The British government turns its attention to the dire state of vocational training. Budget cuts are never pleasant. Yet the past few years have been particularly hard, says Gerry McDonald, the chief executive of New City College in east London. (71)
Since 1990, funding for primary and secondary schools has soared. (72) But there has been no such increase in cash for further education, the mostly vocational courses for over-16s.
On March 8th Philip Hammond, the chancellor, turned his attention to the sector. After announcing funding to pave the way for new selective grammar schools, he promised a big injection of cash for further education and confirmed a shake-up of the chaotic way in which it is organized. By 2022, colleges will get an additional £ 500m ($ 600m) a year, a 19% increase in the 16- to 19- year-old vocational-education budget.
Britain has historically put little emphasis on further education. (73) That may help explain why productivity growth has stalled, and why British youngsters are less literate and numerate than their peers in other rich countries.
Employers moan that skilled workers are scarce, especially in industries like engineering and IT. The sector has struggled with shoddy qualifications. The six in ten 18-year-olds who do not take A-levels, academic school-leaving qualifications, are poorly served by a hotchpotch of some 13,000 courses of varying quality.
In 2015, the government commissioned Lord Sainsbury to examine the state of technical education in England. (74) Many of the courses are too basic to be of much use. Mr. Hammond now aims to clear up this muddle.
Following Lord Sainsbury’s recommendations, the government will introduce 15 subject areas, grouping together topics such as social care or transport and logistics. Students will work towards “T-levels” (for “technical”), developed with firms. (75) The extra funding will provide more work placements. And those who go on to take degree-equivalent qualifications will have access to loans to cover the cost of living.
A. Universities have been given the right to raise their incomes by levying tuition fees on students.
B. His institution is the result of a merger of three local colleges that have pooled resources in the past year partly to cut costs.
C. His report, published in 2016, despaired that a wannabe plumber had to choose between 33 qualifications, offered at three different levels, by five awarding organizations.
D. Organizations will compete for the right to award the qualification.
E. In 2012 it placed 16th out of 20 member countries of the OECD in a ranking of the proportion of 20- to 45-year-olds who finished education with a vocational qualification.
F. Some would rather the reforms offered a broader education to those going down a vocational path, with more of a focus on ensuring competency in maths and English.
