The British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who took office last week, already has plans for an educational reform. He will urge schools across England to adapt their curricula to the needs of local businesses, as part of a decentralization initiative aimed at addressing the youth employment crisis.
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By shifting decision-making to local areas, the Prime Minister hopes, according to The Guardian, that the plan will make technical and vocational skills as valued as academic qualifications, and help reduce spending on social benefits.
According to the plans, which seek to “value the hard hat as much as the graduation cap,” children as young as 14 will be encouraged to opt for technical training. Based partly on the Greater Manchester baccalaureate that Burnham introduced when he was mayor of the region, this program will recommend schools to teach technical skills alongside traditional academic subjects.
In an article for The Times, the Prime Minister revealed proposals for a radical change from the traditional curriculum, prioritizing vocational training as the “first choice” for many children starting their GCSE exams (General Certificate of Secondary Education, which is an academic test taken by teenagers. Students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland take these tests at the end of secondary education, usually at 15 or 16 years old. The tests consist of mathematics, English, English literature, sciences. While history, geography, art, or foreign language are optional).
This measure represents a radical shift from more than 15 years of policy, driven by Lord Michael Gove when he was Secretary of Education (2010-2014), which prioritized academic performance.
The new policy will encourage children to combine core subjects such as English, mathematics, and sciences at GCSE level with high-quality technical subjects linked to jobs available in their area.
“For too long in this country, students have been told they must follow the academic route to succeed and be respected. The whole school system has been built around that, and that has let down young people seeking technical qualifications,” Burnham said.
Subsequently, students would pursue studies to obtain technical qualifications, such as T-levels or apprenticeship programs, instead of A-levels (these are end-of-study qualifications based on subjects, obtained by students aged 16 to 18, mainly in the UK, usually covering two years of study and leading to university access) while gaining work experience and establishing contacts with local employers.
Burnham stated that, in the future, the central government “would prioritize funding for high-quality technical education and practical pathways to the workforce,” and that the Department of Education would reallocate its current budgets to invest in technical education.
Ministers will also change how school performance is measured, and inspectors will be instructed to recognize schools that offer high-quality technical education and support young people to develop the skills, experience, and confidence sought by employers.
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“For too long, we have built an education system around the idea that there is only one path to success: university, a degree, a job,” Burnham noted.
The intention is also to help address the growing problem of young people who are not studying, not working, nor in training, a topic that was the subject of a report published in May by Alan Milburn, former Labour cabinet minister.
The report, which is part of an ongoing review, notes that the problem currently affects one million young people across the UK, and that this number is rapidly increasing. The report cites several factors, such as changes in the labor market, inequality, and health issues, but also points to a lack of focus on employability skills and non-academic qualifications.
Milburn said in a statement that he welcomed the plans to reform and decentralize education for students over 14 years old, calling them “a big step in the right direction and consistent with the findings of my report.”
Measures to incorporate more young people into the labor market will also be a key element of broader efforts to address the social benefits system, which will be guided both by Milburn’s findings and by an independent review conducted by Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security, on the disability benefits system for personal independence.
According to The Times, Burnham’s educational reforms are likely to be controversial due to concerns that they may lead to reduced funding for language, arts, and humanities subjects, while support and funding are channeled towards technical training.
Universities will also be concerned about the long-term impact of the changes on student numbers, as many are already facing funding deficits, the newspaper said.
But Burnham said the current system was failing too many children. “From today, Britain will value the hard hat as much as the graduation cap,” he wrote. “Because getting this right makes the difference between a generation of young people growing up with the conviction that their talents can take them wherever they want, or growing up believing there was never a place for them.”
“That is why I believe this goes beyond just an educational reform. It is also a different approach to social welfare. Instead of 16-year-olds leaving school with no future prospects, we are investing from the start, helping them build a successful working life from the beginning,” he concluded.
