TEACH - Tackling Educational deficits through Arts and Crafts based Enterprise Learning
27 October 2018
TEACH
Tackling Educational deficits through Arts and Crafts based Enterprise Learning
project level desk research paper – intellectual output 1
United Kingdom, July 2016
Authors: Bob Bates, Praxis Europe, United Kingdom
Busra Tosun, Etkin Egitim Org., Turkey
Cristina Barna, Heart of a Child Foundation, Romania
Sophie Putcrabey, CMA
Editor:Elisabeta Ungureanu, Gecko Programmes Ltd, United Kingdom
CONTENTS
Executive Summary
The UK Context
Turkey
France: Introduction - From unemployment, skill sectors in danger and in the sector: craftsmanship
SECTION 1: Issues surrounding the learning needs of disadvantaged learners (culture, circumstances, educational attainment)
United Kingdom
Turkey
Romania
FRANCE: Problems and issues relating to the learning needs of disadvantaged people and access to the labour market
SECTION 2: Labour Market issues in United Kingdom, Turkey and Romania
United Kingdom
Turkey
Romania
SECTION 3: An examination of the TEACH project partners’ pedagogies. Provision of statutory and non-statutory education in United Kingdom, Turkey and Romania, and the implications of the learner
United Kingdom
Turkey
ROMANIA
FRANCE
SECTION 4: Societal pressures (Economic, Health, Welfare)
United Kingdom
Turkey
Romania
FRANCE
SECTION 5: THE ARTS AND CRAFTS BASED ENTERPRISE LEARNING. IMPLICATIONS TO FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
United Kingdom
TURKEY
ROMANIA
FRANCE
SECTION 6: Wider national and EU wide implications in light of policies
UNITED KINGDOM
TURKEY
ROMANIA
FRANCE
SECTION 7: Implication for arts and crafts skills. Are they formal enough?
UNITED KINGDOM
TURKEY
ROMANIA
FRANCE
References:
Executive Summary
what is teach?
Teach (Tackling Educational deficits through Arts and Crafts based Enterprise Learning) is a cross field partnership of Adult Education, VET and Employer bodies, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme.
The partnership is represented by partners from the United Kingdom (Praxis Europe and Gecko Programmes), Turkey (Etkin Egitim Org – ISMEK), Romania (Heart of a Child - Inima de Copil) and France (Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat du Rhône) - organisations that have joined together with the aim of developing a training provision to better engage and support disadvantaged adult learners through the use of traditional arts, crafts and enterprise.
Praxis Europe has extensive expertise on the development of innovative community focused activities; Gecko Programmes joined the partnership as an experienced UK VET training provider with focus on the creative sector, providing mentoring into employment and self-employment; ISMEK is the training arm of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and provides a broad range of vocational courses for disadvantaged adults; Inima de Copil is a NGO providing education, care and social reintegration for those who are at risk of social exclusion. Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat du Rhône have joined the partnership as a sector representative, due to its extensive network of employers.
tackling educational deficits
In recent years, there has been great interest among educators to linkthe arts-based learning with human development. The arts and crafts participation has additionally been linked to positive social outcomes, successfully addressing the learning needs of those unemployed and at risk of social exclusion andincreasing their employment opportunities and entrepreneurial spirit.
In France, three years after leaving school, young people from secondary education through apprenticeship have an employment rate 10 points higher than those who received education through conventional schooling. Craftsmanship is also an excellent way to project business creation, that is to say the creation of wealth and potentially jobs.
Data from Eurostat (Quarter 1, 2014) indicates that 10.4% of EU citizens are in households with very low work intensity. In terms of unemployment across the partner countries we see: Turkey - Male 8% / Female 10.9 %; UK - Male 7.4% / Female 6.8 %; France - Male 10.9% / Female 10.8%; Romania - Male 6.5% / Female 7.9%.
These people make up the 124.5 million EU citizens at risk of poverty and deprivation. Many of these people are in a constant cycle of benefits, low paid work and have been failed by mainstream education services. These people have never considered education as a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. Many of these people have been failed by a lack of connectivity with education during the school years. These statistics are using young people, women, older people, people with disabilities, people from minority groups and families that are subjected to low pay, poor health and living on benefits on a long term basis.
The current desk research, carried out by each of the TEACH partners, aims to provide a comprehensive perspective detailing the benefits of arts and crafts learning and teaching methodologies and pedagogies used by partner states with the view of tackling the educational deficits of disadvantaged learners and create employment and self-employment opportunities.
The UK Context
The purpose of this report has been to provide a UK context for a comparative analysis report that details the arts and crafts learning and teaching methodologies and pedagogies used by partner states in supporting a variety of disadvantaged learners through the use of arts and crafts. In this respect, a ten-point plan has emerged that serves to turn disadvantage into “advantages”. This is represented in the form of a mnemonic.
Autonomy.
