I believe fundamentally the shape of the workforce is changing. Employment has historically conjured up a nostalgia of factories, but, given the relative decline of the manufacturing base in England over recent decades, it might be possible to have such a rosy image. Youth unemployment is increasing, but this is a pathology which has afflicted all political parties, and the workforce consists also of an increasing proportion of part-time workers. Many disabled people also wish to work from home, because they find accessibility at work difficult; and we now live in an age where creative, innovative, technical skills such as programming in asp .net 3.5 are not only valued in society but also can be extremely profitable. I feel that breaking down walls between academics and vocational skills is essential – whilst engineering, law and medicine are undoubtedly professional, they are intensely academic, but also remarkably vocational, for example. I believe as a society we should begin to make an ambitious ‘lead of faith’ in reshaping the skills and employment landscape. I do not think it is realistic to expect people to know at the age of 16 what career they wish to pursue for the rest of their life, and there is also an important social mobility issue here as well.

John Hayes on lbc973 described to Iain Dale this evening the purpose of National Apprenticeship Week. He has a dual role in the Department of Education and the Department of Business. Hayes feels that apprenticeships have not been given the priority they deserve, according to Hayes, as practical technical skills have not been valued.  He intriguingly feels that he only became academic as he was not good enough to be practical.

Hayes says that he reveres practical skills, such as creativity, and feels that they are vital for the UK economy; furthermore, he believes that it is essential the UK grows its own skills, and people in the UK should be given encouragement with a seductive pathway.

Indeed, John Hayes’ interests are precise:

Further education, adult skills, Skills Funding Agency, skills strategy, lifelong learning, informal adult learning, apprenticeships, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Sector Skills Councils, Workplace Training reforms, qualifications reform programme.

It is said that Professor Alison Woolf felt that a lot of vocational skills were not indeed adding particularly to candidates’ skill sets.

Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, commissioned Professor Alison Wolf of King’s College London to carry out an independent review of vocational education. She was asked to consider how vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds can be improved in order to promote successful progression into the labour market and into higher level education and training routes. She was also asked to provide practical recommendations to help inform future policy direction, taking into account current financial constraints. The review has been informed by over 400 pieces of evidence from the public, a number of visits to colleges, academies and training providers, and interviews and discussion sessions with key partners in the sector.

Key recommendations in the report include:

• incentivising young people to take the most valuable vocational qualifications pre-16, while removing incentives to take large numbers of vocational qualifications to the detriment of core academic study
• introducing principles to guide study programmes for young people on vocational routes post-16 to ensure they are gaining skills which will lead to progression into a variety of jobs or further learning, in particular, to ensure that those who have not secured a good pass in English and mathematics GCSE continue to study those subjects
• evaluating the delivery structure and content of apprenticeships to ensure they deliver the right skills for the workplace
• making sure the regulatory framework moves quickly away from accrediting individual qualifications to regulating awarding organisations
• removing the requirement that all qualifications offered to 14- to 19-year-olds fit within the Qualifications and Credit Framework, which has had a detrimental effect on their appropriateness and has left gaps in the market
• enabling FE lecturers and professionals to teach in schools, ensuring young people are being taught by those best suited.

The Government has produced a cogent response to Professor Alison Wolf’s report. The landscape is indeed changing, as noted by the Guardian:

Vocational education is being reviewed by the redoubtable professor Alison Wolf. To stand any chance of harmonising his mixed messages on what teenagers should study, Mr Gove will need to make full use of her formidable brain.

John Hayes feels rather controversially that practical accomplishment is perhaps even of a “higher order” than academic accomplishment, as creativity is less derivative.

Finally, I am glad to see that we are having a debate on this at all. At the heart of all of this is that I believe too many people are written off in England by the educational system, and wherever you are on the political spectrum this is not on. And I have a vested interest here – in ensuring the legal profession attracts individuals of the highest calibre, both within and for society.