‘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
14-19 hiatus
As 2016 draws to a close we are still awaiting a statement on the English Baccalaureate/ upper secondary curriculum from new Secretary of State. Justin Greening - the consultation period for Ebacc ended almost a year ago. Nicky Morgan’s – now largely shelved –White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere reaffirmed the Cameron government’s objectives of a 90% participation rate … Continue reading 14-19 hiatus
Daily Mail: More bad news for readers!
Education’s ‘Great Reversal’
They used to focus on skills shortages, but now more labour market commentaries are emphasising the under- utilisation of skills and qualifications; particularly in relation to the excess supply of graduates compared to the number of ‘graduate jobs’ available. More recently still, concern has focussed on the extent of unpaid student debt - the consequence … Continue reading Education’s ‘Great Reversal’
Important NUT research on the secondary curriculum
The NUT has just released King’s College research on the effects of government policies on the secondary curriculum. Based on a sample of 1800 secondary members and in depth school case studies, key findings show amongst other things: 74% of teachers consider the Ebacc requirements are dramatically narrowing the curriculum. 84% worry that the excessive … Continue reading Important NUT research on the secondary curriculum
Still a ‘Great Training Robbery’
Updated and revised. This 'final' version covers developments since the 2015 General Election - like the employer levy, The Post-16 Plan, the Institute of Apprenticeships, the further development of the Trailblazers. Despite these however, provisional figures for 2015/2016 continue show that apprenticeships continue to be mostly 'low skilled and dead end' and for most young … Continue reading Still a ‘Great Training Robbery’
