Reading the region

Sue Willis and Peter McClelland

Centre for Curriculum and Professional Development

School of Education

Murdoch University

For the symposium

Restructuring gender, reworking schooling and reschooling work

Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, Brisbane,

Queensland, 30 Nov-4 Dec 1997

with Jane Kenway and Peter Watkins

This paper draws largely upon case studies of three schools arising out

of a research project, The Construction of Gender Within the New

Vocational Agenda for Schools1. Each is a government high school with

students from years 8 to 12 and with a substantial but recent

commitment to vocational programmes including structured workplace

learning. The locations of these schools two metropolitan and one

rural vary considerably in their industry and occupational bases but

each has experienced major changes in local labour markets over the

past two decades. As we will show, the cultural and financial resources

available to these schools vary considerably as a function of their

social geography. This has an impact on the nature of the vocational

programmes they are in a position to provide which is barely

acknowledged, let alone addressed, in much of the policy literature

advocating the 'new look' entrepreneurial vocational programmes in

schools.

Three localities and their schools

Kwinana lies on the shore of Cockburn Sound, the heavy industrial strip

at the edge of the metropolitan area of the state capital, Perth. The

'strip' comprises over 400 industries and businesses with an annual

industrial production of $2.5 billion generating 11% of WA's annual

exports. While over 11 000 jobs are directly created within the strip,

economic restructuring of the region over recent decades led to

retrenchments on a large scale, an existing unemployment level of 12.5%

and a high level of second and third generation unemployment. The

community experiences all of the problems associated with

socio-economic difficulty. According to the principal of the local

senior high school, parts of the surrounding area have had a rather

unsavoury reputation and students bring to school everything from

'violent baggage to paedophilia rings'. The permanent police parking

bay in the front of the school serves as a constant reminder of these

'difficulties'.

Nonetheless, the local town council for Kwinana is very active in

promoting the community and its development and there appears to be an

increasing distinction between Kwinana and the neighbouring beach-side

town of Rockingham; the former progressive and developing real sense of

community while the latter is seen to be stagnant. The demographics are

changing somewhat with fewer people on social benefits and there is a

growing spirit of optimism about the township. The principal of the

local high school provides an example of Kwinana's progressiveness.

[W]e wanted to turn that cottage over there into a restaurant [for the

school's programmes] and ... we are fortunate in a sense because

they're doing a cosmetic lobotomy on the town. Satterley's ... have

been given however many hundreds of millions to do it. So they're quite

keen because one of their briefs was to do something for the

adolescents in the district.

The Kwinana Industries Council (KIC) is largely funded by several major

companies in the region with many small companies being associate

members. Its mission statement draws on the themes of 'community' and

'locality'.

Kwinana Industries Council

* to coordinate the activities in Kwinana around a range of common

issues

* to provide effective liaison with the local community

* to promote a positive image of Kwinana industries

* to highlight Kwinana industries' contribution to the community

* to work towards the long-term viability of Kwinana industry

The KIC has initiated an 'Excellence in Education Compact' with the six

government and two non-government high schools in the 'strip' which

offers as its aims,

* Achieving excellence in education

*Broadening the learning experience of students

* Creating a better understanding of commerce and industry

*Helping students gain a better understanding of the working world

that is their future

According to the principal of our research school KSH in the Kwinana

township itself, the Compact was initially ineffectual.

[W]e just wallowed around sending in guest speakers and things, you

know, really doing nothing ... until they finally got someone appointed

to make something actually happen.

The KIC funded a full-time School-Industries Links coordinator who

works to the management committee which comprises representative of

each of the Compact schools and the KIC. The coordinator is largely

located at KSH but works in each of the schools and has

responsibilities to develop school-industry programmes including

traineeships, vocational programmes and structured work-based-learning

programmes. The KIC has been very active in promoting the Compact, for

example, taking out double-page advertising spreads in community papers

to publicise its educational programmes both to students and to

employers. In addition, one of the largest local employers has its own

Training and Development Consultant, until recently a teacher, who

chairs the Compact committee and manages all of the structured

workplace learning and traineeships for the company.

In terms of post-compulsory vocational programmes, KSH is well placed

to tap into the strip and has a good relationship with the KIC. It has

the highest profile of the Compact schools, one of the largest

vocational education programs in WA, and it claims 'probably' the

largest range of offerings, and is often approached by people wishing

to establish similar ventures.

