Youth unemployment falls: but less are working

The 49 000 fall in unemployment for the Q3 2012, taking the figure down to 7.8% has been attributed to the fall in youth unemployment (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20323096) The monthly ONS figures do indeed show a 49 000 fall in the number of 16-24 year olds unemployed –now down below the one million figure, the first time … Continue reading Youth unemployment falls: but less are working →

Reforming Key Stage 4 Qualifications: Michael Gove Moderniser or Reactionary? Greenwich University Seminar.

Martin Allen  08/11/12 Michael Gove’s schools revolution continues. The Secretary of State has used the debacle over this summer’s exam grades to announce proposals to abolish GCSE, an examination which he considers ‘no longer fit for purpose’; but also to reaffirm the importance of English Baccalaureate subjects in the secondary school curriculum.  Having already ended … Continue reading Reforming Key Stage 4 Qualifications: Michael Gove Moderniser or Reactionary? Greenwich University Seminar. →

The Great Reversal

Forthcoming  on  http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen    Introduction Resistance to the latest undergraduate fee tripling needs to relate also to schools and colleges to grasp the full implications of the Coalition’s education policy. We can then see David Willetts hand-in-glove with Michael Gove in attempting to return via the market to the 1950s … Continue reading The Great Reversal →

George Osborne’s ‘One million new private sector jobs’

When   entering government Chancellor George Osborne insisted the cull in public sector employment   the Coalition was scheduling, would be more than compensated by the increase in private sector jobs. In many ways Osborne has been true to his word –in the run up to his Conservative Party Conference speech he made much of the fact … Continue reading George Osborne’s ‘One million new private sector jobs’ →

Miliband’s proposals for ‘Training without Jobs’

A Tech-Bacc by itself isn’t going to help the ‘forgotten 50 %’ who don’t go to university. Neither is it going to raise the status of vocational education. It fits well with and legitimates, rather than challenges, Gove’s plans for creating more elitist academic qualifications. It also dovetails many of the proposals from the Wolf … Continue reading Miliband’s proposals for ‘Training without Jobs’ →

Contribution to ‘The Riots One Year On’, London South Bank University Conference

Contribution to ‘The Riots One Year On, A One Day Conference’ 28th September, London South Bank University     RUNNING FROM THE RIOTS – UP A DOWN-ESCALATOR IN THE MIDDLE OF A CLASS STRUCTURE GONE PEAR-SHAPED                                                                                                        Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen Abstract This paper updates one presented to the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group in … Continue reading Contribution to ‘The Riots One Year On’, London South Bank University Conference →

A reactionary, not a ‘moderniser’

Michael Gove and 'Reforming Key Stage 4 Qualifications' Despite his polished performance in the Commons – in the absence of any real Labour opposition – Michael Gove is not ‘modernising’ the qualification system at all.  Neither do his proposals have anything to do with improving ‘international competitiveness’. On the contrary, Gove is continuing the Tory … Continue reading A reactionary, not a ‘moderniser’ →

A-level of expediency? (Soft and Hard, Vocational and Academic Part 2)

The huge media coverage of the GCSE grading scandal particularly in English, meant A-level results received less attention than usual this year. Like GCSE there were signs of things to come with a 0.4% decline in the percentage of A/A* awards; even if the total percentage grades A*-E continued to increase - by 0.2 per … Continue reading A-level of expediency? (Soft and Hard, Vocational and Academic Part 2) →

More Blue Skies

Patrick Ainley  reviews  New thinking about the future of higher education reveals only paralysis in response to the New Order being imposed on higher education  Forthcoming in next issue of  ‘POST-16 EDUCATOR’  http://www.post16educator.org.uk/ Introduction Engels – or was it Lenin? – says somewhere that the presentation of many different views on the same subject quickly … Continue reading More Blue Skies →