T-levels get the go ahead

Chancellor Philip Hammond’s ‘Brexit budget’ has              confirmed the UK  government is to go ahead - and spend £500 million on the new ‘college based’ technical education pathway - now to be referred to as T-levels.  Based on proposals in last summer’s Sainsbury Review and the Cameron government’s Post-16 Plan, … Continue reading T-levels get the go ahead →

‘Bringing back the grammars’ – putting it in perspective

Newspaper headlines have announced the ‘return of the grammars’ and newspaper letters pages will invariably continue to publish harrowing accounts of the effects of selection on student well being and self-esteem. But the 1944 tripartite model in which grammar schools occupied pride of place was a highly organised system, administered almost entirely through LEAs with … Continue reading ‘Bringing back the grammars’ – putting it in perspective →

A good general education for everybody

The Guardian (Editorial February 20th) has now joined the attack on University Technology Colleges* correctly arguing that directing ‘non-academic’ students’ onto a vocational curriculum at 14 - what it terms ‘backdoor selection’ - is wrong. Some five years after Alison Wolf’s review had slammed many qualifications for being ‘worthless’ in the labour market, the paper likens the … Continue reading A good general education for everybody →

Schools that nobody really wants?

University Technology Colleges (UTCs) for 14-19 year olds, were established during Michael Gove’s period as Education Secretary but are most associated with Lord (Kenneth) Baker, the creator of the original ten subject national curriculum under Mrs Thatcher, but now a campaigner for better vocational education. Baker argued that Britain’s economic difficulties and low rates of … Continue reading Schools that nobody really wants? →

New apprenticeship figures, but a similar story

 ‘Our goal is for young people to see apprenticeships as a high quality and prestigious path to successful careers’        Foreword to English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision   HM Government Dec 2015   Latest statistics for apprenticeship starts continue to provide a rather different picture to that pained by government ministers. It’s true that there have … Continue reading New apprenticeship figures, but a similar story →

Bringing back manufacturing jobs?

  The UK is not an industrial economy in the traditional sense, despite what some politicians try and persuade us -remember George Osborne’s ‘march of the makers’. Like other countries, the proportion of the GDP devoted to manufacturing has dwindled as consumers become richer and spend a larger proportion of their income on services.  Though … Continue reading Bringing back manufacturing jobs? →

More on the Skills Plan

The DfE and BIS published the long awaited post-16_skills_plan  in the summer of 2016. Based on recommendations from the Sainsbury Review, its main proposal was a new ‘technical route’ with qualifications available from Level 3 and above and with parallel status to the academic pathway. Now included in Theresa May's industrial-strategy            … Continue reading More on the Skills Plan →

A new technical route?

Technical and vocation education would appear to be one of the main beneficiaries of Theresa May’s new ‘industrial strategy’.   May has announced £170m of additional funding for institutes of technology (we assume this will involve an upgrading of existing FE provision on a regional basis) While several high-tech sectors have been identified, the government will … Continue reading A new technical route? →

Apprenticeships : many more applications than vacancies

Recent Department for Education statistics show that the number of apprenticeship applications far outstrip the number of apprenticeship vacancies. For example, between Aug 2015/16 there were a total of 1,656,680 applications for 211,380 vacancies a ratio of about 8 to 1 – about half of these were from 17-18 year olds. Three quarters of vacancies … Continue reading Apprenticeships : many more applications than vacancies →