Can online careers advice work?
The role of employment advisers is diminishing as web-based services come to the fore, but what about the personal touch?
Margaret-Anne Mackenzie left school in April without any qualifications. “I didn’t get any careers advice at school,” the 16-year-old says. She’s not alone – one in four 15- to 19-year-olds said the same in a survey [...]
One in four young people get no careers advice, survey shows
Poll shows 28% of those studying apprenticeships, BTecs and GNVQs are missing out on careers counselling
A quarter of teenagers say they have never received any careers advice, according to a poll.
The survey of 1,620 15- to 19-year-olds found those on vocational courses were least likely to have been given guidance.
Some 22% of those studying for [...]
Core subjects are key to education reform
Schools must specify compulsory subjects up to the age of 16 if Britain is to close the gap with its international peers
The indicators are not good. This week’s OECD performance measures, Education at a Glance, suggests the east is starting to overtake the west in skills. In the PISA league tables, the UK has dropped [...]
Money being wasted on badly-managed colleges, say MPs
Value for money hard to judge due to accounting inconsistencies in £6bn spending, public accounts committee warns
The government is wasting money by funding poorly-managed colleges, a powerful committee of MPs has warned.
The public accounts committee said there were inconsistencies in the way colleges for 16- to 18-year-olds submitted information about finances and results.
This prevents the [...]
Value for money of 16-18 education questioned
Poor budgeting and performance management could be wasting some of £6bn spent on sixth-form education, says National Audit Office
Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned that some of the £6bn spent each year on educating 16- to 18-year-olds may be going to waste.
The National Audit Office said it was impossible to judge whether the government was getting [...]
Letters: The bac and other school measures
Last week, I presented a review of vocational education to Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education. In your paper yesterday, the shadow education secretary, Andy Burnham, is quoted as saying: “Last week, Professor Wolf warned of a ’serious risk’ that the English bac will lead to schools ’simply ignoring’ less academically able students.” [...]
Michael Gove accused of trying to bring back grammar schools by back door
Labour shadow Andy Burham would not have passed baccalaureate
Michael Gove is turning the clock back to the 1950s and introducing grammar schools by the back door, Labour will warn on Saturday as it launches a campaign against the “elitist” English baccalaureate.
In a personal intervention to highlight Gove’s plans to encourage a “dog eat dog world”, [...]
BTecs to get national results day
Vocational course results will be opened up to public scrutiny in July when Edexcel publishes students’ achievements
It looks like a bold decision. An exam board affected by controversy over the use of vocational courses to help schools rise up league tables is about to open up its data for full media scrutiny.
Edexcel is to hold [...]
Encouraging entrepreneurs is vital for the future
A new review of vocational education misses an opportunity to encourage the promotion of entrepreneurial skills so vital for our future, says Tom Bewick
Alison Wolf’s review of vocational education is potentially a retrograde step in terms of making real progress; and not because her central desire to elevate the quality of vocational learning is wrong.
Her [...]
Ed Miliband is wrong. Tuition fees gave poorer students hope | Peter Wilby
Extra funds meant more university places. The real issue now is cuts to education maintenance grants
Ed Miliband will on Thursday lead Labour MPs into the Commons division lobbies against proposals to treble student fees. “No party with a deep and genuine commitment to social mobility could support them,” he argued in the Observer this week. [...]
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