The emphasis on vocational education is, however, relatively recent. In

1994, the retention rate to Year 12 was only 30% almost all of whom

were in the tertiary entrance examination track (TEE). The Principal

speaks with some sarcasm of the earlier approach to the post-compulsory

years. Of a Year 8 cohort of 200, 'we had the huge success rate of

three kids actually getting into university but we were a TEE school of

some size you know'. At the same time, he said, the school was the only

one in the state which was ranked 'in an Australian wide survey' in the

highest of 10 categories for socio-economic difficulty 'so its that

kind of school'. With Commonwealth support, the school commissioned a

telephone survey of previous and present students and parents and the

feedback was unequivocal: the school was not offering the programmes

that students and their parents wanted. The school introduced a suite

of vocational education programmes during 1995 and 1996 and, in 1997,

the retention to Year 12 had risen to an astonishing 80%. About 65% of

upper school students are now in the vocational training track, with

the rest divided between the tertiary entrance track (TEE) and the

general studies track which lead to graduation but not directly to

tertiary education. The vocational programmes are in Business Studies,

Industrial Studies, Performing and Visual Arts, Community Services, and

Hospitality and Tourism and all involve structured workplace learning.

KSH, in conjunction with the KIC, also offers traineeships in

Engineering Metals, Engineering Production, and Hospitality and Tourism

accredited industry training programmes with students paid the

National Training Wage. These involve KSH in providing students with

the necessary courses for them to graduate as well as 11 national

training modules (54% of the year 11-12 programme). TAFE provides a

further 7.5 modules (10% of the programme) and students work for 82

days each year (36%).

There is a sense of a school reflecting the needs of the local

community and industry and of industry supporting the local community

and schools in remarks like the following from the local Commonwealth

Employment Service Director.

The firms that take part in the KIC ... have a strong sense of their

community obligations so they do as much as they can for schools [and]

their labour market information is probably better than mine in terms

of what's going to be available ...

The Principal of KSH suggests that local support is significant.

I mean you'd be pretty hard pressed if you couldn't get structured

work-place learning in this area ... just about the whole strip is

available. You've got all the big industries and they all support us

pretty well [with] money and time and skill.

One of the largest industries on the strip provides advice,

We've actually gone into the school and re-designed their workshop for

them, so it becomes more like an industry workshop. We're working on

that now, particularly with their union convenor ... there were some

hazards that needed to be brought up to an industry standard. ... We've

looked at the protective equipment that the kids wear ... we insist

they wear it but [it wasn't] insisted on in school.

It has recently made a strong commitment to the locality via a recent

policy decision,

[F]or the first time this company has advertised for its apprentices

locally rather than going through the West Australian ... because one

of the recommendations was that companies should look towards employing

from ... the local catchment.

There is also a strong and developing relationship between KHS and the

Technical and Further Education provider (TAFE) at nearby Rockingham

with teachers from the school and TAFE collaborating in the development

of National Training Modules. TAFE, it appears, is appreciative of the

much needed boost in numbers!

Girrawheen is a highly residential working class suburb of Perth. Like

Kwinana, it has a high proportion of second and third generation

unemployed families and evidence of serious social problems. At the

local senior high school (GSH), the marked parking bay for the police

spatially 'outranks' that of the principal. It is a diverse

multicultural community with almost 50% of the community born overseas

and 7.5% of Aboriginal descent. Some 55% of the local community are

classed as low income earners and more than 75% have no qualifications,

the 'binding factor is economic disadvantage'. There is one large

shopping complex in the area but no public sector or local government

offices or significant industrial enterprise. There are no industry or

business groups or companies which regard Girrawheen as part of their

'natural' local community and the parent community itself does not

provide access to employment opportunities as might be the case within

more privileged communities.

According to the vocational education coordinator at GSH, its students

require a vocational orientation in their programme. Over 110 students

(about 40%) in the post-compulsory years are enrolled in a general

vocational programme (INSTEP) or specific vocational programmes in The

Arts, Business Studies, Environmental Studies, Health and Leisure,

Manufacturing Industry Studies, Vocational Economics, and Food,

Hospitality and Tourism. Given its locality, however, the school is

completely reliant upon its own employer data-base for both its

structured workplace learning and its extensive programme of work

experience for year 10 students. This data-base has been developed by

the part-time clerical assistant to the Youth Education Officer.

This school has been involved for 18 years [in work experience

placements} and if you take a look at most schools, that's a long track

record ... When I first started [six years ago] there was no computer

... and there were approximately 100 employers on file. I now have over

1000, but of those there's probably about 200 that don't take students

... they get really peeved when they're rung all the time. ... There

are some people on there I might use once every three or four years but

they're there because I know they'll help us if we have students

interested in that area and then we have other people that we use 15

times a year so it varies considerably. ... the data-base is mine and I

guard it with my life.

