Pre-existing skills, Qualifications and Educational levels

The extent to which the pre-existing educational level of students matters for their admission to the course depends on the course’s goals. For programmes that are not focused on acquiring academic skills, and that will not require students to communicate fluently in oral and written form, it may not make sense to filter based on educational qualifications. Certain training may instead require people to be of a particular gender, age, or skill profile (e.g. to have existing knowledge of business management, electronics, web design, etc.).

The general qualification level of prospective students for an academic course will, however, determine realistic learning objectives and programme level outcomes. Once these are decided, the course then has to admit students who will be able to engage with the teaching and learning environment. As discussed in further detail in the section Student selection process, this may mean that students are required to sit short aptitude tests as part of the admissions process to confirm that they will be able to learn in a particular language or at a particular level. The nature of the course objectives will also determine which subjects are relevant: while a student hoping for admission to a Social Work degree may not require advanced mathematical skills, if the entrance process for that degree programme involves a mathematics exam then it will still be necessary to ensure that students are adequately prepared to sit this.

One difficulty with assessing whether displaced students have the required qualifications for selection onto an educational programme is equating qualifications from their country of origin with qualifications from the host country. It can be unclear what a grade in one country translates into in another, which has much wider implications for professionals who struggle to have their qualifications recognised in countries of asylum. Organisations with experience of working with refugee learners have often built up a knowledge base on this, but learners should also be supported where possible to access documentation that vouches for their qualification level.

For bridging programmes that are aimed at supporting students to enter higher education, it is appropriate to assess students’ motivations for joining the course and their expectations of it. If their goals and skills do not align with the course learning outcomes, it could quickly become a disempowering learning environment for them and cause disruption for their peers.

Pre-existing skills in FFA FFA students presented a wide range of qualifications which were not always easily understood by the teaching team. For instance, when asked about their schooling level, we had the following situation: 47.06% had completed high school, of which 43% had their certificate at hand ( a further 12.5% had it but at home and 19% had lost it), delivered by their home countries of Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia Sudan, and Uganda. The chart below indicates the language(s) of instruction of FFA students at primary level, which added difficulty both in terms of understanding transcript and in organising teaching. Additionally, it is interesting to note that a quarter of the students had already applied to university before joining FFA, with two of them even attending some courses. Formal qualifications do not, however, necessarily match actual skills and it was interesting to see that of all the topics that would eventually be introduced in FFA, students felt the least comfortable with mathematics – which is perhaps the most ‘universal’ of all.