Alice Barnard is CEO of the Edge Foundation.
For years, those of us in the education and skills sector have devoted our attention to the issue of parity of esteem: how to ensure that technical education and training receives the same status and respect as academic education.
There are many reasons to pursue this goal, as both a moral and as a class issue. But there is also a strong economic argument to be made here.
Left unaddressed, it is estimated that labour shortages could cost the British economy £39bn a year; 42 per cent of businesses have already reported reduced activity or output as a result of skills deficits. These issues are exacerbated by a misalignment between the education system and the economy.
As our new report with Public First – Advancing British Standards? – revealed this week, more than a third of adults in England believe that those leaving education today are no better prepared for life or work than they were twenty years ago.
Jeremy Hunt has spoken about building a “green economy”. But to achieve this we’ll need construction workers, engineers, heat pump installers, all of whom require technical skills.
Putting technical and vocational training on an equal footing with the well-trodden GCSE-A Level-university pathway must start in school – and in a meaningful, visible way. This has public support: polling finds 82 per cent want schools to encourage more young people to explore technical or vocational options, rising to 88 per cent amongst those intending to vote Conservative at the next election.
For the most part, this Government has expressed a deep commitment to the skills agenda. Rishi Sunak centred his leadership campaign on “radical reform” of education; Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, regularly cites her credentials as a proud, former degree apprentice, and Rob Halfon, the former Skills Minister, has perhaps gone further than any in his commitment to making vocational education an aspirational pursuit.
In policy action, the roll-out of T Levels, LSIPs, and new employer-led standards under IfATE have to come to exemplify the employer-led system designed under Conservative leadership.
But according to our polling, the shining jewel in the crown (even if they don’t know it, yet) is the Advanced British Standard – the Prime Minister’s pledge to introduce a baccalaureate-style 16-18 education system over the next ten years.
We found 78 per cent of respondents said they would support a proposal to reform the education system in line with the ABS, whilst just 10 per cent oppose. In fact, a massive 61 per cent said they thought the ABS would represent an improvement on the current system of 16-18 education.
This is true across all demographic groups we tested, regardless of their voting intention at the next general election. Even maths to 18 proves highly popular (as long as this is about numeracy skills), though there’s a lot of work to be done to bring younger voters on board.
Crucially, however, is that what drives respondents’ support for the ABS is the opportunity for young people to study a true blend of academic, technical, and vocational subjects at 16. Nearly three-quarters think young people should be able to mix and match, 61 per cent see this would prepare young people better for the workforce, and 58 per cent believe the economy would benefit from having more people with a mix of technical and academic skills.
Broadly, we are quite supportive of the ABS. At Edge, we have been leading calls for a baccalaureate-style post-16 system through our Bacc to the Drawing Board series.
However, the very reason that the public lend their support to such a policy – the ability to study a blend of academic, technical and vocational subjects at 16 – is at real risk under the proposed design of the plans. By offering 16-year-olds either the ‘ABS’ or the ‘ABS occupational’ route, we are maintaining the siloed, twin-track system we have currently, risking that all-important parity we have worked so hard to build.
Perhaps this is an effort to preserve the T Level brand? If so, that is not a good enough reason.
Equipping students with essential skills for life, ranging from things like financial planning to managing diet, comes out as the top priority amongst adults for this stage of education (69 per cent), with skills for the workplace (e.g. people skills) immediately behind. In practice, however, when we asked what the education system currently prioritises, life skills plummet to the very bottom of the rankings (13 per cent), and work-readiness also performs poorly (17 per cent).
Here lies an opportunity to realign 16-18 – a critical transition stage for all young people – to our economic and workforce needs. There is then space to go further (even if that is pressure from the backbenches) if we’re to see the truly radical reform that Rishi promised us in 2022.
This means developing those all-important essential skills – creativity, problem-solving, teamwork – needed in any career and to thrive with the changing nature of work.
We found 91 per cent of those intending to vote Conservative at the next election agree that schools should focus more on developing skills for the workplace. This support extends to work experience, employer mentoring and projects: 84 per cent of the adult population back mandatory work experience for those aged 16 to 18.
The ABS is a rare gem in education policy: it has cross-party support and if, with some fine-tuning, we get it right, it has enormous potential to truly advance our economy and standards in education, not just for those who wish to pursue the university pathway, but for all young people.
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Author: Alice Barnard
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