Peter Finegold, Head of Education and Skills at the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, said in response to the 2017 Budget:
“The proposed Industrial Strategy needs a clear,
properly thought through national skills strategy to underpin it.
Our economic success will heavily rely on both structural and
cultural change to how we frame technical education, not simply
to be on par with academic study but to be seen as seamless with
it.
“The Chancellor's £500 million per year commitment to
support game-changing reforms including T-levels are welcome, but
the challenge remains how to attract young people and their
parents to the value of technical training, in areas such as
engineering, in the first place. Our schools focus on a narrow
set of academic success indicators and are largely staffed by
teachers who have little experience of industry. Parents remain
fearful that a technical education is a second-class
option.
“To ensure the T-levels, Institutes of Technology and
the renewed 16-19 sector all succeed, we must change
fundamentally the relationship between schools, Further Education
(FE) colleges and industry. Teachers should spend time in the
modern workplace to understand the value of technical skills.
Schools must open their doors to their educational competitors in
the FE sector. Arguably the biggest threat to T-levels (in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland) are the option limiting
A-levels. It may be time to think again about whether reform of
technical education can happen without changes to the academic
ones.”
