A degree of doubt
Obsession with going to university is holding us back
Hundreds of thousands of young people will today find out their A-level results. Most will go on to university, hoping for an education that will lead to a successful career. Sadly, many have been sold the lie that this is the only way to get ahead in life. Second rate passes from second rate universities will only damage their potential, not enhance it.
More graduates have not meant a more productive British economy. The UK has the fifth highest proportion of adults educated to degree level in the OECD, but we languish 17th in international productivity tables. Skills shortages are reaching critical levels, putting future growth at risk. Britain’s shortage of skilled construction staff is holding back building work.
Technical and vocational education has been ignored for decades, and our productivity problems will only get worse unless action is taken. As the UK leaves the EU, we can reshape our higher education system so that more young people get the highly skilled and well-paid apprenticeships that will help British industry thrive and attract investment.
When I left school in the Seventies, I didn’t go to university. I got a Michelin tyre apprenticeship which gave me a solid understanding of engineering, business and heavy industry. Combining on-the-job skills with the educational attainment of an Ordinary National Certificate and Higher National Certificate stood me in good stead for the rest of my successful career.
Good apprenticeship schemes involve three essential parts, made up of sector-specific skills, progression through vocational further education and personal development. Part of my apprenticeship with Michelin even involved time volunteering at a psychiatric hospital. The UK should look to Switzerland, where 70pc of high school graduates enter apprenticeships in IT, banking, healthcare, hospitality and advanced manufacturing. The Swiss approach gives young people the chance to gain experience in specialist roles, while also allowing a degree of flexibility to change industries.
Encouraging university attendance simply for the sake of it makes zero business sense. Tuition fees are now £9,000 a year – the highest in Europe – and the poorest students will leave university with an average debt of £57,000. Only half of graduates secure a graduate-level job within six months, with a third of recent graduates on annual salaries of less than £20,000.
The latest data show that grade inflation is a real phenomenon, as a greater share of students now get top degrees compared with similar level undergraduates in the past. Burdening our children with huge levels of debt while devaluing degrees means a lifetime of liability they may never escape. Our obsession with sending as many people to universities as possible is unfair to both those who should and should not attend them.
For those children no less smart but of a business and vocational potential, spending three years locked in lecture halls when they could be exercising their entrepreneurial abilities or building skills in a technical apprenticeship is a wasted opportunity. For the 51pc of young people who don’t go to university, the Government and businesses must ensure that apprenticeships offer a genuine opportunity to reach the highest levels of vocational further education and the highest possible positions in industry.
The Government’s Apprenticeship Levy has turned out to be a disaster. It was supposed to provide the funds to increase the number of people training at work. But only 48,000 people began an apprenticeship in November 2017, less than half the number for the same period in 2016.
We have a ridiculous situation where British employers are paying for courses that don’t exist, leaving a £1bn pot of funding that lies idle. The Government must end this bureaucratic bungling and make sure the levy is used to match up talented youngsters to productive jobs.
Young people are already turning their backs on university. Applications through Ucas fell by 3.4pc in 2018. I welcome the comments of Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, who urged people to think twice about a traditional degree and not to shun alternatives such as apprenticeships.
The Government needs to do massively more. It needs to incentivise business to provide world-class apprenticeships, coupling them with the best and most appropriate higher education, and providing the best opportunities for apprentices to develop social and personal skills.
‘University attendance simply for the sake of it makes zero business sense’