The assistant to the YEO is passionate about Girrawheen as a locality,

her children went to GSH, she has lived and worked in the area for a

long time and appears to have extensive personal networks which are

used to feed back into the school programme. She also works on the

front desk at a local chiropractic clinic and uses this opportunity to

further the interests of the school.

[W]e have several people who come through there who are now employers.

I've worked in the medical field for many years ... and people know you

and you get to know them. ... So there are clients that come into the

Health Centre who know who I am and know my family and my daughter

works there part-time ... they know all these things because it's a

sharing environment. They also know that I work at the school, that I

have this [work placement] hat two days a week and when they run

businesses they will often take our students.

What would happen to the extensive network should she leave the school

is unclear. It depends upon a great deal of personal good will and, as

she says, she guards it with her life. She will not let just anyone

telephone employers the data-base, it appears, is only as good as the

person who makes the telephone calls.

I heard a friend say that somebody rang up from school and they just

blaffed off, you know, like 'this is Girrawheen High School, I'm Fred

Barnes and I'm looking for ...'. Wow! Hang onÓ We approach it slightly

differently. I think you need to pick people who are doing your

telephone contact very well.

Considerable effort is consumed in wooing employers who have no

particular ties or loyalties to the Girrawheen community. The following

exchange underscores her views on the importance of good communication

and reciprocal trust between the school and employers and particularly

the recognition of the considerable effort made by many employers.

When you ring them up ... even if they're slightly stressed they'll

say, 'look I'll get back to you' and they will and they will take our

students at very short notice. In certain areas, like cabinet making,

they have busy and quiet periods. We'll have a student out and they'll

ring and say they're dead quiet ... it's a waste of time them coming.

We'll ring another employer and explain what has happened and they'll

take them at short notice ... you only get that by building trust

between the employer and the school.

Of potential employers, she comments,

[W]e have to expand our data-base because you wear businesses out. The

clerical area is probably the most difficult because ... the structured

workplace learning [means] they go out three times a year for two weeks

and that's a heavy workload. ... some of the businesses that we contact

now only deal with us because they like the way we structure things ...

they like the fact that our kids are screened very well to make sure

they actually belong in the program ... that is, this is where they

want to be not where their parents want them to be.

Another teacher also comments on the importance of having a good

rapport with employers.

[W]e've established very good relationships with our employers ... We

get to know them personally and we've had quite a few of them come into

the school and do demonstrations for the kids and they take a personal

interest. They take a pastoral role as well.

Employers are scattered at considerable distances and many,

particularly small business proprietors, have to be individually

trained by the school as regards the requirements of Structured

Workplace Training. Employers who do not take the requirements

seriously are clearly a matter of considerable difficulty for the

school and absorb a great deal of effort. The costs are considerable in

time and money and the school does not have ready access to either

within the local community. This can cause considerable stress for

those involved in the vocational programmes. Girrawheen's isolation

from an employer base actually shapes, to some extent, the contours of

the program. An Industrial Studies teacher makes this point well,

I would like to place the Year 12's out one day a week but ... [there

are] problems placing kids because we're predominantly a residential

suburb and the industrial suburbs around us ... are not on bus routes

... we're 7 or 8 km away ... it makes it difficult. The kids can

arrange for a two week block to get their lifts ... so it's a two week

block, three times a year.

Teachers at Girrawheen look longingly at Kwinana which they regard as

relatively well placed because 'Kwinana has backing of local industry

while Girrawheen is stuck out in the suburbs.' Certainly, there is no

equivalent to the level of support in good will, time and money

provided by the KIC.

Margaret River is a small town in the mixed farming region of the south

west of the state. Until the seventies the community relied on dairy

farming, poultry and forestry and was considered destined to stagnate.

Instead, Margaret River has boomed through the rural decline with an

economy based largely on wine growing, surfing, tourism and beef. A

considerable number of people in Margaret River have moved to the area

in the past two decades including yuppies, hippies and alternative

lifestylers. Many are professionals and the community is overwhelmingly

Anglo and middle class.

Until recently, year 11 and 12 students had to attend school in a

nearby town but, after a prolonged campaign from the local community,

in 1995 the school became a senior high school. The community is very

supportive of the school and, says the Principal, there are 'tremendous

opportunities for us to find structured workplace learning placements'.

Furthermore,

We've been trying to market our school within the community as the

place to go when you want to employ people and we really have been

quite strong. I mean the structured work base learning and the work

studies programmes that we have ... allowed us to get out to employers

and say, 'hey look, this is better, this is a much better, much more

sophisticated model than the old work experience, this is real and

significant learning.'

