Vocational education is helping students expand their horizons

11 Jan 2007

The South Yorkshire Educational Project (SYEP) is committed to help raise awareness amongst young people, parents, teachers and employers, of the opportunities being made available through the increasing number of work-related, courses in South Yorkshire.

As 2007 gets underway, students are now able to access a wider range of vocational options than ever before, qualifications designed to help every individual recognise their full potential. The recent launch of an information source, www.voced.co.uk, for anyone at school thinking about what choices to make, is one of the Project's major innovations.

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) through Objective 1, Voced.co.uk offers detail on the types of qualifications and courses available - from construction to leisure and tourism to catering and hospitality. It provides links to a range of other sites, allowing young people to search for courses available in or near their school or college and search the job opportunities available across a variety of industry sectors in South Yorkshire. It also has a selection of real life case studies where young people, teachers and employers give their views on the value of vocational courses.

Fifteen year old Reece Williams, undertaking the second year of his joinery course with leading UK building and civil engineering contractor, Kier Sheffield, regards his vocational course as a great training ground for future success.

Reece said, "This course will help me to get into college to do what I want to do and I'll hopefully go to university and then find a good job."

Reece's tutor, Nigel Hudson, sees the course as a winner for both the industry and the students. Nigel said, "The construction industry is crying out for fresh talent. But, it's not altogether useful to send young people onto a site at 16 or 17 years old without a clue of how to conduct themselves. These students not only gain valuable construction-related skills, but importantly learn what the world of work is really like and prepare themselves accordingly."

Vocational courses aim to give young people exciting insights into the world of work and provide the skills employers are looking for. Generally courses are nationally recognised and are designed to be flexible, fitting in with other courses and qualifications such as traditional GCSEs.

Alan Marshall, South Yorkshire Educational Project, said, "With the massive growth in work-related courses on offer in the region, young people are being presented with more choice than ever before and the new online resource, www.voced.co.uk, gives young people, their families teachers and employers a first step guide to what's on offer, how the different qualifications work and what you can do next."

For more information on vocational education in South Yorkshire and the options available, visit www.voced.co.uk today.