The ‘opportunity mission’ is alive in Hull – and should be nationally

Amid the crises facing secondary education, FE has an opportunity to craft a purposeful, skills-based education for all who would benefit

Amid the crises facing secondary education, FE has an opportunity to craft a purposeful, skills-based education for all who would benefit

15 Oct 2024, 5:00

Opportunities that (for reasons I can’t explain) are normally available only to those who have already left school, are at the forefront of our 14+ College offer at Hull College.

As I write this, a group of fourteen-year-olds is in a classroom above my office exploring early childhood development.

Across the corridor, a team of fifteen-year-old creative media students is building a scale model of the college campus as a set for an animation that will be entered in a national sustainability competition.

In an industry-standard salon on the fifth floor of our building, school-age learners are being taught how to style hair by a team of industry experts.

Local and national media frequently discuss secondary education through the lens of crisis; whether it’s the elective home education crisis, the post-Covid attendance crisis, or the staffing crisis.

What is often missed amid these crises is the opportunity we have to craft a purposeful, skills-based education for young people.

At Hull College, we’ve had a 14+ provision since 2013, serving generations of Year 10 and 11 students with a curriculum that blends GCSE delivery with career-focused vocational qualifications.

The young people we serve are significantly more likely to have experienced personal or educational trauma, to have been bullied or to have been homeschooled. Many have suffered the collapse of self-belief that comes with these experiences. Yet, at 14+ College, they are shown a future more hopeful than the one they left behind.

The curriculum model has been a huge success. Learners graduate from 14+ College and many choose to move directly onto their next vocational level, transitioning smoothly from one college department to another. Others may instead pursue academic qualifications that prepare them for university. 14+ College and those who built it have been proud to guide all of them.

We were able to offer one place for every six applicants this year

With this model, however, comes a responsibility. Hull is one of the most educationally deprived areas in Britain. Too few young people in Hull and the East Riding leave school with the skills they need to thrive, and not enough are actively participating in the economy.

Alongside this dilemma of human potential, the economy of Hull and the Humber is undergoing a renaissance. New and developing industries in the region are driving the need for a workforce skilled in STEM and sustainability principles.

Young people leaving education confident in their ability to adapt, solve problems and communicate will find the employment landscape very welcoming. Schools, with their rigid curriculum models and scale, are not ideally positioned to adapt. FE, however, has been doing this for years.

Hull College has long served the needs of the region. In recent years, we have adapted our curriculum design to better meet the needs of local employers and to more purposefully develop the core and character skills our young people need to thrive.

Our 14+ College provision, and 14-16 provisions more generally, offer an obvious opportunity for students to get a head start in discovering where they fit into a changing world of work.

And the students in our region know it. We were able to offer one place for every six applicants in Year 10 this academic year. Amid all the talk of crises in education, it’s worth pointing out that one corner of secondary education is thriving beyond its current capacity, such is the desire among young people to start their careers.

The evidence is clear: this is what our economy needs, and this is exactly what many young people want to do. As a result, at Hull College we have a moral obligation to provide it.

So, in future years, when you get a lovely new haircut or your nails fabulously painted; when your child comes home from nursery with a giant smile or you enjoy a brand-new blockbuster movie at the cinema, our dream is that the person providing this service came from 14+ College and is doing something they never thought they could.

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