The government has announced that it will review higher education admissions to improve social mobility. Gavin Williamson says the current admissions system penalises bright pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds. While the overall trend is for grades to be over-predicted, Institute of Education research says that socially disadvantaged students are likely to be marked down. The … Continue reading Should university admission procedures be changed?
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Covid and the furlough – new types of green jobs, backed by automation is the way forward.
Writing about industrial capitalism over 150 years ago, Marx thought that the replacement of workers by machines would be a consequence of increased competition and the push to restore the rate of profit. This would lead to mass unemployment and increased poverty and misery amongst the proletariat. Yet at least, until now, falls in the … Continue reading Covid and the furlough – new types of green jobs, backed by automation is the way forward.
Winter closes on the ‘Covid Generation’ (CDBU post)
Forever Young….
Since the start of the pandemic, official unemployment figures have been distorted by the furlough, but now, with just over 2 million workers still furloughed and with the scheme being replaced by new funding arrangements from the end of this month, the Resolution Foundation https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/jobs-jobs-jobs/ predicts an unemployment rate of just over 7 per cent … Continue reading Forever Young….
(Stop-press) Pegged back, but now fighting back?
800 first year students to join Bristol rent strike https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/19/bristol-students-to-withhold-rent-over-universitys-lack-of-support. Will this spread like the virus?
Pegged back but not (yet) able to fight back – the Covid Generation faces a long winter.
As winter closes in on the ‘Covid Generation’ – those young people most affected by the pandemic – there continues to be few signs of optimism. Youth unemployment, though creeping up significantly, has not reached the levels feared in the early stages of the lockdown, but with furlough support winding down, it’s predicted a million … Continue reading Pegged back but not (yet) able to fight back – the Covid Generation faces a long winter.
Youth joblessness edges upwards
It is still too early to assess the real, longer term effects of the pandemic on the labour market; but as the furlough winds down, even if some businesses have reopened, this month’s figures show that (official) levels of employment have fallen by significantly. Overall, employment is down by nearly half a million since the … Continue reading Youth joblessness edges upwards
Training without jobs
After spending billions on the Job Support Scheme, Rishi Sunak has now signalled his intention to ‘balance the books’ and reign in government spending, even if the Chancellor was quick to qualify this as being a ‘medium term’ objective – thus hoping to stave off some fears about an imminent return to ‘austerity’. All this … Continue reading Training without jobs
University lockdowns – the nightmare continues for the covid generation
As government focussed attention exclusively on reopening schools ( in the hope more parents would be able to return to work), universities anxious about the financial implications of empty campuses and with young people pressured by their schools and the anxieties of parents, taking up places rather than deferring, it hasn't needed rocket science to … Continue reading University lockdowns – the nightmare continues for the covid generation
‘Building back better’: not much sign in education!
Despite conflicting medical evidence and signs of a Covid ‘second spike’ - Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings are desperate to send all children back to school this week. But except for photo opportunities, the Tories are not interested in schools or learning - education had been given little attention since Johnson became PM and … Continue reading ‘Building back better’: not much sign in education!
