Tag Archives: polytechnics

Post-18 education – a chance for the Lib Dems to make a real impact?

Embed from Getty Images

The Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson MP, has recently placed the Blair philosophy of ‘further education’ in doubt by saying that we are sending too many young people to ‘university’. You might say that this isn’t that surprising coming from a Tory, albeit one who was educated in a state comprehensive school.

However, quite a few people have been thinking this for years and some, like me, have been prepared to say it out loud. Does that make us bad people? Have we perhaps lost our way as a nation when it comes to equipping our young people with the knowledge and skills not only to make a success of their lives but also to make a valuable contribution to our nation’s future economic success?

We can’t keep relying on other countries to provide us with qualified people, whether they be doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers and engineers or bricklayers, plumbers and joiners. We have got to start producing more of our own home-grown material and not expect other countries to provide us with the qualified people we undoubtedly need. The same also surely applies in this uncertain age to manufactured goods.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Chris Webb
    1 State procurement teams being outwitted / outhought by sector experts (paid more and with greater specialist knowledge) is not exclusive to MoD - i only have ...
  • cim
    @David Allen Absolutely agreed. Incremental changes, fully-costed policies, a focus on "competence" as opposed to "ideology". It's not necessarily a bad offe...
  • Alex Macfie
    "stopping the tech companies harming their users" which should mean regulating the tech companies not the users, i.e. forcing the companies to change their busi...
  • Edward
    A PhD is really the most meaningless qualification that there is, you really can't judge the worth of a PhD without reading the thesis. For some subjects you h...
  • Chris Cory
    While I agree with every word, I am at the same time, more than a little discombobulated. If we believe all this fine "power to the people" stuff, then isn't...