‘Leave it a year’, MP’S advice on taking new qualification

THE skills minister has said that she would advise her own children to “leave it a year” before taking the Government’s flagship T-levels.

Anne Milton, charged with overseeing the introduction of the new vocational qualifications, said that it will inevitably be “tough” to persuade parents of the merits of the new system.

During an education select committee hearing, Lucy Powell, a Labour MP, asked Mrs Milton why a parent would want their child to do a childcare T-level when there was already a wellrespected and industry-backed qualification in place.

Ms Milton responded: “The job of persuading parents to do any new qualification is always quite tough and we know that not huge numbers will do it in the first instance because ... I mean, I’m a parent of four children. If somebody

‘I probably made the mistake in using my own personal experience to emphasise [my] point’

said to me, ‘Your children could do this new qualification,’ I’d say, ‘Leave it a year.’

“You know, instinctively, that is what parents will do. I think what we will need to do as a department, and the providers will need to do, is to make absolutely clear what you are getting in addition to any of the existing qualifications already set out.”

James Frith, also a Labour MP, said he found the minister’s comments “quite remarkable”, adding: “Why shouldn’t every other parent of the children considering what they do next also say, ‘Leave it [a year],’ when the minister in charge for launching this believes it is not right for your children and, in fact, they are not ready?”

Ms Milton later backtracked, telling MPS that “I probably made the mistake in using my own personal experience to emphasise the point that I think all parents are always wary of new qualifications”.

She went on to say: “The point about T-levels is that we’re introducing them, designed by employers – they are very rigorous. I know that take-up will be low in the first years. It will take a while to persuade both young people and their parents that these are a cut above.”

Gordon Marsden, Ms Milton’s Labour shadow, said it was “astounding” that she “does not have confidence in her own government’s flagship education policy”.

T-levels, the technical version of Alevels, are due to be piloted from 2020.