Blog Archives: December 2015

With recent reports showing that just 16% of private schools offer vocational qualifications, we explore the important role of both academic and vocational qualifications within the school curriculum. Andrew Fleck, Headmaster at Sedbergh School in Cumbria said: “There seems to be little consensus in the nation’s debate about anything relating to education, with one exception. The country needs more high-quality vocational education.

A recent report by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has highlighted the positive impact Further Education (FE) has on helping the unemployed find work. The report, entitled “Impact of Skills and Training Intervention on the Unemployed”, comes shortly after BIS suffered a 17% cut in the wake of the Autumn Statement. Although this was less severe than many in the sector were expecting and therefore has been viewed positively, it’s still a substantial cut and one that could damage the Further Education sector.

It was great to hear the news that a record £360,000 grant has been awarded to a team of academics for research on improving teaching standards in FE, showing a real commitment to improving vocational education. Awarded by the Gatsby Charitable Trust to a research team at the University of Huddersfield, the grant will be used to investigate how to improve both teaching and teacher training in FE colleges. The aim is to develop a sector-wide “intervention” designed to raise standards in technology, engineering, and vocational science subjects.

Meet Joel. At the age of six, Joel Fields, 18, from Birmingham, and his four brothers and sisters were put into foster care. But, thanks to The Prince's Trust, he was able to turn his life around. Find out how you can help people like Joel progress in their lives.  For 10 years Joel was moved from one foster home to another. Then, at 17, he was put into Independent Living accommodation, which helps young people without any family support to learn to look after themselves.

Following the announcement of the Apprenticeship levy rate and the Apprenticeship Institute in the Autumn Statement, the government has outlined further detail on the Apprenticeship reforms and their vision for Apprenticeships going forward. The paper, entitled “English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision”, explores how the government intends to improve recognition and quality of Apprenticeship programmes, give employers more power in shaping Apprenticeships and the state of funding for Apprenticeships. The key points highlighted in the Executive Summary are the intentions for Apprenticeships to provide “substantive training in a professional or technical route” with a strong focus on key English and maths skills, and the availability of Apprenticeships at all levels, up to and including degree level, as well as across all sectors. It’s expected the amount of Higher Apprenticeships – those at a degree level – will increase and become more widely available. This is good news in the light of recent research that showed learners who undertake Higher Apprenticeships earn more than university graduates.

Judging by the initial reaction to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement it seemed the Education and Skills sector had received its Christmas presents early. After bracing ourselves for pretty brutal cuts to budgets across the board, the actual announcements were generally positively received. Thanks in part to higher than expected tax receipts and debt interest, the government managed to avoid some of the larger scale cuts that the sector had been anticipating. Indeed, the ongoing protection to the schools budget and an increase in financial support for education and childcare continue to be welcome for the sector, spreading a little festive cheer. The government has also set out its intention to introduce a new National Funding Formula for schools by 2017, with the intention of overcoming the regional discrepancies brought about by the current system.

This week, the Pope has repeated his call for teachers to be better paid, and for inequality in education to be eradicated. During a Vatican conference on education, he said that teachers were “among the worst-paid workers”. He called this an “injustice” and stated that “the educational alliance is broken. And this is our [Catholics’] job, to find new paths.” He called for better education for the poorest in society and an end to the focus on only educating “supermen”; intelligent people from affluent backgrounds. And this certainly seems to be the case. Although the OECD report that teachers are paid £40 per hour in the UK (and £27 in Italy), this doesn’t factor in the hours teachers put in outside of school time – and there are a lot of them. The TUC found 57.5% of secondary school staff work unpaid overtime, an average of 12.5 hours per week. For primary schools, the situation is exacerbated further; 61.4% of staff work overtime for an average of 12.9 hours per week.

One of the most highly anticipated announcements of the Autumn Statement was the Apprenticeship levy rate, which has been set at 0.5%. The government has placed a strong focus on Apprenticeships in its current term of Parliament, with the aim of creating 3 million new places by 2020.