Policy context
Curriculum for Excellence
Curriculum for Excellence seeks to ensure that teachers can shape learning needs to suit individual young people, and work in collaboration with colleagues in different disciplines. Its aim is to provide a more flexible and responsive learning environment which will meet the needs of pupils as they progress though school.
Using the resources developed for Be What You Want will not only support you to tackle gender stereotyping, it will also help you to meet many of the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. The activities are particularly relevant to the following:
- Social wellbeing (HWB 0-09a – HWB 4 -09a, HWB 0-10a – HWB 4-10a, HWB 0-13a – HWB 4-13a): exploring gender stereotyping will help pupils understand more about gender equality, and build their capacity to contribute to positive change within their school and the wider community.
- Planning for choices and changes (HWB 0-19a – HWB 4-19a): pupils will explore aspects of different careers and occupations and the skills involved in these, and build an understanding of the world of work.
- Skills for learning, life and work: The information, skills and concepts covered will support work around numeracy, in dealing with large numbers, percentages and statistics; literacy, with a strong focus on supporting discussion and collaborative work; and, the opportunity to build knowledge and understanding of the workplace, and what to expect from employment.
Educating children and young people on the impact of gender stereotyping, and building their capacity to make informed choices, can help to facilitate individual resilience and collective social wellbeing. It will also contribute towards developing the four capacities, and therefore aligns with the core purpose of Curriculum for Excellence. If children and young people understand how gender stereotyping can influence their ideas about what jobs are open to them, and their own preferences and capacities, and how to challenge this, they will have greater capacity to consider a diverse range of subject, training and career options. The work of Be What You Want will therefore support the delivery of the DYW Career Education Standard and Work Placement Standard.
Developing the Young Workforce
Scotland's Youth Employment Strategy is centred on implementing the recommendations of the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, which reinforced the need for early intervention to tackle gender stereotyping. The report calls on schools to monitor the gender balance of subject choices, as part of a broader recommendation for equalities to be embedded across the Curriculum for Excellence. It also recommends that schools develop specific measures to counter gender stereotyping. This includes supporting teachers and career advisers to undertake training on equalities through Continuous Professional Development (CPD) opportunities, which will build capacity among professionals to tackle gender stereotyping.
The recommendations which focus on gender are as follows:
- Recommendation 26: Scotland should embed equality education across Curriculum for Excellence.
- Recommendation 27: Promotion and communication of career options should actively target equalities groups to promote diverse participation across gender, BME groups, young people with disabilities and care leavers. The promotion of Modern Apprenticeship opportunities should be to the fore of this activity.
- Recommendation 28: Senior phase vocational pathways should be designed to encourage more gender balance across occupations.
- Recommendation 29: The Scottish Funding Council and colleges should develop an action plan to address gender disparities within college education. This should be underpinned by realistic but stretching improvement targets. The Scottish Funding Council should report on this annually.
- Recommendation 30: Skills Development Scotland should develop an action plan to address gender disparities within Modern Apprenticeships. This should be underpinned by realistic but stretching improvement targets. SDS should report on this annually.
Although some of these recommendations focus on the work of other agencies, the delivery of each of these is contingent on the tackling of gender stereotyping as early as possible in children and young people's education journeys. Schools are therefore at the centre of this work.
Career Education Standard
It is the intention that implementation of the standard will improve the quality and consistency of learning about work and careers, and improve young people’s ability to make informed decisions about future pathways. Work to tackle gender stereotyping will support the delivery of this standard by informing young people about the world of work, building their capacity to challenge assumptions about their capabilities and preferences, and helping them to be what they want to be.
Work Placements Standard
It is the intention that implementation of the standard will significantly improve the quality of learning undertaken in the workplace. The Be What You Want campaign can help to support the delivery of this standard by building young people's capacities to understand and challenge gender stereotyping, and to consider the widest possible range of subject, training and career options.
