A Great Training Robbery? Initial Research on Apprentices

A NEW DIRECTION FOR VOCATIONAL LEARNING OR A GREAT TRAINING ROBBERY? INITIAL RESEARCH INTO AND ANALYSIS OF THE REINVENTION OF APPRENTICESHIPS AT THE START OF THE 21ST CENTURY                                                                    ESRC Seminar   28/02/14    Martin Allen & Patrick Ainley The new emphasis placed on apprenticeships by the Coalition (achieving 1.5 million starts since coming to office) is a response … Continue reading A Great Training Robbery? Initial Research on Apprentices →

Are young people the new poor?

Newspapers have reported research findings from the Intergenerational Foundation on how young people’s prospects continue to worsen compared to other sections of the population. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/10658002/The-over-50s-enjoy-record-earnings-while-younger-workers-wages-fall.html http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/feb/24/young-workers-pay-divide-widens For the Foundation, young people are now the ‘new poor’ – facing  higher levels of unemployment than adults, suffering significant declines in wages and having to spend growing proportions … Continue reading Are young people the new poor? →

Grammar Schools: learning from the past to avoid repeating mistakes

Patrick Ainley  Today politicians offer everyone a chance of rising up through education, ignoring the fact that there isn’t employment for all those who qualify. They think bringing back grammar schools will restart what sociologists call the upward social mobility that existed after the war when selected working-class children could move up into growing managerial … Continue reading Grammar Schools: learning from the past to avoid repeating mistakes →

Stuart Hall – rethinking education, economy and society

Stuart Hall, who died last week, was regarded as one of Britain’s leading intellectuals and exerted huge influence on recent academic, political and cultural debates.  Though not writing much specifically about education, Hall’s work on the importance of ‘culture’ as a key political area of social action and intervention provided a new intellectual framework for … Continue reading Stuart Hall – rethinking education, economy and society →

Up to 27 applicants for every apprenticeship vacancy

As The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10617382/Up-to-27-school-leavers-competing-for-each-apprenticeship.html) has reported;   recent National Apprenticeship Service figures show a huge shortage in the number of apprenticeships –with 12 applicants for each vacancy but over twice that in some sectors. Having largely disappeared by the end of the 1980s, apprenticeships have been reinvented in response to high levels of youth unemployment and … Continue reading Up to 27 applicants for every apprenticeship vacancy →

Michael Gove’s Stratford Speech.

Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley Attack is the best means of defence so Michael Gove earns top marks for coming out fighting in his speech at the London Academy of Excellence today. He has reinvented himself as the champion of social justice and opportunity to distract from his controversies with Ofsted! Gove has gone further … Continue reading Michael Gove’s Stratford Speech. →

Ebacc subjects bedding in

 While the recent league tables for secondary schools show a reduction in ‘underperforming schools’ they also show significant increases in numbers taking Ebacc GCSEs. •72,000 more pupils took the EBacc than in 2012. In total, 202,000 pupils entered the EBacc (35% of the total), up from 130,000 (23%) in 2012 •in 735 schools, at least … Continue reading Ebacc subjects bedding in →

Labour market fragility

January labour market figures show 450,000 more people in employment, 172,000 fewer unemployed people, 75,000 fewer economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64 and government hailing a 'jobs boost'. Of course, any real assessment of the health of the labour market  needs to examine the sort of employment that’s being created –the ONS statistics showing only … Continue reading Labour market fragility →

More ‘schools and skills’ nonsense – this time from George Osborne

Though primarily outlining plans for more austerity and further  reductions to welfare in the next Parliament, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25617844)  George Osborne  used  the final part of today’s speech at a west Midlands factory to prop up the Coalition’s education policies. Once again emphasising  the importance of the Academies and Free School programme in raising standards, despite huge … Continue reading More ‘schools and skills’ nonsense – this time from George Osborne →