ASCL: Government’s technical and vocational education strategy is ‘disjointed’

Commenting on today’s speech by Education Secretary Damian Hinds about technical and vocational education, Julie McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“We agree with the Education Secretary over the importance of raising the kudos of technical and vocational education but the government’s strategy is deeply disjointed. Its focus on the English Baccalaureate suite of traditional academic GCSEs in pre-16 education has pushed technical and vocational qualifications to the margins of the curriculum, while existing post-16 technical and vocational courses are woefully underfunded. If the government is serious about promoting technical and vocational education it needs to put its money where its mouth is and fund schools and colleges properly, and it must review performance measures which are heavily weighted towards academic subjects.”