There is a joint Education Industry Management Committee which includes

the President of the Chamber of Commerce, President of Rotary, owner

manager of a local business, the manager of the Business Enterprise

Centre, a member of the Professional Women's Association, a Shire

representative, a student and a teacher. Also,

...we have a hand in all the major service clubs and organisations in

town, and we cultivate the business community and understand basically

that school is not the only place that education takes place.

[Vocational Education Coordinator]

Students are able to take TAFE-based modules and, indeed, TAFE has

contributed $110000 to upgrade the kitchen in the new Home Economic

Centre to commercial quality with the school to have first call on the

facility during the school day, and TAFE after the school day, and 'we

negotiate to meet one another's needs if the occasion arises'.

The school also has no difficulty in finding people within the

community to work with students in school on 'enterprise' projects of

their own. As the Vocational Education Coordinator comments:

I must say that being in a country town we have a very strong support

base and we cultivate it dramatically. For example, on Monday night we

have a work base learning graduation dinner where we've got 150

employers coming.

With a total school population of 440, and a senior school of 125, the

school is small by most standards. Nonetheless, it offers students

considerable flexibility and sees itself as at the 'leading edge' of

structured work-place learning for which, in 1996, it was awarded a

certificate of 'best practice'. All this in a context in which, of 60

students completing year 12 in 1996, 36 took the Tertiary Entrance

Examinations (TEE) and almost 30 proceeded to university education.

Unlike at Kwinana and Girrawheen, however, all school subjects at

Margaret River are 'on the grid', there is no separate vocational

stream. Students proceeding to TEE are encouraged to also take

vocationally oriented courses, and many do so. There is a concern about

the possible fragmentation of the school community if the vocational

stream is run as a discrete unit, 'it doesn't create a harmonious type

of environment' and may become a ghetto and used as a 'dumping ground

[for] behavioural problems and low achievers'.

All students are able to take Structured Workplace Learning although

they must first enrol in the course Work Studies. Quite a number of

students need to use their school holidays periods for workplace

learning and may travel some distances. For example, one young woman

wanted to increase her understanding of nursing,

... so we put her out and she has done two years work of work base

learning, given up her holidays to do it, roughly five weeks a year. At

the end of Year 12 she has [been] all around the south to Woodside

Maternity Hospital in Fremantle, down to Augusta, Margaret River itself

and Busselton. So what she's actually done is completed fourteen

subjects which is two bonus subjects including four TEE for university

entry and two units of the industry specific work base learning course

in health and community services. She passed with flying colours ...

and so basically she ... hasn't had a holiday but sees it as really

worthwhile.

There is to be a considerable emphasis on 'enterprise' with small

groups of students managing various parts of the school's farm, or

undertaking their own projects. For example, the school offers a course

called Small Business Management and Enterprise. At the beginning of

the year their teacher designs the course around the interests of

groups of students. Of the seven Year 12 students enrolled in 1996,

four girls worked in viticulture and they ran the vineyard on the

school farm for that year. Their work included organising the picking

of grapes, titrating the grape juice, designing a wine label, and

producing a wine for which they won a local competition. Two boys

worked in horticulture including building their own facilities,

developing a market and selling the product. The school brings in

outside mentors from the local community since the teachers themselves

rarely have the specific skills needed and, of course, students have

access to ready markets in their community. The metaphor of the

'village' comes through strongly in our conversations with teachers in

the school.

Reflections on the impact of locality

Each of these schools has undertaken a very significant structuring or

restructuring of their upper secondary school offerings over a period

of two or three years in response to claims that post-compulsory

education should become more directly vocationally oriented. It is part

of a national and international trend. Nevertheless, while ostensibly

reacting to the same global forces, these schools cannot function apart

from their localised contexts. Thus, for example, the global trend

towards the generalisation of employment insecurity produces responses

in both teachers and students which reflect the financial, geographic

and cultural resources of the local community.

As we have seen, all three schools have taken on the vocational agenda

wholeheartedly but they have, nevertheless, responded somewhat

differently to the question of the balance between vocational and

general education. The appropriate mix between general and vocational

education in schools is contentious and somewhat confused by the lack

of agreement about what constitutes 'vocational'.

At Kwinana not everyone is convinced that the vocational pathways are

the way to go with the dissenters arguing largely on the grounds that a

broad general education is better for students. Some are of the view

that focussing on the employment opportunities in the local community

will restrict students' options and the demon of schools producing

'cannon fodder' for industry is raised regularly. The principal

dismisses these arguments with some sarcasm,

... you've got the TEE elite on the staff and in the community and they

are the vocal ones who objected to introducing anything ... It's this

whole idea which basically says that to do a TEE poorly is still better

that to not do a TEE

and suggests that some teachers are simply unwilling to change their

views of what their role and their subject matter is:

You will still get some people who are locked in and don't want to do

it because they are quite happy teaching their 6 kids in chemistry yr

12. ... They don't want to change.

