Technical hitch

SIR – I welcome the initiative of Philip Hammond to improve technical education. For 30 years it has been neglected, leading to a skills shortage.

The City and Guilds Institute, founded in 1870 at the height of Victorian industrial era, became the standard by which technical skills were judged and this continued for the first 70 years of the last century. For me, they provided a full working life without a single day’s unemployment.

The City and Guilds adapted to the requirements of industry and can do so again. There is no need to invent fancy titles for modern qualifications – City and Guilds is the trademark which is understood and respected. John Bancroft Chichester, West Sussex SIR – If successive governments had left our educational system alone, they could have saved £500 million a year spent on polytechnics turned into pseudo-universities. Lynne Waldron Woolavington, Somerset SIR – In many ways education has taken a backward step. The morphing of secondary moderns and grammar schools into comprehensives, in most areas, failed to replace the forgotten third category of technical colleges.

So rather than introducing T-levels to fill the gap, the return of technical colleges should be foremost in the minds of our educationists. F P Forbes Eastbourne, East Sussex SIR – Introduction of T-levels is to be applauded. However, my experience of engineering academies in the West Midlands is that, despite wonderful facilities and eager students, they can’t find the teaching staff. George Bastin North Woodchester, Gloucestershire