Disadvantaged people must be allowed and encouraged to develop their arts and craft skills in ways that are true to their principles, ideals, and capabilities. They should not be denied access to informal learning if that is their chosen path. The opportunity to develop their talents must also be available.
Development incentives.
Disadvantaged people need support in their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in terms of education, training and employment in the arts and craft sector. Too many existing resources, alleged to serve a disadvantaged group, in fact perform a disservice, by reinforcing dependency or by falling short of expectations, thereby compromising the reality of self-development.
Vision:
Disadvantaged people need to know about opportunities in the arts and craft sector and the tools available to them, and to know how to use them to promote their own skills and development.
Access to just employment.
Employment in the arts and craft sector, at a subsistence-level income, is not sufficient for becoming self-sufficient. What is needed is “just” employment, which entails employment free from limiting, damaging, or self-fulfilling stereotype, meaningful work, safe work, exploitation-free workplace, career development and advancement opportunities based on merit, job security, and the freedom and means to pursue work.
Networks.
People of like situation need each other to form a base of support for creating, using, and maintaining the tools for self-sufficiency.
Taking responsibility for decision-making:
Disadvantaged people should not be deprived the opportunity to participate in decisions that affect their own livelihood and well-being.
Access to education:
Education that enables progression in the arts and craft sector should enhance the values of someone’s own culture, and be relevant to the values of other segments of society, to their own potential for development, and to employment opportunities.
Growth:
While growth capital is obviously needed to be self-sufficient, certain disadvantaged groups are denied the opportunity to create or keep capital. Often, government or corporate practices serve to keep capital away from smaller institutions, especially those that focus on the arts and craft sector. Many creative enterprises are content-based businesses with intangibles that the investment community often finds much more difficult to value, monetise, and sell in case of default. This leads to a host of creative enterprises finding it impossible to access growth financing and points to the need for more public policy incentives to ensure creative industry equal access to financial investment and business support programs.
Emotional Energy:
To grow towards self-sufficiency, disadvantaged people require the sort of personal and emotional energy that comes from self-respect. The notion of a powerful creative economy challenges artists and creatives alike to reconsider their role in society, perhaps seeing themselves as leaders and drivers of this new world order instead of being a vital and necessary drain on limited resources.
Support systems that are responsive:
These include accessible transportation, safety and security, food and clothing, strong neighbourhoods, social services, advocacy and influence, and social, recreational, and aesthetic opportunities.
The report is broken down into eight sections that can be summarised as:
- Issues surrounding the learner needs of disadvantaged learners in the UK: This section defines “disadvantagement” as not being centred primarily on structural causes such as health, poverty and education but focused on denied access to the opportunities needed for self-sufficiency.
- Labour Market Issues in the UK: This section describes the rate of economic recovery in the UK and the steps that policy makers need to take to ensure this recovery is sustainable and the role that social enterprises can play in this.
- An Examination of Pedagogical Provision of statutory and non-statutory education in the UK: this section looks at the transferable skills that can be accrued through training in the arts and creative subject areas. It then focuses on the work of the Praxis Europe Creative Minds project.
- Societal Pressure in the UK: This section examines the pressures put on people who are disadvantaged in terms of poverty, health and welfare.
- Implications for Families and Communities: This section looks at how unemployment affects families and the OECD’s recommendations for dealing with this issue.
- This section reviews the wider national and EU-wide Implications for people disadvantaged in accessing employment, education or training opportunities.
- This section examines the implications for arts & craft skills by asking the question are training opportunities formal enough?
Turkey
The main purpose of this research paper has provided extensively information about ISMEK. In recent years, there has been great interest among educators and in the links between arts-based learning and human development. Arts and Crafts participation has additionally been linked to positive social outcomes, learning needs, reach to more trainers, provide more effective branches, increase mentee’s satisfaction, answer people’s demands, and increase employment opportunities.
First part is about disadvantaged learners. Giving percentage about disabilities investigate the importance of ISMEK. Disabilities institutions are divided into two parts which are formal and private schools. Furthermore, ISMEK has made a breakthrough with KOSGEB. All these institutions are discussed in next stage.
Secondly, the research paper clarifies the effects of ISMEK at labour market issues. Some of the branches are directly aimed to ensure employees to labour market forces.
The third part completely gives information about formal and informal education in Turkey and the implication of leaners.
The kind of social pressures such as economical, health issues and welfare situation is explained the next part. Not only mentioning the issues but also solving the pressures by ISMEK are discussed that the case is elaborated to improvement of welfare regime, health insurance and social structure.
Other next two parts are about arts and crafts based entrepreneurship and implementation to families and communities so that ISMEK observes the positive feedbacks on the society cope with competitive environment.
The last parts investigate the sufficiency of policies due to the effects on national and EU wide.
France: Introduction - From unemployment, skill sectors in dangerand in the sector: craftsmanship
In France, the number of unfilled jobs is estimated at 300,000. Craftsmanship; the leading enterprise in France, offers 250 craft skills and more than 510 different job opportunities, bringing together a diverse collection of know-how and skills. Some of these businesses are facing recruitment difficulties. A paradoxical situation, almost abnormal, in the current economic environment. According to the Labour Requirements survey 2016 led by the job centre 50% of hiring intentions comes from TPE (very small companies), that is to say establishments with fewer than 10 employees.