You could look at a number of industries where it could happen,

horticulture is another one. ... I mean we could do with horticulture

here but we don't have any member of staff who is remotely interested

in doing anything different from teaching the sciences although it

will change.

Indeed, in the face of the massive increase in retention rates into

year 12 from 30% to 80%, the unemployment which faced the great

majority of students who were leaving at the end of year 10, and the

somewhat surprising increase in the absolute numbers choosing the TEE

track, the arguments against the vocational programmes have been

difficult to sustain.

And so those kids are now not walking the streets. They're doing things

which [they are interested in] and they're very highly motivated, [for]

the vocational programme kids motivation is not a problem. Well it's

not the same problem that it used to be. During this year our TEE kids

were the ones we found the most difficult to crank up. That took a lot

of work.

That a great many students at this school find the range of vocational

offerings more rewarding than the academic curriculum seems

indisputable, but the rapid increase in enrolments appears also to be

related to the image the school has created of being 'in the know'

about, and in some sense responsive to, labour market projections.

Students and their parents take on trust that these programmes will do

what the academic programmes will not, that is, get them a job. At

times, this faith is rather touching as was the case with the young

women who was sure the school would assist her to become a travel agent

even though she refused to answer the telephone!

Indeed, the close relationship with the KIC suggests to many that the

school's programmes are closely connected to, and reflect the needs of,

local industry. And certainly, a number of the programmes have a heavy

industry bias, but not all or even most. Indeed the school offers a

very wide range of vocational specialisations some of which, such as

hospitality and tourism, provide very few job opportunities in the

immediate locality. Furthermore, as a spokesperson for the major

company and participant in the KIC comments,

When people talk about [whether] we are really looking for a market

place for future employees, we don't directly employ many people at

this site without further qualifications, so there aren't a lot of

opportunities for entry level employment. Other than trainees and

apprentices, there's no other jobs for them we have a 1% attrition

rate so we don't have a lot of vacancies ... I guess our role ...is to

try to influence kids about the sorts of opportunities that there are

particularly with the job skills shortages that are around .... We have

a lot on work experience and work placement so we have a lot of

commitment to kids even whilst we don't directly employ them.

When asked how he would judge the success of the programmes, the

principal at KSH remarks,

Student satisfaction, student motivation ... Jobs I don't suppose we

use that as a measure really ... I mean we just assume the kids are

going to get better jobs.

And so too do the kids. And, indeed, there is a perception that many of

those jobs are a direct consequence of students having the opportunity

to prove themselves during work placements.

At Girrawheen, 40% of students are in the vocational track, another 40%

are in the general track comprising accredited but non-TEE courses, and

20% are in the TEE track. The Vocational Education coordinator argues

that the TEE track is essentially vocational but that, unlike the other

two tracks, the general programmes 'don't lead anywhere [because they]

have no natural articulated pathway into further education or training.'

The school would like to attract some of these students into more

vocationally oriented pathways.

We can say to these kids look you still get an accredited course, you

still get secondary graduation, you still get a good general education

but we are going to give you some kind of focus and link to the world

of work or future training. I think that helps with motivation because

they can see they have got a path.

Girrawheen, however, does not appear to have quite the same level of

credibility about connections to industry and TAFE as does Kwinana and

it may explain the lower retention rates and the continued

attractiveness of the general streams for many who do stay at school.

Some teachers even question their own offerings. For example, a teacher

in Food, Hospitality & Tourism laments her lack of experience in

commercial/industrial catering and her inability, because of problems

of distance, of offering her students the experiences they need. She is

now trying to develop a relationship with the local TAFE campus to see

whether she could use their facilities or at least allow her students

to observe the TAFE students preparing a meal. But even that poses

difficulties, since the TAFE is five kilometres away,

Last year it was easy, I've got a seven seater car and I could take

them because I only had seven Year Elevens and six Year Twelves. This

year I've got too many and we haven't got any money to buy buses, can't

afford that in this course.

Indeed, the school has very little connection with the local TAFE which

a number of teachers appear to see as a threat to the continued

security of their own courses. Their most recent handbook for students

states that 'Girrawheen is currently trying to establish a system where

students can complete part of their program with TAFE or a private

training provider.' Such statements do not carry quite the 'ring of

confidence' that the heavy promotion of Kwinana's programmes by the KIC

gives.

