Pathways to Higher Education and employment

Refugee young people may have gaps in their learning resulting from frequent or long interruptions to their schooling. They may need to learn English and their previous education may have involved the study of different examination syllabuses. They may also have complex needs, for example unaccompanied refugee young people frequently fall within the 16 to 19 age group.

Despite facing these barriers, many refugee students achieve success and go on to higher education or employment . It is vital that they can attend courses that can meet their needs, including learning English to access the subjects they want to study. The meeting the needs of all students and supporting language and learning areas of this website give information about this.

The Government wants all young people to exercise greater choice from a wider range of courses and qualifications. Young people are encouraged to support their more specialist choices of subjects with a broad range of more general studies that will equip them for an increasingly flexible employment market. The ‘Success for All’ strategy has the objective of reforming post-16 education and training across England and aims to raise standards within the learning and skills sector, so that all learners can meet their potential, regardless of where they live, or where they learn. It also sets out to increase participation and improve outcomes for learners and employers.

Success for All provides guidance to education providers in the learning and skills sector on:

Meeting needs and improving choice
Putting teaching, training and learning at the heart of what we do
Developing the leaders, teachers, trainers and support staff of the future
Developing a framework for quality and success
Accelerating quality improvement.

Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is undertaking strategic area reviews (StAR) in a number of local authorities. StAR identifies the strengths of current provision, including provision for minority groups such as refugees, and seeks to build on these whilst improving areas of weakness in order to improve quality and success rates.

Aimhigher programme is an integral part of Government strategy for promoting participation in further and higher education. Aimhigher seeks to widen participation in higher education, particularly among students from non-traditional backgrounds, minority groups and disabled persons.

Good practice

Support students to make informed choices

Give extra help to refugee students looking for a school or college place. In some local authorities Connexions Personal Advisers (PAs) or other advocacy and advice workers provide invaluable assistance to newly arrived families and young people. The supporting access and enrolment area of this website provides information on agencies and services that can provide individuals with further support.

Provide comprehensive and accessible information to refugee students. Make sure they are fully informed about their curriculum options and where to obtain further advice and support. Useful websites include:

UKCISA, the Council for International Education, provides free advice and information to international students . Refugee students will find useful information and a telephone advice line

College4us provides useful information about applying for further and higher education, including detailed information about Routes to University.

parentscentre 16+ gives advice on further and higher education courses

Young People’s Gateway provides information on a variety of topics about future study and work.

Students may need support to overcome a range of problems presented by special educational needs, or difficult personal, family or social circumstances. The multi-agency working and meeting the needs of all students areas of this website provide guidance on this.

The supporting access and enrolment area of this website provides access to websites that offer additional information on further and higher education courses, and agencies and services that can provide individuals with further support.

Build on prior learning

Initial assessment of a student’s language and curriculum skills allows the school or college to acknowledge prior learning and identify the most suitable curriculum pathways, in close consultation with the student. For further guidance on the assessment of students who are learning English as an additional language, go to the meeting the needs of all students area of this website.

Refugee Assessment and Guidance Unit (RAGU) provides information on obtaining recognition for qualifications and experience and on comparing overseas and UK qualifications.

Provide a flexible curriculum. Curriculum flexibility helps meet the diverse needs of students and motivates them to achieve. Schools are developing further ways of meeting the needs of all students, in part through an emphasis on a more personalised curriculum. Where individual schools find this flexibility difficult they are encouraged to operate in local partnerships and to collaborate with others in order to aid innovation. As the diversity of learning opportunities in the 14-19 curriculum increases, the needs of refugee students should be easier to address. Guidance can be found on the 14-19 curriculum area of this website.

QCA 14-19 learning provides advice on providing creative, flexible and differentiated responses in the 14 to19 curriculum to meet individual needs.

The supporting language and learning area of this website provides guidance on supporting access to academic courses that enable refugee students to achieve their full potential. Strengthen both academic and vocational programmes available to young people by providing language support.

A range of curriculum pathways ensures students’ needs are met

Schools and colleges can collaborate with a variety of partners to increase the range of choices available to refugee students. Collaboration can, for example, ensure access to specialist language support, effective induction, and an increased range of academic and vocational pathways. Guidance is available on the Collaboration area of the teachernet.

14-19 learning suggests that the pace of learning can better target individual needs through a diverse and differentiated curriculum. This way the curriculum can offer a range of opportunities at different levels. The guidance gives detailed examples of appropriate general or specialist learning programmes to match individual needs and potential.

Give good careers advice

Students’ immigration status may affect their entitlements. Courses recommended should be accessible and suitable. Further information about the entitlement of refugee children and young people to education can be obtained from the Children’s Legal Centre and in the Rights and entitlements area of the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website.

Cultural factors can influence young people’s preferred study choices or career. Some refugee young women face different pressures and expectations than some of their contemporaries. Certain jobs may have a different status in other countries than in the UK. Recruitment procedures can also differ from country to country so young refugees may benefit from extra support in developing job-search skills and, with their families, additional explanation and information about procedures. Some refugee young people will aspire to return to their home country as soon as it is safe to do so. They may benefit from advice about jobs or courses that will be helpful to them on their return.

Resources available to promote higher education and employment and improve advice and guidance include:

Careers Education and Guidance in England: A National Framework 11 to 19 This DfES guidance provides schools, colleges and work-based training providers with a tool to help them improve the quality of career learning opportunities they offer to young people.

Refugee Assessment and Guidance Unit provides information about the recognition of overseas qualifications in the UK, guidance to refugees who wish to prepare themselves for employment in a variety of ways including volunteering. Summary advice is in eight languages.

The 14-19 learning area of the QCA website gives information about using qualifications and awards. Practitioners should ensure refugee students understand how qualifications can assist them to achieve their goals and their full potential

Opportunities to catch up and engage

Develop supplementary opportunities that help refugee students catch up with their studies and connect them to local community and friendship networks. The enrichment and study support area of this website provides information about this. Schools and colleges can also link refugee students to refugee community organisations and other voluntary organisations which have set up out-of-hours activities. For example Sheffield Futures Connexions in Sheffield has developed Services to Young People to include a specialist programme for a group of refugee young people, including the World Wide Kids Club (.pdf).

Increase refugee students’ understanding of Higher Education

Some colleges provide a student-learning adviser who:

Provides information about university open days and taster courses
Offers opportunities to shadow students at local universities
Introduces prospective students to the UCAS applications process
Supports them in making their applications .

Useful websites include:

Higher Education Funding Council for England has developed Aimhigher guidance to provide young people with all the information they need to get started on the road into Higher Education.

Aimhigher practitioner provides guidance to deliverers of further and higher education.

Regional partnerships have developed local information and resources. For example, the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside Aiming Higher Access to Higher Education Project aims to raise aspirations to enter continuing and higher education from under- represented communities. The website provides useful links to information and resources across the UK.

Support unaccompanied refugee children .

Schools and colleges can develop close working relationships with other agencies and services involved in the care of unaccompanied refugee children. The supporting unaccompanied refugee young people area of this website provides information about this. Intensive support from key staff such as mentors or Connexions PAs can ensure that students’ attendance and their other learning needs are supported effectively. Connexions practitioners contains the guidance report Supporting young asylum seekers and refugees.

Case study

Fast track to A level success (.PDF)

At Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, strategies have been developed to provide access for students, who have not acquired fluency in English, to study A and AS level courses. This case study shows how one Somali student was helped to achieve A level success.

The Border and Immigration Agency is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.