together with national syllabuses and worksheets and work plans supplied by teachers in the colleges visited, the mathematical topics on which young trainees on City & Guilds courses were taught and examine were identified. Ascertaining the mathematics required for the award of an NVQ Level 2 certificate is, however, less straightforward.

As there is no formal syllabus for NVQs it is up to lecturers to cross-referenc the activities listed in the Training Specifications with the units of competence required for NVQ Level 2. Understandably, there appears to be wide variation in the interpretations of mathematics requirements arrived at by lecturers. It should be stressed that these handbooks are only guidelines: whil there is still no requirement for the formal assessment of mathematics, it is recommended to assessors that they 'allow candidates to show that they have the necessary knowledge and understanding where this is not demonstrated by performance'. From the NVQ Level 2 Assessors Handbook for Construction (Bricklaying Level 2) we can obtain a rough understanding of the level of mathematics expected.(9) Basically students are required to use and understand the following concepts:

Ratio--for example, 'If a scale of 1:20 was used for a detail drawing, what would 5mm on the drawing actually represent full size?'

Addition--for example, 'Add together the following dimensions taken from a detail drawing: 8.500m, 3.720m, 0.470m'.

Area--for example, 'If a block wall contains 10 blocks per square metre, state the number of blocks required for a wall 4.0m long and 1.500m high'. Conversion of units--eg, 'A datum peg is 1.725m above the concrete foundations. How many courses of bricks are required to build a wall 2.775m high?'

Multiplication and division--for example, 'If a half brick wall contains 60 bricks per metre squared, state the number of bricks required for a wall 8.0m long and 1.5m high'.

A comparison of the mathematics required for City & Guilds Syllabus 588 Brickwork and Masonry and NVQ Level 2 (Bricklaying) (our interpretation) set against National Curriculum Levels to give an idea of degree of difficulty is provided in a separate Appendix.(10) Briefly summarised however, around two thirds of topics included in the City & Guilds mathematics syllabus are no longer specified for NVQ Level 2 assessment in the Assessors' Handbook. In particular, the more advanced topics at Levels 5, 6 and 7 of the National Curriculum for England and Wales in mathematics, are not expected to be assesse at NVQ Level 2. These include--converting one metric unit to another, fractions and percentages of quantities, calculating the volumes of solid shapes and simple applications of the theorem of Pythagoras. These topics, and more besides, are still part of the syllabus for trainees in the building trades of similar age and prior school attainments in France and Germany (Steedman 1992).

4. Assessment of NVQs for the building trades

Differences of approach to assessment between City & Guilds and NVQs are substantial. City & Guilds Part II certificates were awarded on the basis of a combination of marks awarded on externally-set assessments, marked internally but externally moderated and an externally-set and marked examination requiring the pupil to answer multiple-choice questions. In both these tests the candidat was required to demonstrate on paper and under examination conditions the ability to carry out mathematical calculations. Assessment of NVQs is radically different, and is based on an assessor's observation of the trainee as he or sh carries out the specified tasks required to demonstrate competence.

When the new YT scheme was introduced in 1990, the new regulations combined wit the competence-based NVQ qualification were designed to make it easier for employers to train on their own premises rather than to purchase training by sending trainees to Further Education Colleges. However, as far as employers in the building trades are concerned, the great majority of whom are small employers with less than 20 employees, most still choose to send their trainees to FE colleges to acquire their NVQs rather than to train on their own premises This development has created difficulties for college staff since NVQs were primarily designed to be taught and assessed in the workplace. Thus assessment of building trainees for National Vocational Qualifications will normally be carried out by college staff assessing competence against a detailed list of criteria backed up by documentation issued by the CITB. To carry out the new assessments, the relevant college staff must now be registered as NCVQ Assessors. They are not necessarily obliged to use the exemplar material provided by NCVQ--some examples of which are quoted above--provided 'their alternatives match the requirements of the element'. Candidates may answer in written or oral form, and there is no time limit in which assessments may be completed, or limits to the number of attempts students may make in order to achieve success. Thus, if a trainee answers a question incorrectly the assessor is entitled to reinterpret or rephrase the question to allow every chance for the student to give the correct response.

The linking of NVQ certification to YT funding creates pressures on lecturers t certify students as competent to NVQ Level 2 and thereby collect a financial bonus for the college. (See the next section on 'output-related funding') This undermines the principle that students should be able to learn at their own pac and 'pick up' competences such as mathematics as they go along--there is pressure to complete an entire NVQ instead of thoroughly covering one or more units. Lecturers are frequently put into a position whereby for fear of losing financial support, they are under pressure to certify people as 'competent' whe they have performed the bare minimum required to pass the NVQ. The idea that someone is 'competent' in a given task when it has only been performed once is questionable, yet this may well be the practical outcome of present$assessment practices.

