Education

(Wow, 2 posts in one day... I must be bored!)

So, there's going to be a new qualification thrown into the mix. Click. Because "These are important reforms which are intended to address a major generational problem of non-participation in education and training post-16."

Riiiiiiiiight. And... "With fewer low-skilled jobs, we need more high-skilled young people,"

Now, maybe I've missed something here, but don't we have record numbers of people in FHE? And don't we have the rather severe problem that the degree has become almost meaningless as a qualification, with vast legions of graduates being forced to work in call centres? i.e. low-skilled jobs.

I agree we need more high-skilled people, skilled as in knowing a trade or business and in principle I think vocational qualifications are a good thing... it's just the wording of the article I think and the choice of quotes from people involved with the scheme. Getting more people into vocational education and out of academia is a good idea. It will hopefully return the value a degree once held. But someone has to tell the call centres that graduates are over-qualified for these roles!

It might also help by reducing the number of people who go through university not knowing what they want. I think that's the crux of the problem, so many gradutes are coming out of uni with no idea of what to do, so they go to work in call centres. Maybe universities need to give more attention to career possibilities for their students. Hopefully though, by introducing vocational qualifications lower down it will gradually have a filtering effect.