Matthew Hancock speaks about improving vocational education
Matthew Hancock, Skills Minister, speaks about ending the divides between academic and vocational education, and work and training.
Thank you, it바카라 사이트™s a pleasure to be here.
It바카라 사이트™s good to see an event celebrating employers and UKCES working together.
And a livery company is a good place to do it. Because these guilds tell the history of our economy.
From the medieval trades - fletchers, cordwainers or girdlers - through the early modern clockmakers, spectacle-makers - and the playing-card makers, obviously - down to the 20th-century companies of actuaries, consultants and bankers.
And the newest company of all, just a year old, is the Worshipful Company of Educators.
That couldn바카라 사이트™t be more appropriate.
Because employment is at a record high, we바카라 사이트™re set to grow faster than any advanced economy this year, and wages are rising faster than inflation.
And if we want to make the most of that - we need a strong education system.
People need the right skills to get jobs. And employers need skilled people to grow.
If we바카라 사이트™re to do that, we face 2 challenges. I want to talk today about what we바카라 사이트™re doing to rise to them.
The first challenge is the divide between academic and vocational education.
And the second, the divide between education, and work.
The divide between academic and vocational education
Taking the first - the issue is partly about attitudes.
We still hear talk of children being 바카라 사이트˜non-academic바카라 사이트™ or as 바카라 사이트˜unsuited바카라 사이트™ to vocational careers.
But any employer will tell you good literacy and numeracy are the most basic requirements for any employee.
So it바카라 사이트™s just wrong to say a technical education is an opt-out of high standards.
And it바카라 사이트™s just wrong to say high standards are somehow irrelevant to workplace skills.
I defy anyone to find any good job that does not need a combination of knowledge, skill and behaviour. We must equip young people with all these.
But even worse than the mindset - the divide was a matter of policy, too.
Vocational courses had no minimum standard for English and maths.
And governments tried to run a skills bureaucracy from the top down - deciding who should study what, at each level and for how long.
It was cumbersome and clumsy: and it failed.
By 2010, somewhere between a quarter and a third of all young people were on poor-quality qualifications.
Hardly surprising, then, if vocational routes lost value and status, compared to academic.
바카라 사이트¦which we want to end
We are determined to end this divide - by restoring rigour, across all education.
Now, regardless of whether they바카라 사이트™re in school, college or workplace training - all students will now study maths and English right up to 18, to at least a C at GCSE.
And look at some of the new institutions we바카라 사이트™re creating.
Since January we have announced new colleges, in important sectors like rail, nuclear and software.
These will be elite institutions, and they will blur the lines between vocational and academic.
They will provide relevant, technical skills - alongside top-quality academic study.
They will take students on from a young age - but go right up to university level.
They aim to be the best in the world - so they are not just an alternative to the best universities, but are elite peers, collaborators and competitors, too.
And today I can announce that we바카라 사이트™ll be setting up the first new FE college for over 20 years.
Prospects College of Advanced Technology will involve employers as never before, providing cutting-edge technical education in engineering, aviation, rail and construction to young people over 16.
When it바카라 사이트™s fully up and running, it will serve over 1,000 students and 1,200 young people on apprenticeships - making it one of the largest group training associations in the country.
Parity of esteem is a nice phrase: these colleges will make it a reality.
And just as technology has transformed industry after industry, it바카라 사이트™s coming to education. New assessment, learning and planning tools can help refine teaching - making it more measurable, and driving up standards.
So we set up the Education Technology Group - alongside a group for FE, and new capital funding for broadband in colleges - to explore what more we can do.
And at every level, we are restoring faith in vocational qualifications.
We바카라 사이트™re stopping funding per qualification passed - which encouraged chasing easy certificates. We바카라 사이트™ve introduced grading to all apprenticeships. It바카라 사이트™s absurd to say there aren바카라 사이트™t different levels of ability for vocational skills: anyone who saw my welding at the Skills Show a few months would agree.