At both Kwinana and Girrawheen, the TEE and vocational streams are

effectively quarantined from each other and some teachers are very

anxious to preserve the purity of the TEE option lest the 'good kids

don't come at all'. At Margaret River, the TEE option is sufficiently

secure it seems, that the school can bring a more strongly vocational

slant to it, including through the promotion of structured workplace

learning and 'enterprise' projects. Of course, the projects in which

students engage connect closely with small business and self employment

and rely upon the secure economic base provided locally or within the

school itself, as was the case with the wine project. Furthermore, some

students see this as an opportunity to develop the skills they need to

gain employment while they are University students.

We have shown elsewhere (Kenway and Willis 1995) the historical

disadvantage females have faced in employment because of their poorer

access to apprenticeships and formal paid training opportunities, and

argued that their increased access to general education over recent

years has not provided them with the security and economic rewards

promised to them. Nevertheless, arguments that the TEE or general

streams offers better opportunities and that 'to do the TEE poorly is

still better than not do a TEE' appear to hold some sway in advice

given to students, particularly female students, who continue to

predominate in the those streams and to less often take the vocational

options. A representative of one of the large companies, for example,

expressed his dismay that a female student was dissuaded from taking up

one of the new engineering traineeships. The twenty places have all

gone to boys:

we actually wanted to use it as an opportunity to get more diversity

into our work-force in non-traditional roles ... we ended up with four

girls going through the selection process and one who actually made it

to the end who was then talked out of it by a [female] teacher.

... they were saying 'you can do better than this ... it's not for

you'. ... we were getting ready for a network of our female people to

support [her].

At Margaret River, the principal is strongly committed to a 'general'

education and stresses the importance of empowering individuals,

What we're trying to do is teach kids enterprise [but] things like

Social Studies get neglected and History and Politics and then what do

we turn out ... we're turning out factory fodder ... [adults] who will

have the political skills and understanding of 14 year olds and

understandings of society of 14 and 15 year olds.

However, despite the rhetoric of a blended and homogeneous learning

community there appears already to be a gender divide developing within

the school,

We have a small number of girls at school anyway ... A lot of the boys

are in the program because of the work-base learning. Basically the

reason is that the lads want to get out there as fast as they can. We

have a lot of girls in tertiary courses and so basically that's the

split.

Furthermore, Margaret River is in a privileged position in its capacity

to provide 'entrepreneurial' projects and flexible work placements

locally which enable students to blend the vocational with the general

and academic and to gain the best of both worlds.

Clearly, the locality has a powerful impact on what school can provide,

but this is not always in obvious or predictable ways. Indeed, what

counts as 'local' is as much a matter of psychology and resources as it

is of distance. For Girrawheen the dispersed nature of the work

placements demands a degree of student mobility in order to get to the

actual work placement which is often unrealistic given the

socio-economic circumstances of the school community. As a teacher

points out, 'they're issues of the real world',

We've had transport issues, we had one girl in tears ... because she

wanted to do it with the Navy and she had to go all the way down to

Fremantle to be there by 8 am so she had to leave at 5 am.

For many students 'distance' is the major issue they face,

... it's pretty hard, especially when you don't know where you're going

... plus the time, you've got to wake up early in the morning.

(female).

Well, I didn't like it because I wanted somewhere closer ... I've

always been too far away. I've been to Wangara and all the way to

Wangara, I just wanted to be close for once ... you don't have to wake

up so early to go there. (male).

If I work in Sorrento it's far away and the transport hasn't got it ...

it's a problem with transport. My Mum is working and she has to take me

down there and then take us back to study. ... That's why I changed, a

change for me to Perth now and that's better because the transport is

much better. (female)

I catch the first bus that goes there in the morning, I'm already late

when the bus leaves. ... [My parents] are both at work so that's a bit

hard. I was riding a bike but it got stolen. (male).

Sometimes the 'family network' becomes over stretched,

My Mum drives me, but then she said yesterday 'it's costing me heaps

driving you to and from work. I have to change my clothes to come and

pick you up ... next week you have to start catching a bus. (female).

And for others, the work placement merely replicates the school/home

travel pattern:

I live in Lansdale and to get home from here I have to catch three

buses and my Mum brings me to school ... with my placement my Mum takes

me there and then I catch three buses home, so its just the same now. I

mean, I finish at 2 pm and get home at 3.45 pm. (female).

