Williamson aims to overtake Germany in technical education

Education secretary tells Conservative Party conference that government will focus on improving further education

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, education secretary Gavin Williamson has outlined the government’s plans “for the forgotten 50 per cent” who do not go to university.

In a plenary speech in the main conference hall, Williamson boasted that “under this Conservative government, more 18-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds are going to university than ever before”. However, he went on to say that “while past Labour governments obsessed over targets to get half the population to university, they forgot about the other 50 per cent”.