Expanding the curriculum to prepare students for the world of work
We have provided qualifications to Mauritian state and independent schools for over 100 years, which have been managed by the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate (MES) for over 30 years. Students take Cambridge O Levels at the end of Grade 11 to obtain the School Certificate, and Cambridge International AS & A Levels in Grade 13 to achieve the Higher School Certificate.
The challenge
The Mauritius government wanted to address the dual challenge of an economic skills gap, particularly acute in the IT sector, and youth unemployment and high drop-out rates among 16 year olds finishing compulsory education.
A new professional pathway within the upper secondary education system, designed to prepare learners for sector specific work without compromising their opportunity to progress to university, was considered a strategy to address both challenges simultaneously.
Our response
Together with the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate, and the Mauritius Ministry of Education and Human Resources, we developed an alternative (optional) curriculum for 16–19 year olds, the Higher School Certificate Professional (HSC Pro). Initially piloted from January 2015, this ambitious new curriculum aimed to:
- provide an alternative, professionally focused study pathway
- close the gap between school-leavers’ skills and employers’ needs
- reduce the number of students leaving education at 16
- meet the country’s economic needs, particularly in ICT
- challenge rates of youth unemployment
- prepare students for lifelong learning.
Drawing on the expertise in vocational education and assessment of our sister organisation OCR, together with the Mauritius Ministry of Education, we developed a curriculum and assessment approach which combined technical and transferable skills with academic subjects, thereby preparing students either for employment or for university.
The resulting HSC-Pro curriculum comprises three Cambridge International AS & A Level qualifications in academic subjects, the skills-based Cambridge International AS Level in Global Perspectives, the Cambridge Technical in IT qualification (from OCR) and compulsory work experience.
This combination makes sure that the reputation of HSC-Pro remains equal to its academic alternative (the Higher School Certificate), and that students taking HSC-Pro develop the knowledge and technical understanding sought by employers in the IT sector, together with transferable higher order thinking skills, such as critical thinking or problem solving, which prepare students for both work or university.
Training was a vital part of the process – to enable teachers to deliver the new qualifications, employers to provide work placements, and the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate to administer a new type of assessment.
During a year-long programme of training events, held in Mauritius, teachers were introduced to new approaches of teaching, based on active learning, and employers learnt more about their role as providers of workplace opportunities and assessors of student performance.
Key outcomes
Feedback from the first cohort has been very positive. Teachers have embraced the new teaching styles, resulting in greater student participation, while students have become more independent learners, and more critical in their research and analysis.
Parents have noted students’ increased maturity, making them better prepared for work or higher education. As a result, the Ministry, together with Cambridge, is now considering a similar student pathway for a different economic sector.