Burnham's first mistake

The problem with his education plan

I was on a family holiday when Andy Burnham set out his plans for vocational education for 14-16 year olds. It led to a lively discussion (we know how to have fun).

My twins, who are 16 and have just finished their GCSEs, were keen on the idea, having spent two years sitting with classmates who were disengaged by academic subjects. Why force them to take history or French when they could be learning something that will help them get a job?

It was a good reminder of why politicians keep coming back to the idea, and why it polls so well. It seems obvious that some people are just better at practical pursuits than reading textbooks. And employers want it too. They’re constantly complaining about an overly academic curriculum. We have worker shortages in construction and trades. It all seems to make sense.

But there are good reasons why vocational education at 14 has never taken off, despite being a popular idea that reappears every decade. Some of these are practical: secondary schools have limited space and are designed for classroom teaching not learning how to fix a boiler; good vocational training is expensive because it requires kit and more one-to-one support; and the teaching workforce is heavily oriented towards academic subjects. Most schools already offer some vocational options alongside GCSEs, but they tend to be in things like music and sports science which can be run by staff also teaching the related academic course.

If these were the only problems, though, they could be fixed by a government willing to find the money to build new facilities and train more teachers. The bigger question is whether it’s the right thing to do. Does encouraging young people down a vocational route that early in their education artificially restrict their life chances? Is it useful, or even possible, to teach employment-related skills to fourteen year olds? Is this what the education system should be for?

In the rest of the post I’ll look at what’s being proposed, reading between the lines of a somewhat vague announcement, and then at why I disagreed with my twins. I’ll finish with what really needs to change if we’re serious about improving technical education. Along the way I’ll tell you about the most awkward meeting I had while an adviser at the Department for Education.