In one case, the school arranged with the employer for another employee

to pick up the student 'from the bottom of the street' on the way to

work. This good idea became unstuck when the student was late several

times. The teacher reconstructed the conversation,

Well, I didn't get up. Why didn't you set the alarm clock? We don't

have one. Somebody in the house has to have an alarm clock. No, the

only clock we have is on the video'.

As the teacher finally realised, nobody in the household was employed

or had been for a long time and so they woke up when they wanted to in

the morning. There was no necessity for the household to have an alarm

clock.

Not all students experienced such difficulties, some were able to call

upon a network of family or friends,

Gina and I went to a child-care centre and Gina actually had her

licence so we went together, but another time it would probably be

either your parents or a bus. (female).

If my brother's not using his car ... I get it for my work experience.

If I can't use it my Dad picks me up and drops me off. (male).

Mum, Dad, Aunty or even people from work ... they're really friendly,

they just ask us ... whereabouts do you live, that sort of thing. (male).

However, it was clear that distance and the associated costs were a

major issue for many students, 'It's pretty expensive to travel up to

town ... it'll be about $20. Plus you have to wear standard clothes'.

There is considerable community dissatisfaction with the level of

public transport and the problems of 'getting to work' both exacerbate,

and are exacerbated by, the sense of isolation of some students. They

don't find it fair that they should be cut off in this way.

Transport was also a problem for students at Kwinana and for similar

reasons. Notwithstanding, the claims that there are ample work

placements around Kwinana, in Hospitality and Tourism, in particular,

the majority of placements are some distance away often in Fremantle or

Perth, and the same financial and other constraints apply as at

Girrawheen. One girl commented,

I don't think there's many work placements around Kwinana. ... I think

its just two. ... There's only the [local restaurant] but they took

that out because no one goes there for a meal, they go there to get off

their trolley.

And a local CES officer remarked,

There is a huge horticulture industry around the back of Kwinana ...

but unless they've got their own transport they can't get there because

there's no bus service. You look at the shipyards at Henderson ... for

a lot of the ship-yards the buses don't start early enough or finish

late enough. There's opportunities in Hospitality once they turn 18 but

the bus service to and from Fremantle doesn't allow them to get to and

from home.

Students were scathing about the poor quality of the bus services,

indeed for some buses simply didn't exist for where they needed to go

to work. However, the distances they sometimes needed to travel did not

seem to be the issue for Kwinana students, who appeared to have a

strong sense of their local community while being prepared to travel

'into town'. For some their sense of locality embraced the nearby

Rockingham area as evidenced by one female student who, when asked what

she would do if her planned child-care course didn't run in 1998, said,

'I might go to Rockingham [High School] to see if I can find out [their

courses] for next year or the year after'. Another, however, pointed to

the oft-quoted rivalry between Kwinana and Rockingham in describing her

unhappiness with her work placement in a surf-shop in Rockingham.

it's just the people [in Rockingham] treat you really awful because

you're different from them.

By contrast in Margaret River, the question of transport was not

raised, nor the cost of work placements occasionally as much as 200 km

away! More to the point, perhaps, the sense of community is not

disrupted by distance. Indeed, as the case of the girl who wanted to do

work experience in nursing showed, the distances travelled are

interpreted as reflecting the support the school and extended community

provides enabling students to fulfil their needs and wishes. By

contrast, for students at Girrawheen, the distances travelled are

interpreted as reflecting an inability of the school to provide what

they need in the face of their circumstances.

All three schools place considerable importance in having good

relationships with the employers who are to provide work placements for

their students. Notwithstanding the obvious similarities between

Kwinana and Girrawheen, however, in certain respects Kwinana and

Margaret River have more in common. Both schools have a comparatively

concentrated field of operation and there is a sense of drawing their

employer base largely from the surrounding region. In neither case is

this actually true, indeed, as we have suggested, students from

Margaret River have travelled to Perth for work placement and many in

Kwinana travel to the coastal city of Fremantle or the capital Perth.

The real commonality lies in the strong sense of belonging to a local

community or 'village' which the two schools project, a feeling which

is largely missing at Girrawheen.

At both Kwinana and Margaret River, the employer community is

pro-active in this, regarding itself as having some interest in and

responsibility for what happens in local schools. Not surprisingly,

however, this plays itself out differently in the two localities. In

Kwinana, the industry groups 'have a strong sense of their community

obligations' but they are unlikely to be the parents, relatives and

friends of the students in the school, to actually know them. The

relationships, although congenial, are simply professional. One of the

largest organisations involved in the KIC programmes, has developed a

very formal arrangement with rigid documentation in place which largely

reflects its own work culture and has taken out 'its own blanket

[insurance] to cover all the kids that come on all our sites'. This is

due to the fact that the 'Education Department's policy insurance is

not as broad as we would like it to be ... it still comes back on the

employer. '

The commitment to local schools may blend elements of both self

interest and altruism, 'its very helpful having the Compact in place

because now it means we can exclude all these requests we keep getting

from all over the place', but either way they are management decisions,

distant from the day by day realities of students' lives. In selecting

students they,

look at appearance ... first up appearance gives us a guide on how they

look after themselves, Its not always the be all and end all. Looks are

only skin deep. But appearance and also initiative.

