The government’s ParliamentToday website (23/03/16) has attempted the usual ‘spin’ with the latest apprenticeship figures, pointing to 84 000 starts by under 19 year olds between August 2015 and January 2016 and to 366,000 across all levels and age groups during the current parliament. Skills Minister Nick Boles also told the site there has been a … Continue reading Apprenticeship figures don’t match the optimism
Author: Martin Allen
The EBacc and Progress 8
There will be a new headline performance measure for secondary schools from September 2016. Schools will no longer be ranked according to the number of students passing achieving 5 A* to C GCSEs. Instead, Attainment 8 data will record the average score for their year 11 students across 8 subjects. More significantly they will … Continue reading The EBacc and Progress 8
Social mobility’s ups and downs
Sociologist John Goldthorpe’s argument that decades of investment in education have not improved social mobility, deserves to be taken seriously, given his position as one of the leading authorities (if not the leading authority) in this area. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/13/decades-of-educational-reform-no-social-mobility Goldthorpe argues that improvement in ‘relative’ social mobility –an increase in the improvement in educational chances of … Continue reading Social mobility’s ups and downs
Higher Level Apprenticeships: A slow start.
David Cameron qualified his pledge to create three million more apprenticeships with ‘That’s three million more engineers, accountants, project managers’ http://press.conservatives.com/post/109906886845/david-cameron-a-britain-that-gives-every-child. Expanding the Higher Level apprenticeship will be considered fundamental to this, with the then Business Secretary, Vince Cable arguing at its 2012 launch that: ‘Investing in skills is central to our drive to boost … Continue reading Higher Level Apprenticeships: A slow start.
The rise and fall of vocational education
Full-time vocational education courses developed in colleges and school sixth-forms in response to increased staying on rates from the 1980s. They were seen as alternatives to academic learning and offered through training organisations like City & Guilds and BTEC now long since subsumed into larger examination awarding bodies. They concentrated on particular occupational areas, particularly … Continue reading The rise and fall of vocational education
Two new books on social class
Reviewed by Patrick Ainley for Marx & Philosophy Review of Books http://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2015/2127 Erik Olin Wright (2015) Understanding Class. London: Verso. 260 pages. £14.99 pbk. ISBN: 978-1-78168-945-5 Mike Savage (2015) Social Class in the 21st Century. London: Penguin Random House. 449 pages. £6.29 pbk. ISBN: 978-0-241-00422-7 Contradictory class locations? Erik Olin Wright is a US sociologist … Continue reading Two new books on social class
Morgan instructs schools to promote apprenticeships.
Following Ofsted Chief Michael Wilshaw’s criticism of ‘one size fits all’ academic learning, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has criticised state schools for ‘outdated snobbery’ and promised a new law that ensures they promote technical education and apprenticeships as real alternatives to university. Morgan told the Independent: ‘For many young people going to university will be … Continue reading Morgan instructs schools to promote apprenticeships.
Academic education for some. Vocational courses for the others. Wilshaw’s answer to ‘One size fits all’
In a widely reported speech to the think-tank Centre Forum, Ofsted chief Michael Wilshaw has slammed the ‘One-size-fits-all’ emphasis on traditional academic subjects by secondary schools, declaring that this ‘will never deliver the range of success that their youngsters need’ https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ambitions-for-education-sir-michael-wilshaw Wilshaw is not promoting a more student friendly type of learning though, far from … Continue reading Academic education for some. Vocational courses for the others. Wilshaw’s answer to ‘One size fits all’
Apprenticeships. Channel 4 puts the boot in
Some three years after the BBC's Panorama dramatically exposed the misuse of apprenticeship funding by the supermarket chain Morrison; this week’s Channel 4 Dispatches provided further disturbing evidence of how young people continue to be short changed, but also public money misspent, despite government reassurances that the reintroduction of apprenticeships has been a resounding success. … Continue reading Apprenticeships. Channel 4 puts the boot in
Osborne’s Spending Review. An apprenticeship levy and a ‘truce’ with austerity?
George Osborne’s decision to impose an apprenticeship levy on large firms represents a significant change in policy. In Germany and other European countries, employers are required to make a significant cost towards the cost of apprenticeship and skills training. Under Osborne’s scheme, employers with an annual wage bill of more than £3 million will have … Continue reading Osborne’s Spending Review. An apprenticeship levy and a ‘truce’ with austerity?
Education, Economy and Society 