Another report on technical and vocational education spells out where policy is heading.
It seems as if a new report on skills and technical education appears every month. In December, we had the latest volume of the work of the Commission on Sustainable Learning for Life, Work and a Changing Economy, chaired by Neil Carmichael. In November, we had the report on value for money in higher education from the Commons education committee, which made strong recommendations on apprenticeships and technical education.
We’ve also had speeches from the education secretary Damian Hinds. In December, he went to Battersea Power Station to tell us that “some jobs [are] being unnecessarily inflated to degree level”. Last week, he launched Fire It Up, ostensibly a campaign to promote apprenticeships, but one that had the unfortunate side effect of a secretary of state for education actively encouraging young people not to go to university.