Steer middle-class pupils to apprenticeships, not degrees, urges minister
MORE middle-class pupils should consider shunning university for alternatives such as high-quality apprenticeships, says the Education Secretary.
Damian Hinds said youngsters – including the most affluent – should think twice about whether a ‘traditional degree’ is the right option for them.
He said he is determined to make technical routes as prestigious as academic ones so that they are no longer seen as ‘second best’.
And he said the Government’s new T-levels and degree apprenticeships in jobs such as engineering and accounting will provide fast-track routes to ‘highly-skilled work’.
His comments come amid growing debate over whether studying for a non-vocational degree really is the best option for people who just want to get stuck into a career.
For many years, schools have been directing bright pupils towards general degrees at good universities in the belief that this is the best route to a professional job – even if the skills learned have only limited use in the workplace.
In his first major speech on social mobility, Mr Hinds outlined his vision for diversifying the routes to good careers.
‘We need to consider whether in all cases a traditional degree at university is the right option for young people, including those from more affluent backgrounds,’ he said at the Resolution Foundation in central London. ‘For a long time, one of the reasons university was such a key determinant of future success was that many of the alternative options towards highly-skilled work were frankly not up to scratch.
‘Technical education in this country has long been seen by many as the second-best option to academic study and university.’
New technical qualifications, T-levels, are being introduced as an alternative to A-levels, and businesses are being encouraged to create ‘degree apprenticeships’, which combine instruction with work experience.
The qualifications have been created in partnership with employers, and have ‘real currency’ in industry, said Mr Hinds. ‘Our goal is that all young people, whatever their background, will have much better choices when they start thinking about their post-16 and post-18 destinations,’ he added.
Asked later if he thought it would give these routes more credence if middle-class children took them, he replied: ‘Yes, I do.’
University participation has expanded over the past few decades, but because the job market is now over-supplied with graduates, a good university degree is no longer a guaranteed passport to a skilled job.
Mr Hinds also used his speech to dismiss claims that elite universities are institutionally biased against disadvantaged students. However, he acknowledged that more must be done to encourage such students to apply.
He urged the elite universities of the Russell Group to ‘reach out’ to poorer pupils and do more to make sure they are admitted – for example, by making socioeconomic background an admissions consideration.
Mr Hinds also said disadvantaged parents should encourage their children to tackle tougher subjects because they can be a ‘signalling device’ to universities and employers that a pupil is clever.