National Vocational Qualifications thus diverge fundamentally not only from the City & Guilds Craft Certificates but also from practice in other European countries where marks are awarded for internal assessment of practical competence and combined with marks on externally-set and marked formal examinations in separate general educational subjects (mathematics, science, th national language).(11)

The impact of output-related funding on training for the building trades

NVQs have been assigned a key role in guaranteeing the quality of Youth Trainin schemes. However, two factors in particular threaten to undermine the integrity of NVQs. The first results from the failure to increase the funding available for Youth Training to keep pace with the increased demands of NVQ and which imposes financial pressures on colleges. Construction craft courses in colleges are particularly badly affected by this failure, having relatively low student-staff ratios and consuming large amounts of space and materials. They are also suffering falling rolls as a result of the recession in the industry--all factors which mean that the requirement that colleges should provide trainees with full-scale building projects to work on will severely tes their financial resources.

The second of these factors is the funding formula for Youth Training known as 'Output-related funding'. In essence it represents a commitment to payment by results; in 1991 the Department of Employment stated that '25% of resources for 1992/3 will be paid on condition that trainees achieve a National Vocational Qualification or its equivalent'. Each TEC operates its own system of output-related funding with colleges. In most areas, at least 25 per cent of funding for students placed on YT schemes in all occupations is withheld unless trainees reach Level 2 within the two-year period financed by YT (Felstead, 1994).

The objective of output-related funding, namely that training providers should be given an incentive to encourage trainees to attain qualifications is a sound one, and could, if applied under the right circumstances, provide a real rise i skills acquired while training.

However, output-related funding of YT programmes can only produce this result a long as assessors have the academic independence necessary to make disintereste judgements of their students' progress. In many colleges of Further Education, lecturers' jobs are directly dependent upon the funds which flow from TECs to support YT programmes, yet these same lecturers are called upon to assess their students' attainments in relation to NVQ levels. The conflicting pressures cannot serve the cause of high and consistent standards of education and training.

Colleges acknowledge the profound dilemmas which such a system creates--one possible consequence may be that less promising students will be turned away simply because of the risk involved that they will not reach the required standards in time--another is that lecturers will be under pressure to cut out 'unnecessary' theoretical elements in favour of the 'survival skills' such as fast and accurate bricklaying. It is certainly widely accepted that it is easie to get a hairdresser or a secretarial student through their respective Level 2 courses in two years than it is for a bricklayer: again, construction craft lecturers are placed in a situation where they must be constantly concerned wit paring down what the NCVQ describes as the minimum requirements for competency.

The implications of NVQ requirements for teaching and learning of young trainee in the building trades

The college, as agent of delivery of National Vocational Qualifications and assessor, finds itself heavily burdened with ensuring that students acquire the range of practical skills required by these new qualifications. To achieve NVQ Level 2, students must acquire a range of practical competences similar to thos which would be acquired by practice and experience in the workplace; however, a explained above, because training firms are usually small, as a result of the lack of continuity in training places (trainees may be moved from one employer to another because of business difficulties or for other reasons) and because o the low level of trainee supervision available in the workplace, in practice colleges must provide all the basic skills training required for NVQ Level 2.(12)

The NVQ criteria state that awards should not be granted on the basis of either the way in which teaching is organised or the length of time taken to learn, an that admissions procedures should be entirely independent of age constraints.(13) The college is expected to be able to make provision for adults' and young peoples' different needs and capabilities which depend on their social background, learning opportunities, aptitude and motivations. The expectation that students should be able to enter the system at any time create logistical difficulties for colleges if whole class teaching methods are adhere to. NVQs have therefore required that colleges rethink and reorganise their teaching methods.

One strategy is to place more emphasis on individualised learning. This not onl represents a change of ethos but is also a practical necessity given the varied levels, ages and backgrounds of students on NVQ courses. 'Open Access' in reality means that it is no longer appropriate or even possible for teaching groups to be organised in the traditional way, given that every student may at any one time be 'working towards' a different element of competence in any single lecture room or workshop.

Therefore, in keeping with the notion that the process of learning is not context- or time-bound, more flexible approaches are being developed by colleges, centring on the notion of 'open learning'. Students are encouraged to 'seek out' information on the theory aspects of craft courses for their own use under the guidance of their tutor. This takes place during what would normally be 'contact time' with students, and is entirely voluntary. In theory, individuals make use of 'learning packages' devised by lecturers which are available in open learning centres for students to use on their own, with curriculum information officers ready to give advice where needed. This not onl 'frees' teaching staff to spend time on devising learning packs themselves, but also allows each student to work at a pace that is comfortable to them.