The KIC involvement with schools is largely a matter of managing the

community rather than being organic to the community. Contrast this

with Margaret River where people know each other, where teachers,

students, parents and employers live within the one community.

A lot of people see this small community as worth protecting.

Basically they might say that a certain lad or certain girl ... needs a

bit of guidance and she needs to be around people who have been through

what she's been through and do you think you could help. ... [W]e also

emphasise very strongly ... the impact of role models, identification

and we're trying to get that to happen, especially down in Margaret

River where you have so many single parent families, male and female,

and it is actually quite hard for a parent to raise an adolescent

without some help.

So ... we also have an agenda that our students are employed locally

and that our town retains its youth and we provide a high quality of

employment for our people and give them as much opportunity to expand

as we can.

Much of the support provided to the school occurs at the level of

individual contacts, the school needs someone who knows about pig feed

and knows who to contact. The community is small, the links

pre-existing.

In stark contrast to Kwinana and Margaret River, at Girrawheen all the

moves must come from the school and so too all of the 'nourishment' of

the links with employers. The widely dispersed nature of the structured

work placements poses considerable practical difficulties but it also

means that employers do not necessarily know each other or the school

and its teachers and students particularly well. This is not to say

that individual employers are not supportive or that work placements

are not rewarding for students. Indeed, teachers at Girrawheen recount

stories of employers' care.

I had a student who was in Vocational Business Training ... she

actually wanted to go into the Trades but her parents wouldn't let her

and one of the places I sent her was a very big sign company and they

noticed she was really unhappy in the office ... so they let her go

down on to the factory floor. They wrote this brilliant letter about

how great she was and how this is where she should be and not in the

office ... her parents started listening to her and she enrolled for a

pre-apprenticeship course.

and an interesting gender commentary.

Our employers are very loyal to us and they are very good at taking

females if that is what they [the students] want to do and they're not

just doing it to spite Mum and Dad.

In another case,

We had a student who was offered a job in her second work placement

which was at the end of Term 2, but the employer also realised that it

was too close to graduation to give it all up, so we worked it out [so]

she would go out either one or two days a week as ongoing work

experience with the employer. It was actually the employers' idea to

start that which was really good. It was nice to see the initiative and

we got to decide on what days she would go.

The quality of work placements is, however, quite clearly more

unreliable at Girrawheen than they ought be, notwithstanding the

school's best efforts. As for Kwinana, the link with employers is

formal but in this case it is also at a considerable distance and

scattered. There is less of a sense of a community out there looking

out for the interests of its youth.

Conclusion

In this paper we have gestured to some of the ways in which the

particular vocational educational programmes of these particular

schools connect with the local community and local labour markets, how

schools understand the implications of these for their students, and

how they respond in their interactions with local industry and in the

development of vocational programmes.

The example provided by these three schools points to the geography of

inequality. The financial and cultural resources which they can bring

to bear on their vocational offerings are intimately bound up in their

locality in not always obvious ways. The suburban school in closest

proximity to a major city has the greatest difficulty in finding work

placements and its students feel the most isolated and experience the

greatest travel difficulties. The small rural town provides a rich

employer base with 150 employers attending a school function. In its

first year of offering vocational programmes, the school wins an award

for 'best practice' which focuses upon the 'entrepreneurial'

opportunities it offers students who are largely tertiary bound. This

example of the middle class co-option of the vocational agenda is held

up as a model for other schools to copy schools which are scarcely in

the position to do any such thing. We also see, however, that of the

two working class schools, one is richer and the other poorer in ways

that have little to do with traditional socio-economic indicators. The

implications of these differences between schools are hardly

acknowledged let alone addressed in much of the policy literature about

vocational education in schools.

Reference

Kenway, J. & Willis, S. 1995, Critical Visions: Rewriting the Future of

Education, Gender and Work, Corporate Communications Section,

Department of Employment Education and Training, Canberra, Australia.

1 This project is funded by the Australian Research Council and is

being conducted by Sue Willis, Jane Kenway and Peter Watkins with

research associates Karen Tregenza and Peter McClellend.