Yesterday was a day for solemn reflection and the cessation of political combat. The prime minister spoke for a united Westminster when he said that the horrific scenes emerging from Woolwich ‘sickened’ us all. It served as an untimely reminder that we must always remain resolute in challenging the corrosive narratives of violent extremism and terror.
But whilst thoughts and minds were rightly elsewhere, another damning verdict was being passed upon the government’s economic strategy. New statistics revealed that compared to 2010, there are now an extra 32,000 young people between the ages of 19 and 24 not in work, training or education.
This is hardly surprising. Despite three out of four of our chief executives saying that creating a highly skilled workforce should be the government’s highest priority for the year ahead, there appears to be little appetite for delivering the broader skills settlement out economy so desperately needs.
Indeed, since coming to power, the government has devalued apprenticeships, undermined careers guidance, scrapped work experience and downgraded successful vocational courses such as the engineering diploma.
Such is the narrowness of the Conservative vision for Britain. But the only ‘global race’ their low-skill, low-wage strategy can win is the race to the bottom. Rather, we need a ‘One Nation’ economy that improves our competitiveness and raises living standards for the majority. This must be built upon high skills, innovation, and dynamic, technologically sophisticated companies. Therefore it is clear we need the best skilled workforce in the world.
This week, as part of Labour’s Policy Review, the One Nation Skills Taskforce published its interim report, investigating how we might begin to achieve this daunting aspiration. Chaired by Professor Chris Husband of the Institute of Education, it is stark about the multiple challenges we face.
We have acute skills shortages in crucial sectors (such as engineering); too many young people lacking employability skills; low levels of employer involvement; inconsistent standards in further education; a chronic lack of good quality advice for navigating the transition to work; a dearth of high quality apprenticeships; a deeply damaging divide between vocational and academic pathways; and an education system that, for better or worse, is becoming increasingly fragmented.
However, perhaps the biggest systemic problem the report uncovers is the pervasive disconnect between the education system and local labour markets. All too often skills policy is isolated from industrial and economic policy. The result is a system that too often fails to meet the needs of either employers or young people.
The report makes two excellent recommendations to help close this gap and raise standards.
First, Labour would require all FE teachers to have at least level 2 GCSE English and Maths. English and Maths are core skills for all youngsters and Labour has rightly committed to making their study compulsory to 18. But whilst many FE teachers do an outstanding job, of the 40 per cent of further education pupils who don’t get level 2 qualifications at 16, only 20 per cent go onto acquire it by 19. This needs to change and we must be relentless in driving up the quality of teaching at FE colleges.
Second, to help bring the education system and the labour market closer together, we would ensure that all vocational teachers spend time every year with local businesses and industry to keep their skills and experience fresh.
Of course Labour has already made clear its determination to raise standards for youngsters for whom the academic route is not appropriate at Key Stage 5 with our gold standard technical baccalaureate. Crucially, this would directly involve businesses in accrediting the quality of courses. Yet to build a truly ‘holistic’ dual track system that is aligned with local labour markets will require much more. That is what business wants and that Labour is committed to delivering.
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Tristram Hunt MP is shadow education minister. He tweets @TristramHuntMP
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This is very poor. Whilst I generally have a lot of time for Tristram, this article shows both a lack of understanding of FE (“teachers” and “pupils” for Heaven’s sake) and a lack of imagination in proposing ways forward. The analysis of “multiple challenges” seems OK but could have been made at any time over the last century or more. The solution verges on the trivial. How FE lecturers acquiring a couple of O levels and spending a few days per year with local employers is supposed to improve the quality of the learning experience for students is beyond me. And these are the best that the review has to offer? I shudder to think what the others may be.
Perhaps one problem lies with the Chair. I don’t know Chris Husbands and no doubt he is an excellent fellow, but his CV shows no interest in or knowledge of FE. Would we ask an FE Principal to review Primary Education?
Is there no one responsible for FE policy in Labour who can bring a bit of creative intelligence to this most important sector?
Mr Hunt’s comment of “too many young people lacking employability skills; low levels of employer involvement” is true enough but I’ve been badgering his boss, Stephen Twigg, about how the 50+ schools I work with DO have an answer to this! Students develop “soft skills” like problem solving, teamwork, communication because they are embedded into the curriculum, across all subjects and year groups. These same skills are hailed by employers who work with these schools as the way forward.
It is the way to ensure young people are ‘work ready’ BEFORE they leave school. Research (conducted by Pearson) found this approach raised standards of achievement and raised aspirations too.
We just need politicians to realise there is an answer available.
Michael Gove actually visited my school (where we started this revolution) in 2010 and saw the impact it had however it didn’t fit his perceptions of what education should be, despite the enthusiasm displayed by the Year 10 and 11 students he met!
Subsequently I’ve worked with Edexcel to create a new form of BTEC which requires students to gather evidence of how they’ve acquired 16 ‘soft skills’ into a portfolio – which they can take to interview to show the extent of their employability.
The answers are available Mr Hunt…
Well said! The problem for politicians and education administrators is usually that these skills can’t be assessed separately (being embedded) and given a grade. Work done on the YTS Core Skills by, amongst others, Margaret Levy and myself in the early 80s covered many of these issues, as did work done under the TVEI in the same decade, only to be scrapped by Ken Baker’s National Curriculum. Why on Earth we have to keep reinventing the wheel in education baffles me, but the tradition of single subject based timetables passing as curriculum is mighty strong. Perhaps it needs another coordinated national attack on the traditional school structures. What about it Phil?!