The reality, however, differs greatly from the rhetoric. Lecturers cite lack of motivation among young students in particular, as well as lack of resources as being major obstacles to success.(14) Bricklaying courses have traditionally maintained an 'open door' policy towards their trainees; many young trainees have numeracy and literacy difficulties and a background of poor school achievement. Some have special learning difficulties. 'Remedial' lessons are offered to students who are perceived as needing special help, but again, these are voluntary and take-up levels are low. For all these reasons, the assumption that such young people will be sufficiently motivated to investigate the theoretical side of their course during what they perceive to be 'free' time is not borne out in practice.

Indeed, lecturers interviewed commented that students cannot be relied upon to assimilate the material in learning packages without being taught the principle involved by means of a more traditional teaching situation. Moreover, the different rates of progress of the individual students have resulted in lecturers frequently having to repeat the presentation of aspects of units concerned with job knowledge in the classroom.(15) Resourcing constraints compound these difficulties: 'Open Learning Centres' in the colleges visited were kept locked since colleges cannot afford to staff them permanently with Curriculum Information Officers. Lecturers thus have to accompany students to the Open Learning Centre when requested to do so during 'open learning' time, thereby defeating one of its primary aims--that of reducing the amount of time that lecturers are required to spend in direct contact with their students. The goal of a more cost-effective process of training is thus proving difficult to achieve as a direct result of total flexibility defined only by outcomes rather than by a system where students are required to adapt to the structure and content of courses.

5. Conclusions

1. This article aims to establish what, in practice, are the mathematical topic that are currently taught and tested in the training provided for young people in the building trades in Britain. Mathematics was chosen for study because, until 1990, it constituted a central part of the general vocational education offered to young people in vocational education and training courses in Britain and because it is important for vocational competence and for progression to more advanced levels within the profession or to more general courses of furthe and higher education. Following changes to provision for youth training in 1990 and notably the introduction of NVQs, many of the mathematical elements which were formerly taught to students studying for a City & Guilds qualification in building are now no longer specified or assessed for the new National Vocationa Qualification at Level 2. These elements--and more besides--are still required for trainees of similar age and prior school attainments in France and Germany.

2. The NVQ principle of assessment based on the practical demonstration of the outcomes of training and experience may well be appropriate to the task of encouraging greater training effort in firms and among adults with some work experience. However, competence-based assessment requires the candidate to pass in every element of the assessment; it appears that low levels of numeracy amon large parts of the work force has in consequence led to minimal levels of mathematics being required for NVQ certification at Level 2 in order to ensure that the qualification is within the reach of the average adult employee. These minimal mathematics requirements make NVQ Level 2 qualifications unsuitable for young trainees who need to consolidate and build on mathematics acquired at school as preparation for further progression and for maximum adaptability to a fast changing labour market.

3. The linking of funding to outcomes measured as NVQ qualifications has resulted in damaging pressures on college lecturers who are also required to assess their students' performance. In some cases, lecturers' jobs depend directly on funding raised for Youth Training from the TECs and lecturers are placed in an intolerable situation whereby failing students can mean job losses for their own department.

In addition, the evidence presented in this article suggests that arrangements for Youth Training in Britain are an inefficient way of using public funds. First, public subsidy is being used to finance narrow occupational training for young people. This is inefficient--these young people (who are overwhelmingly those least well-equipped by schools with basic education) and with some forty years of working life ahead of them are being trained in a set of narrow competences which will not easily permit either the flexibility or career development in later years which the economy and technical progress increasingl demand. Where trainees accept a youth wage which is low relative to adult wages and where there is a likelihood of a firm keeping the trainee for a one or two year period, as is the case with YT, it should be in the employer's interest to fund part of the cost of occupational training since the trainee will thereby more rapidly become productive to a point where the cost of training to the fir is recovered (Oulton and Steedman 1994). We would therefore argue that it is no a sensible use of public funds to provide occupational training at the expense of general education. Government has a duty to look beyond the short term and t attempt to safeguard the longer-term interests of individuals and of the econom as a whole by funding educational and training provision which, because of significant externalities, would not otherwise be funded.

