Commenting on the report, ‘Skills for every young person’, from
the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee, Julie McCulloch,
Director of Policy at the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“We’re stuck in a wretched cycle of high levels of youth
unemployment while at the very same time there are skills gaps
and shortages in industry which damage the country’s economic
prosperity. The Covid pandemic has clearly made this situation
even worse, especially for young people but also for some groups
of adults. It is very obvious that something must change in order
to ensure that more young people and adults have the skills
needed by industry.
“This report on youth unemployment makes sensible suggestions of
a fresh look at the curriculum, better access to high-quality
careers education and advice, and an improved funding system for
further education, among other recommendations. The details of
exactly how this might be done are debatable but the focus is
correct, and the government should take heed. Ministers talk a
lot about a skills revolution but in reality the government has
starved further education of sufficient funding, undervalued its
contribution, dismantled the national infrastructure for careers
advice, and relentlessly driven the value of a traditional
academic curriculum at the expense of vocational and technical
skills.
“The government is setting great store by the introduction of
T-levels to improve matters, and we welcome these new
qualifications, although not at the expense of successful
qualifications such as BTECs. But this strategy doesn’t go nearly
far enough, and simply has to be backed up with a significant
improvement to 16-19 funding and a wider, not narrower,
qualification offer to young people.”
