Press release
MillionPlus comments on ‘How to improve technical education to deliver higher skills and better productivity’ HEPI report
22 Jun 2017
MillionPlus, The Association for Modern Universities, has today (22 June) commented on the new report How to improve technical education to deliver higher skills and better productivity authored by Mary Curnock Cook, former Chief Executive of UCAS, for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).
Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of MillionPlus, said:
“Mary Curnock Cook and HEPI have provided an excellent analysis of the problems associated with adopting wholesale the Sainsbury Report on technical education. As they point out, there are many risks in pursuing T-levels which are ill-thought out and for which schools, colleges, students and employers are ill-prepared. The simplistic claims made in the Sainsbury Report that T-levels will lead to certain jobs are also rightly debunked.
“Ministers in the current government should now be very cautious about pursuing the Conservative manifesto which claimed that young people should be offered ‘a real choice between technical and academic routes at sixteen’. This approach is unrealistic and far-removed from the real world in which vocational qualifications are already studied by many students and where so-called academic routes often include vocational and technical education and vice-versa.
“Students, parents and employers will not buy-in to T-levels which are cobbled together and are only targeted at young people. Quite rightly, qualifications in the UK are not age-dependent and need to be fit for study for people of all ages including those who want to return to improve their career options later in life. The challenges of improving the UK’s productivity and skills base will not be met without a lot more work, resources and joined-up thinking.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- MillionPlus is the Association for Modern Universities. More information can be found at www.millionplus.ac.uk
- For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact Dan Blows on 020 7717 1658 or email press@millionplus.ac.uk.
- How to improve technical education to deliver higher skills and better productivity is published on Thursday, 22 June and will be available here