In France, millions of job seekers therefore coexist with the difficulties of the craftsmanship sector to recruit. Possible explanations have been put forward for the inability of the careers system to present craft careers, the lacklustre image of the trades in their modernity and the mismatch between training policies and programs and the economic reality of enterprises.
Hiring difficulties are being felt in the building trade, especially in finishing work. Recruitment projects for companies in the food industry are regularly considered difficult. The Industrial production crafts, whilst an essential cog for advanced industrial sectors (such as aerospace, automotive ...) are experiencing the same difficulties over and over again. Finally, today and in the future, all areas of personal services will carry real career prospects. Craft enterprises wishing to recruit are facing a shortage of qualified profiles.
Craftsmanship trades must also cope with an ageing workforce. Almost 30,000 companies are affected each year by the need for takeover or transmission. Of these, 63% are not taken over, because there are simply no buyers. In 2010, almost one apprentice in two was trained to be a craftsman.
Bitter observations, but at the same time bringing hope to many struggling learners. Hence the importance of seizing the subject of educational deficits head on, taking more than ever into account the situation and training of the most vulnerable groups.
Three (3) years after leaving school, young people from secondary education through apprenticeship have an employment rate 10 points higher than those who received education through conventional schooling. Craftsmanship is also an excellent way to project business creation, that is to say the creation of wealth and potentially jobs.
Opposite is the latest communication campaign National Fund for the Promoting and Communicating about Craftsmanship, baptised ‘What if the solution was right before your eyes.’
SECTION 1: Issues surrounding the learning needs of disadvantaged learners (culture, circumstances, educational attainment)
United Kingdom
For the purpose of this report, “disadvantaged” refers to all groups that encounter obstacles created by society that restrict access to resources, benefits and opportunities. The structural causes that underlie disadvantage include disability, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, indigenous or national origin, labour force status (employed or unemployed), income status and geographical location (remoteness from urban-based services).
Giving substance to the definition is difficult as there are varying degrees of disadvantage: one person may be more, or less, disadvantaged than another. It is possible that the degree of a person’s disadvantage and/or the cause(s) may change during the course of their life. As standards of living rise over time in a particular society, what is regarded as a disadvantage by one generation may not have been regarded as disadvantageous by an earlier generation. An example in respect of educational attainment is that being educated only to year eleven schooling probably would be considered a substantial disadvantage now, but would not have been considered so in the UK even as recently as the 1960s when an individual’s craft and skills were coveted more than their educational achievements.
The concept of disadvantaged, in respect of learning, is not centred primarily on those structural causes cited above but focused on denied access to the opportunities needed for self-sufficiency. People see themselves as disadvantaged to the extent that they are denied access to the same opportunities found useful by the majority of society. These include such tangible things as health, education, employment and capital and more personal issues such as autonomy, responsibility and self-respect,
A major feature of “disadvantagement” therefore is the presence of barriers to self-sufficiency. These barriers are the ways in which people are denied access to needed tools to support their development, and include:
- Unavailability of Resources. Resources (employment, training, business capital, etc.) may be unavailable in sufficient quality or quantity to certain groups.
- Inaccessibility of Resources. Even if available, resources could still be inaccessible to certain groups, because of cost, poor design, locale or distance.
- Society’s Regard for a Group. Disadvantaged groups are often unappreciated, devalued, or derided by the larger society.
- Institutionalised responses (government, programs, agencies, systems etc.) to the needs of certain groups may be inadequate or counterproductive.
- The labour efforts or other forms of contribution of some groups may be undervalued in the marketplace.
A disadvantaged learner is defined by the particular pattern of denied resources and barriers it faces, rather than attributable to structural causes. In this respect, they may face more than one barrier. Some barriers may be more easily surmounted or removed than others. Overcoming “disadvantagement” in terms of learning and employment, therefore, means overcoming or removing the barriers to self-sufficiency or self-determination. This can take many forms, depending on the pattern presented, but would include enabling or empowering the learner’s own efforts to develop the opportunities or resources needed for their own self-sufficiency.
Turkey
Regarding these issues, first of all we need to clarify what does “disadvantaged “mean for Turkish Society. When it is said disadvantaged it means people with disabilities, people isolated from the society and people living under low quality of life.
The percentage of people with disabilities in Turkey is %12.29 and this makes 1.559.222 people. The number of schools for disabled students is 814 and they are all private schools running under the rules of Ministry of Education. That means students with disabilities have to pay for their education themselves. This is a big problem for some families who cannot afford to pay for their children’s education in these schools and for these kind of families there is the support of the government. Some families prefer to send their children to the formal public schools and they receive the same education and training as the students without any disabilities. This is a challenging way for students with disabilities.