5. Finally, we consider that current provision is socially inequitable. As Britain rather tardily moves towards a policy of ensuring the provision of training and education for all 16-19 year-olds, around one fifth of the age group are currently not receiving any general education as part of the 16-19 provision made available to them, in sharp contrast to the full-time GNVQ courses and A-level courses which are offered to those in full-time 16-19 provision and which contain substantial general education elements.

Policy recommendations

Government policy towards Youth Training in Britain needs to be reformulated, with the following considerations in mind. First, the government's share of Youth Training expenditure should finance the development of general, transferable skills provided in an educational environment, with progression possibilities similar to those provided for other 16-19 year-olds, and employer and trainees should share the cost of developing work-related competence (NVQs)

The newly-introduced full-time General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs), while requiring some modification in assessment and delivery, should b adapted to provide a more suitable qualification for 16-19 year-olds on Youth Training, possibly in combination with NVQs.

Minimising the differences between the learning and certification outcomes available through the part-time and full-time 16-19 education and training routes will help to provide the necessary breadth and enhance the status of the work-based education and training route for young people. More important, such policy changes will set us again on the path towards convergence with European outcomes and skill levels which we in Britain ignore at our peril.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has greatly benefited from the help and participation of Karin Wagner of the Fachhochschule fur Technik und Wissenschaft, Berlin and Marie-Therese Rapiau, IREDU/CNRS at the University of Dijon. The authors gratefully acknowledge the help generously given in advising and commenting on this articl and in providing facilities for our visits by teachers and lecturers, by educational advisers and by the firms which we visited. Alison Wolf of the Institute of Education, University of London, Peter Senker of the Science Polic Research Unit, University of Sussex, Dennis Snower, Birkbeck College, Universit of London, staff of the CITB and French colleagues at the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications (CEREQ) Marseilles, gave generously of their time to comment on earlier drafts. We would also like to record our thanks to a anonymous referee. Finally, we would like to thank our colleagues Geoff Mason, Nicholas Oulton and SJ Prais of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research for comments on this and earlier drafts. Responsibility for any errors in this article rests with the authors.

NOTES

(1) An earlier paper reporting on comparisons with France and Germany was published as National Institute Discussion Paper No. 9 under the title 'Mathematics in Vocational Youth Training for the Building Trades in Britain, France and Germany', April 1992. This paper also appeared in translation in Formation-Emploi No. 46 April-June 1994 published by the Documentation Francaise.

(2) H Steedman, G Mason, K Wagner, 'Intermediate skills in the workplace: deployment, standards and supply in France and Germany', National Institute Economic Review, May 1991.

(3) Youth Training Scheme (YTS) starters on schemes administered by the CITB in 1983 were some 17,000 rising to 22,000 in 1987/8. In 1990/1, despite the deepening recession, numbers were similar to 1983 at 17,000.

(4) The City & Guilds written paper and course work assignments must be obtaine in addition to passing practical skills tests set by the Construction Industry Training Board in order to obtain a Certificate of Craft Recognition from the National Joint Council for the Building Industry. Previous National Institute studies have reviewed the standards required for the award of these certificates; City & Guilds Part II qualifications were found to be narrower in scope than the corresponding German qualification and the French level of professional knowledge in the CAP was thought to be closer to City & Guilds Par III. Overall, it was concluded that qualifications at craft level in the Britain, France and Germany were broadly similar in scope.

(5) Unemployment Unit and Youthaid (1992), Working Brief No. 36, Tables 1,2.

(6) Review of vocational qualifications in England and Wales: a report by the Working Group 1986, Manpower Services Commission and the Department of Educatio and Science, HMSO, 1986.

(7) In October 1991 the NCVQ published a Consultation Paper on proposals for General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) and in September 1993 pilot courses were launched in colleges. From September 1994, these GNVQ courses will be more generally available.(NVQ Monitor Spring/Summer 1994 p.14) However, at present it is envisaged that the GNVQ route will normally only be available through full-time study and will not, therefore, be suitable for those on work-based YT.

(8) This analysis is based upon discussions with a number of experts both withi and outside the CITB in which we sought to follow up points made by the Chief Executive of the CITB in a letter to the Times Educational Supplement of 5 June 1992 in response to an article by Hilary Steedman in TES 8 May 1992. In his letter, the CE points out 'Further, of the [NVQ] standards contained in an award, all have to be achieved; there is no percentage pass mark. Either the jo can be done or not. However, there is nothing to prevent a lecturer taking a trainee beyond the level stated as part of the training and education. [but see our comment on pressures on college time on p.00] I suspect many, including college staff, would criticise the scheme if competent craft operatives failed to gain recognition merely because they failed to achieve a higher level of maths. The individual operatives would also have just cause for complaint.'[our italics]

(9) Issued by the Construction Industry Training Board and City & Guilds 1992. Reference No. QAH/027/2 (available on a restricted basis only).

