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.
