Monday 22 January 2018

Our Welsh Baccalaureate Meeting

This month we were glad to welcome some professionals from the world of the Welsh Baccalaureate (W.B) to answer some of our questions.  

At our meeting we had representatives from WJEC and Welsh Government, as well as Cllr Bob Penrose, Cabinet Member for Learning and Culture, and David Davies, Head of Achievement for All at the Vale of Glamorgan Council.  We learnt more about the qualification, including the different levels and requirements, and we were able to question professionals on some concerns that young people had raised to us directly.   


Universities - We requested information about how universities value the W.B.  From our presentation from WJEC it was clear that the uptake in Welsh universities is significantly higher than the rest of the country.  It was also evident that there has been a growing interest from English universities. However, it became clear that not all departments in all universities value the W.B the same, and this is reflected in the offers that they make students.  The representative from WJEC showed several examples of where the qualification was included in an offer.  We are concerned that a lot of universities aren’t fully on board with the qualification being worth that of a full A-Level and that many consider another A-Level to be more valuable than the W.B.  We feel that more work needs to be done to raise the profile of the qualification and ensure more departments in more universities accept it.  


The Syllabus - The W.B syllabus was created by WJEC and throughout the presentation it appeared really good and everything we would look for in order to prepare us for the world of work, yet this isn’t the experience of young people.  The W.B doesn’t transfer into a qualification that inspires and improves the skills of young people as young people have expressed their views to us that they don’t see the point in the W.B.  They don’t know what they are learning!  Hopefully, after a period of time we will be able to see the long term effects of the W.B.  However, some students feel that a fourth A-Level would be more beneficial.  Teachers, students and schools all have finite resources, time and money and feedback from young people suggests that the W.B impacts on the time on other subjects that could be more useful to them.  We find ourselves in a vicious cycle where due to poor experiences and quality; students, teachers and universities do not like it, which results in the disillusionment of the qualification. 


The Political Aspect - We also feel like there is a political aspect to the W.B that interferes with students' learning. The W.B belongs to Wales, it’s something no other country has, and it is something to rival English equivalents. It may look good on paper for Wales, but unfortunately we think it doesn’t translate into reality.  Furthermore, from understanding the roles of different organisations who are responsible for the W.B (WJEC, Welsh Government and Qualifications Wales) who is ultimately accountable and who will take responsibility for making much needed improvements?         


Key Skills - As you may know, the aim of the W.B is to "enable learners to develop and demonstrate an understanding and proficiency in the 7 essential and employable skills".  These are believed to be universal and long lasting.  We were told that the W.B aims to show a student a set of skills rather than their ability to pass exams.  We believe that the skills taught through the W.B overlap too heavily with other areas of the curriculum.  We believe that the skills would better be developed if integrated into the curriculum.  However, WJEC and Welsh Government believe that is more beneficial to represent them separately in this qualification.  Young people have expressed that these skills are not taught properly and may be too broad and vague to be assessed properly and consistently.   


No Teacher Training - During our meeting we discovered that teachers allocated to W.B classes do not receive any teacher training specific to the qualification.  This means that a teacher trained to teach geography at A-Level can be your W.B teacher without being trained in the qualification or even taught why it is important.  This isn’t the case for any other subject, is it? We believe this could lead to uninspiring teachers who feel forced to teach a course they don’t understand, having to lead a classroom without knowing the best way to transfer the skills included in the course.  We discussed this problem at the meeting and although resources are available on the WJEC website, we came to the conclusion that this could be the root of many of the problems with the course; including pupils having varying experiences of the qualification, feeling like the teacher don’t care, and not even knowing the content of the course and the skills they are learning. 


Employability - W.B makes us more employable but do employers understand the W.B?  Will they look at my C.V and value my W.B GCSE or A-Level? We understand that as a new qualification, employers and parents may be unaware of its importance.  We believe that more publicity and awareness raising is needed to promote the benefits of the qualification and ensure the W.B is seen as an equivalent to traditional GCSE and A-Level. 


Community Challenge - In response to a question regarding the Community Challenge and how it appears to have replaced work experience, WJEC stated they had no part to play in the discontinuation of previous Year 10 work experience, and also Welsh Government advised the Community Challenge is not meant to replace it.  Maybe it is a coincidence that the year work experience ended, the new W.B was introduced but many young people have raised concerns about this.  One of the main aims of the W.B is to prepare young people for the world of work, so surely sending young people into the work place for a week is the most effective way of doing this?  Both WJEC and Welsh Government explained the health and safety concerns surrounding work experience. We feel these concerns can be managed without detracting from the valuable experience these placements can bring, and have brought to many young people in the past. Furthermore, doesn’t the volunteering hours required as part of the Community Challenge raise the same health and safety concerns anyway?     


Grading - Why is the W.B graded differently to our other subjects? We raised this as a concern because it is confusing for students and parents.  This was seconded by parents in the room.  Wouldn’t it be easier to grade them using the normal A*-G grades.  We were told Qualifications Wales are carrying out a review of the qualification so maybe this is something they can consider?



As you can imagine, there was a lot more discussed at our meeting but we wanted to summarise a few points.  We’d also like to thank the representatives from WJEC and Welsh Government for attending and listening to our views.  We are hopeful we can work together in the near future to make positive changes for young people across Wales.  We’re also looking forward to working with the Cabinet Member for Learning and Culture and the Head of Achievement for All to improve young people’s experiences of W.B locally.