Starmer’s further education plans augur well, but the policy detail will be telling | Vocational education
Keir Starmer joined the series of long ministers and the Prime Minister who was looking for time for the ambition to continue the higher education of the young people of Tony Blair.
Rishi Altak, Gavin Williamson, and now Starmer ended Blair’s famous 1999 pledge as a policy priority, and was made on the grounds that focusing on universities was at the expense of vocational education and training, such as apprenticeships.
They all have a meaning. The problem is at least considering the structure and financing of post -school education in the UK, alternatives to higher education are not almost attractive for parents or young people.
Starmer’s challenge to change it and his announcement at the Labor Conference went further than his predecessors. He put a difficult number in the pledge version: two -thirds of young people will see 50% of Blair and raised to 67% by “university, further education or gold standard apprenticeship until the age of 25”.
Critics, as Starmer suggested, is right that the university is not always the best option. However, followed governments tried to break the grip of Britian’s soul and failed. The fact that vocational education has academic education with academic education has not yet cheated on Germany’s fantastic apprenticeships or Switzerland’s magnificent technical colleges.
Instead, reality budgets for England’s colleges narrow, financing each other for schools that educate students up to 16 years of age, but Starmer does less for the advanced training colleges, which he describes as “Cinderella Service”.
Starmer’s details behind the hostage will have to wait until the white paper is published and “joined 18 education system with a unified regulatory and financing model” and new quality information authorities for more training colleges will potentially increase a polytechnic form.
An important difference is the proposal that the government will “provide parity in student financing” through higher education and higher level of advanced education. If this means tuition fees and maintenance similar to universities in the UK, it can bring FE students closer to the parity.
Starmer also announced extra financing of approximately £ 800 million for 16-19 training from the current expenditure review, which will include 14 new “technical excellence” colleges to follow 15 similar institutions focused on the previously announced construction and defense.
University managers will be satisfied with the announcements. But will it work? Starmer did not help the case by talking about “young people throughout England ,, and the educational policy of the revolution and the fact that financing is the responsibility of the national administrations in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff instead of Westminster.
Fortunately, 67% targets cannot be achieved by 2040. Considering that approximately 50% of young people continue to education until the age of 25, they may be good for the Starmer target, considering that colleges have more than 900,000 more up to 25 years of age and 147,000 more training in the supply of apprenticeships only in colleges.
