For this session Kate Evans will be in conversation with her brother Dave Evans, about how young people experience the transitions from ‘SEND student’ to being ready for adulthood and the world of work. Kate is a PhD student in Education at the University of Dundee with a particular interest in young people’s transitions.

Dave is the Work Experience and Supported Internship coordinator for Supported Learning at an F.E. college in Warwickshire (WCG). He supports young people from 16 to 25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND students), undertaking work placements and supported internships with local employers. Students involved all have Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) and typically join the college from both mainstream and Special Educational Needs schools.

The ‘Preparation for Adulthood’ course at the college is designed to offer students a rounded education, equipping them with the life-skills, workplace competences, confidence and resilience to apply for employment and to work towards independent adulthood. Dave, along with his team of job coaches, supports individuals to find and successfully navigate work placements. Mentoring support is flexibly offered, both at the placement and back in college.

Many aspects of this work fall into the category of becoming invisible if they are done well, but the role is essentially one of viewing transition as a process of growth, and noticing and responding to the challenges experienced by the students, working alongside them to facilitate their own solution-finding skills.

Dave’s own background is multi-faceted, starting as a 16-year-old apprentice car mechanic, then becoming a Chartered Engineer, working in design, research and management roles at Jaguar Landrover, and also in an eleven-year stint as a research journalist for Which? Consumer magazine. Many diverse aspects of his personal career experience have become assets in his current role. 

The seminar reflects on empirical research to examine the relationship of habitus and choice as a way to analyse the complex decision-making processes and transitions of students identified as belonging to what could be classified as 'lower socioeconomic communities', 'under-represented' or the dominated, in relation to social mobility. In this seminar she will focus on:

(i) how HE and social mobility, in relation to socioeconomic status, is fraught with tension and

(ii) the complexities in applying to HE for young people from lower socioeconomic communities.

Presenter

Lindsay Michelle Schofield is an Assistant Professor at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Previous to joining UAEU she worked as a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Childhood, Youth and Education Studies for Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in the UK.

You can access a biography and publications here:

• Faculty profile - United Arab Emirates University
• Research Gate
• DubaiMonsters - Academia

Latest article

Schofield, L., Takriti, R., & Atkinson, S. (in press). Higher Education, Social Mobility and Social Class: Importance of Habitus and Capitals when Analysing Student Choice and Transitions. International Journal of Educational and Life Transitions.