(10) Available on request from the author at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

(11) For a fuller critique of the differences between the approach adopted by the NCVQ and the approach to the awarding of vocational qualifications in other European countries, see S J Prais, 'How Europe would see the new British initiative for standardising vocational qualifications', National Institute Economic Review, August 1989. In a subsequent article, 'Vocational qualifications in Britain and Europe: theory and practice', National Institute Economic Review, May 1991, Prais analyses the widening gap between Britain and other European countries with respect to the relative weight accorded to reliability and validity by British and other European assessment procedures. I a challenging programme made for Channel 4 television and in an associated report, Smithers (1993) also strongly criticises the assessment of NVQs. The article by Steedman and Hawkins referred to in the associated Channel 4 report was, in fact, an earlier unpublished version of this article presented to a seminar on 'The Skills Gap and Economic Activity' organised by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in April 1993.

(12) In order to be awarded a Level 2 NVQ in a building-related area--in this case, bricklaying--a trainee must demonstrate competence in every element of five Occupational Units of Competence. For a Level 2 Bricklaying award, these are:

Unit 099--Instal Structural Fabric Components (Brick and Blockwork Walling)

Unit 100--Instal Structural Fabric Components (Supplementary Brick and Blockwork)

Unit 101--Provide Ground Services (Site Drainage)

Unit 102--Erect and Dismantle Access Platforms (Scaffolding --Bricklaying)

Unit 103--Provide Dimensional Positioning (Setting out an Elementary Building)

(13) Jessup, G (1991), Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training, The Falmer Press, p 19.

(14) These comments are borne out by the HMI inspections from which it is reported that 'A significant minority of first year craft students find it hard to work on their own and require close counselling and support', HMI (1992).

(15) Ibid, p 9.

REFERENCES

Callender C, (1992), 'Will NVQs work?', Report No. 228, Institute of Manpower Studies, University of Sussex.

Felstead A, (1994), 'Funding government training schemes: mechanisms and consequences', Centre for Labour Market Studies,

University of Leicester, Working Papers No. 2, March.

Gann D, (1991), 'Future skill needs of the construction industries' A Report prepared for the Employment Department by IPRA Ltd, 114 Waldegrave Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN16GG.

Gordon J and Campinos-Dubernet M, (1988), 'Grande-Bretagne: la mise en cause du systeme des mwtiers', Formation-Emploi No. 22.

HMI, (1992), Construction in Further Education, Department for Education.

Jessup, G, (1991), Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training, The Falmer Press.

Oulton N and Hilary Steedman (1994), 'The British system of youth training: a comparison with Germany'. In LM Lynch (ed) Training and the Private Sector, NBER/Chicago University Press.

Prais SJ and Karin Wagner (1983), 'Some practical aspects of human capital investment: training standards in five occupations in Britain and Germany', National Institute Economic Review, No. 105, August.

Prais SJ and Karin Wagner (1985), 'Schooling standards in England and Germany: some summary comparisons bearing on economic performance', National Institute Economic Review, No. 112, May.

Prais SJ and Hilary Steedman (1986), 'Vocational training in France and Britain the building trades', National Institute Economic Review, No. 116, May.

Prais SJ (1989), 'How Europe would see the new British initiative for standardising vocational qualifications', National Institute Economic Review, No. 129, August.

Prais SJ (1991), 'Vocational qualifications in Britain and Europe: Theory and Practice' National Institute Economic Review, No. 136, May.

MSC/DFE (1986), Review of Vocational Qualifications in England and Wales: A Report by the Working Group 1986, Manpower Services Commission and the Department of Education and Science, HMSO, 1986.

Smithers A (1993), All our Futures: Britain's Educational Revolution, Channel 4 Television.

Steedman H, Mason G, Wagner K (1991), 'Intermediate skills in the workplace: deployment, standards and supply in France and Germany', National Institute Economic Review, No. 136, May.

Steedman H (1992), 'Mathematics in vocational youth training for the building trades in Britain, France and Germany', National Institute Discussion Paper No. 9, April.

Tourret T and Pam Ashley (1993), 'Mathematics in construction National Vocational Qualifications' Mid-Kent College of Further and Higher Education (mimeo) April.

Wolf A (1991), 'Assessing core skills: wisdom or wild goose chase?, Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 21, No. 2.

Wolf A (1992), 'Mathematics for vocational students in France and England: contrasting provision and consequences' National Institute Discussion Paper No. 23, September.