The other major constraint that the teachers identified was the need to achieve a certain level of unit standards or other outcomes (usually employment or scaffolding to another course) in order to satisfy funding requirements. Several teachers said that for all the problems with unit standards, they also felt that there were a lot of positive aspects to them, especially in giving learners a sense of achievement and acknowledgement of their skills – often for the first time in their lives.

Teachers whose programmes involved achieving these outcomes were somewhat mixed in the degree to which they felt pressured to achieve the standards. A few said that they felt ‘driven’ by the unit standards, with very little room to follow alternative topics or dwell too long on those that interested their learners for fear of “getting behind.” Some teachers were certainly aware of this pressure, but still did not feel unduly restricted by it. Both of the following comments come from teachers running Youth Training programmes:

  T1: I don’t feel too constrained. Sometimes I think maybe being a slave to unit standards can be a constraint that we try to keep them meaningful and they relate to what people are doing and have some kind of practical application. There’s a pressure for people to put all these unit standards and that sort of thing, but it’s actually quite good ‘cause there are a lot of very relevant unit standards out there and I suppose there isn’t really that huge pressure on this program. We do have to get a certain core of them, to get people through. The other thing I suppose - it’s not really a constraint on the teaching. It’s a frustration in a sense that the outcome system for programmes is quite frustrating. When you put all that effort and energy in to someone and you know that they have come such a long way because they’ve decided they’ve wanted to basically …, but then two months after they do the course, if they’re not in another programme, or if they’re not in a job, then they’re not an outcome for our course. Whereas they’re improving in their quality life and their ability to be in the community, all those kind of broader literacy things have improved for them tenfold, you know, immeasurably, that is a definite frustration. I don’t know who constrains, but we just try to do it anyway, it’s not just literacy and maths, it’s that whole picture.
  T2: I think probably one of the main constraints is the fact that we are outcome-based and the outcomes for many of these learners is good, but unrealistic. I think that, for some of them, they have had to do such a vast turnaround in actually coming to a course, you know socially, some through drug, alcohol issues etcetera, which all sort of impact on why they’re not at school. But that part is not really taken into consideration, you know, for some of these people, it’s going to take a lot, lot longer. I mean we do have some freedom in that, but the actual going and sticking at a job or a course, yes sometimes is a bit unrealistic. And also in the way that for some of these, they are the first one in their family to actually have stepped outside that area of benefit dependency and you know, the different dependencies. I think it takes a bit of courage because often there is a real type of war outside between all those different issues you know. But you know, they are the ones who turn up regularly and my ones aren’t too bad. … I suppose in many ways I do try and challenge them to look, you know a bit higher.