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The end of the road? Critiquing the nascent trend of secondary education transition data

The end of the road? Critiquing the nascent trend of secondary education transition data
The end of the road? Critiquing the nascent trend of secondary education transition data

This paper identifies a nascent trend in several countries regarding increased collection, public availability and use of destination data for graduates of secondary education, with policy ambitions to support pupil-level decision-making and drive provider-level accountability. This trend mirrors the previous development of such data for higher education graduates and underpins a policy direction of data visibility and data engineering to support labour market objectives, via an assumed approach to change that privileges financial factors in career decision-making. Reforms in England are identified as an example of extreme practice, illustrating the practical potential of such data as well as potential pitfalls. Building on the pre-existing critique, the authors highlight three biases particularly prevalent in the new data: bias for continued education, bias for more stable, traditional forms of employment that disadvantages particular sectors, and bias for a provider-centric view of outcomes. Mitigations via an enhanced role for adolescent career counselling and improved data are discussed.

School-to-work transitions, accountability frameworks, career counselling, destination data
1363-9080
298-311
Percy, Christian
d37d3021-538b-4c89-bc74-13f4b156ec85
Tomlinson, Michael
9dd1cbf0-d3b0-421e-8ded-b3949ebcee18
Huddleston, Prue
0a140d4b-4308-4f0a-87da-d23e9ec62f1c
Percy, Christian
d37d3021-538b-4c89-bc74-13f4b156ec85
Tomlinson, Michael
9dd1cbf0-d3b0-421e-8ded-b3949ebcee18
Huddleston, Prue
0a140d4b-4308-4f0a-87da-d23e9ec62f1c

Percy, Christian, Tomlinson, Michael and Huddleston, Prue (2020) The end of the road? Critiquing the nascent trend of secondary education transition data. Journal of Education and Work, 33 (4), 298-311. (doi:10.1080/13639080.2020.1820966).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper identifies a nascent trend in several countries regarding increased collection, public availability and use of destination data for graduates of secondary education, with policy ambitions to support pupil-level decision-making and drive provider-level accountability. This trend mirrors the previous development of such data for higher education graduates and underpins a policy direction of data visibility and data engineering to support labour market objectives, via an assumed approach to change that privileges financial factors in career decision-making. Reforms in England are identified as an example of extreme practice, illustrating the practical potential of such data as well as potential pitfalls. Building on the pre-existing critique, the authors highlight three biases particularly prevalent in the new data: bias for continued education, bias for more stable, traditional forms of employment that disadvantages particular sectors, and bias for a provider-centric view of outcomes. Mitigations via an enhanced role for adolescent career counselling and improved data are discussed.

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Percy, Tomlinson & Huddleston - JCD SI draft - End of the Road v2 - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 5 September 2020
Published date: 1 October 2020
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords: School-to-work transitions, accountability frameworks, career counselling, destination data

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 444003
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444003
ISSN: 1363-9080
PURE UUID: 3ebd5a83-1f54-4599-9180-33283cff3373
ORCID for Michael Tomlinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1057-5188

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 21 Sep 2020 17:09
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:55

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Contributors

Author: Christian Percy
Author: Prue Huddleston

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