University students target to be ditched
EDUCATION: The target to send 50 per cent of young people to university will be torn up and instead the Government will work towards building a “German-style” further education system, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has pledged.
THE TARGET to send 50 per cent of young people to university will be torn up and the Government will focus on building a “German-style” further education system, the Education Secretary has pledged.
Gavin Williamson has said a rebalance towards further education is vital for the UK’s economic recovery following Covid-19, adding that for decades the country has “failed” to give it the investment it deserves.
In a speech, Mr Williamson said there are “limits” to what we can achieve by sending more people into higher education, adding that it is “not always what the individual and nation needs”.
He said we should not seek to drive half of young people down a path that can all too often end with graduates not having the skills they need to find meaningful work.
The Minister said further education (FE), apprenticeships and university should all be seen as equally valid routes as he called time on the idea that higher education is better than further education.
In the virtual speech hosted by the Social Market Foundation, Mr Williamson made a personal commitment to invest in long-term reform to transform the post-16 education sector and to stand by the “forgotten 50 per cent” of young people who choose not to go to university.
His pledge comes ahead of the publication of a white paper this autumn which will set out the Government’s plans to build a “German-style” FE system to level up skills.
Mr Williamson said: “For decades, we have failed to give further education the investment it deserves.
“Our universities have an important role to play in our economy, society and culture.
“But there are limits to what we can achieve by sending ever more people into higher education, which is not always what the individual and nation needs.”
He added: “As we emerge from Covid-19, further education will be the key that unlocks this country’s potential and that will help make post-Brexit Britain the triumph we all want.
“I want everyone to feel the same burning pride for our colleges and the people who study there, in the way we do for our great universities and schools.”
His comments come after Ucas figures show that the number of British school leavers applying to start degree courses this autumn has surged to a record high despite uncertainty amid the pandemic.
Official figures published last year showed that the proportion of young adults in England entering higher education rose above 50 per cent for the first time in 2017/18. It means a pledge made by former Prime Minister Tony Blair two decades ago had been fulfilled. In a speech in 1999, Mr Blair set a target of 50 per cent of young people going into higher education.
James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation, said: “Britain’s longstanding cultural bias against further and technical education is socially divisive and economically wasteful. Socially, too much of our national conversation is based on the implicit judgment that people who don’t go to university aren’t worth as much as those who do.”
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he hopes that the Minister’s “warm words” are backed up with adequate funding for the further education sector, as he highlighted that colleges were left out of the Government’s recent £1bn catch-up fund.
Further education will be the key that unlocks this country’s potential.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.