Martin Allen Labour market statistics, published by the Office for National Statistics, for January to March 2010, continue to highlight the plight of young people and confirm many of the arguments in our book Lost Generation? The latest figure show unemployment levels, as measured by the Labour Force Survey method rising again - sounding alarm bells … Continue reading The real ‘lost generation’?
Author: Martin Allen
Education is losing its legitimacy – time for staff and students to step in
Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Education Guardian 13/04/10 Another "lost generation" will emerge this summer as many graduates, school and college leavers are added to the 900,000 16- to 24-year-olds out of work, despite the recession having supposedly ended. With demand for university courses again reaching record levels, including from those re-applying after being … Continue reading Education is losing its legitimacy – time for staff and students to step in
Lost Generation? New strategies for youth and education – New book by Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley
'With wit and simplicity, insight and passion, Allen and Ainley illuminate how the promise of "education, education, education" has come to its miserable end- and what can be done to get us out of it' Ken Jones, Head of Education Department, Goldsmiths College, Univ of London www.continuumbooks.com Another ‘Lost Generation’ … Continue reading Lost Generation? New strategies for youth and education – New book by Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley
‘Gissa job’
Martin Allen Education for Liberation Journal of the Socialist Teachers' Alliance No 1 April 2010 If Ofsted, SATs, league tables, rising workloads, the never ending culture of target setting and performance management continue to be the most visible shortcomings of New Labour’s ‘standards agenda’, then official statistics showing 950 000 18-24 year olds out of … Continue reading ‘Gissa job’
DPR Conference presentation-Lost Generation? The class of 2010
Concern with promoting social mobility has been central to all Labour governments since the Second World War. However, rates of relative social mobility (when the chances of upward mobility improve for working-class children in relation to middle-/upper-class children who, as Roberts 2009 points out, only exceptionally move downwards) have remained low despite all the changes in education at all levels designed to promote it – not to mention society recently officially becoming a ‘meritocracy’.
A-level: From ‘academic and vocational’, to ‘soft and hard’.
Martin Allen NUT 14-19 discussion paper (For an update on A-level developments see https://radicaled.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/a-level-of-expediency/) Comprehensive schools have fought hard to build up their sixth-forms. The early comprehensive reformers were critical of A-level- an examination designed for a small minority of post-war school students. Yet as Caroline Benn and Clyde Chitty recognised Thirty-years on comprehensive schools ‘accommodated … Continue reading A-level: From ‘academic and vocational’, to ‘soft and hard’.
The New Business Studies Generation
SRHE day event University of Greenwich 27th Jan 2010 The New Business Studies Generation Martin Allen Though schools and particularly further education colleges continued to offer a range of courses in commerce, office practice and typing skills – generally for girls! - ‘Business Studies’ as a distinct subject is a comparatively recent addition to the … Continue reading The New Business Studies Generation
What should we teach young people about work and economy?
Education for Liberation conference November 14th 2009 : Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Most schools now provide ‘vocational alternatives’ to conventional academic courses but, even in FE colleges, these are largely classroom and textbook based ‘applied’ courses which, with a few notable exceptions, develop little in the way of any practical skills … Continue reading What should we teach young people about work and economy?
The Tories and the Diplomas
Martin Allen TES letter 18/09/09 I’m no fan of the diplomas, but I do have some sympathy for those teachers and lecturers working hard to deliver them. Rather than being genuine alternatives, the diplomas have ended up being the ‘worst of both worlds’ mimicking the academic qualifications they seek equality of status with … Continue reading The Tories and the Diplomas
14-19 Education: Ten years New Labour
Martin Allen NUT Teacher to Teacher supplement Autumn 2009 New Labour has devoted considerable time and resources to reforming the 14-19 curriculum. It’s almost a decade since ‘Curriculum 2000’ when A-levels were reinvented - divided into AS and A2- and GNVQs were rebranded -first as ‘vocational’ and then ‘applied’ A-levels and GCSEs. Since then, A levels and … Continue reading 14-19 Education: Ten years New Labour
Education, Economy and Society 