Another promise to improve vocational education in Britain
From a prime minister with a classics degree
IN 1896 A delegation of businessmen travelled from Manchester to Germany to learn the secrets of its industrial success. The answer, they reckoned, lay in Germany’s superior system of technical education. “It is high time”, they argued, “the effort was made in this country to give our youth the educational advantages enjoyed by their rivals abroad.”
The Mancunians would be unimpressed by the direction of travel in recent years. Universities have expanded hugely; vocational education has not. The Augur review of post-18 education, which reported in 2019, found that there were 50 times as many undergraduates as there were young people studying for higher national diplomas and higher national certificates, the key vocational qualifications. Only 24% of British 16- to 18-year-olds did apprenticeships in 2017, according to the OECD, compared with 59% in Switzerland and 41% in Germany.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "How the other half learns"
Britain October 3rd 2020
- Britain’s mixed-race population blurs the lines of identity politics
- The battle over London’s road closures
- British universities may be particularly susceptible to covid-19
- Another promise to improve vocational education in Britain
- Cornish miners hope to profit from the shift to electric cars
- Rewilding in the Scottish Highlands
- The Tories launch a culture war
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