Grades must be valid, of course - but no skill can바카라 사이트™t be graded. And in time, we want grading across the system - for better, finer measurement of achievement, and for clear, aspirational goals for students.
We바카라 사이트™ve filtered out poor-value qualifications: over 6,500 will have funding removed.
The qualifications recognised in performance tables will be those explicitly supported by universities and employers.
That means employers can trust qualifications.
And it means young people face smarter choices, and better prospects.
And they바카라 사이트™re starting to notice. We have a record number of young people in apprenticeships. The majority of young people say they want to do an apprenticeship when they leave school. The top apprenticeships are already as competitive as the top universities.
That바카라 사이트™s promising. But we want to go further. And our reforms aim to create a new norm: where young people choose university or an apprenticeship - where we end the divide between academic and vocational education.
The divide between work and training
Turning to the second divide: there바카라 사이트™s a gulf between work and education.
Again, this was a matter of mindset and a product of policy.
As governments thought they knew best, vocational courses lost sight of the needs of business, and academic courses lost sight of practical context.
Now, we바카라 사이트™re making the entire system much more responsive to employers: Tech Levels, yes, and new GCSEs in English and maths which will be much more functional too.
This link between work and education must be based on stronger qualifications, and it can be helped by stronger relationships too. We바카라 사이트™re strengthening careers advice - so that it바카라 사이트™s more inspirational, with a more dynamic, refreshed National Careers Service coming this autumn.
Our guidance to schools is much firmer about the need to engage employers. No school now has an excuse not to be engaging local employers. And no employer has an excuse not to engage their local school.
And we know some young people aren바카라 사이트™t ready for work, or a full apprenticeship. So we created traineeships - to ease that transition.
Just this week, we had a trainee, Yusuf, start in my office in Parliament - and several other MPs have taken on trainees, too.
We바카라 사이트™re giving genuine power to employers to shape training: like our apprenticeships trailblazers, who are writing the new apprenticeship standards.
Employer-owned pilots
And today, I am delighted to announce the next stage of our employer ownership of skills pilot.
Under this scheme, employers combine their own money with government funding, to invest in the training they need.
It바카라 사이트™s simple, direct, and focussed.
The second wave of funding started last year. Figures released today show that the first projects will create over 5,000 traineeships.
Like National Grid - who plan to provide over 3,000 - or Everton Football club, who plan 1,600 - though let바카라 사이트™s hope that after Everton, the trainees have better careers than their former managers.
Today, I can announce the next projects: an extra £5 million going direct to employers.
Companies like Kostal, leading a new advanced manufacturing programme in Sheffield; Blackpool Pleasure Beach, investing in tourism training; and Freedom Communications in Watford, in business technology.
These companies know their training needs best: so now, they get the budget.
We바카라 사이트™ve learnt a lot from the first rounds of funding about how to support employers. And we know that some sectors have specialist skills.
Like the automotive sector - a great British success story of recent years.
So I can also tell you that learning the lessons from EOP, we will establish a new permanent employer-owned fund and are making the first call for applicants, for companies in the car industry supply chain.
From next week, they can submit proposals to get money to train - to tackle skills shortages, and go on to ever-greater things.
We will make £10 million available immediately - and will offer a further £10 million later in the year.
I know you바카라 사이트™ve spent time today showing what employers can do when they get directly involved in training. That바카라 사이트™s exactly the spirit of our reforms 바카라 사이트“ and these new announcements aim to find, fund and fuel even more.
Conclusion
So that바카라 사이트™s what we want.
To end the divide between vocational and academic. It바카라 사이트™s a false divide: only rigour in both will help our young people.
And to end the divide between training and work. It바카라 사이트™s a dangerous divide: only responsiveness will help people get jobs, and help employers grow.
And if we can do that - think of what바카라 사이트™s possible.
What livery companies may come in the future, no one can say.
But I hope that if we바카라 사이트™re in this hall in 10, or 20 or 30 years, we바카라 사이트™re still talking about the success stories of this decade - of a time when we ended the divides that have held us back.