Bringing Back Clever; Can we Seize the Opportunity for Bold Educational Reform?

The new Burnham led government has only been in power for a couple of months but it has already done enough to indicate that it has an educational reform agenda significantly bolder than that of its predecessor. The new PM has called for a ‘complete rethink’ of education and argued that we need to end the obsession with university pathways and value ‘the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap’ through greater parity of esteem between vocational and higher education aligned with the needs of employers and regional skills and economic priorities. The new Education secretary Lucy Powell, in a recent interview in the Observer, said that she was ‘Bringing Back Clever’ and wanted to ‘replace the exam factory with the talent factory’. She argued that ‘Young people develop at different stages and in different ways. They have skills and knowledge and know-how to bring to the table .The straightjacket of only looking at a narrower and narrower curriculum and narrower and narrower set of judgements doesn’t suit all people. I think that education should be about what you can do and not what you can’t do’. She was responding to former education secretary Michael Gove’s accusation that the government was ‘Bringing Back Stupid’ with its focus on vocational education.

The government’s rhetorical support for systemic change has been put into practice through its curriculum reform proposals for the post 14 age group based on a roll out of the MBacc model used in Greater Manchester which will enable pupils to combine academic subjects such as English, Maths and Science with vocational options linked to regional skills priorities. This will include guaranteed work placements to strengthen potential routes into employment and is due to be implemented from autumn 2028. The government’s devolution agenda including the devolution of education funding for the 16-19 age group to mayors at regional level covering FE and sixth form colleges and independent training providers also represents a major shift away from the top down central control currently exercised by the DfE and DWP with more details on implementation and timetables due in October’s budget.

The Change Environment

Apart from the government’s declared commitment, there are a number of other factors which are increasingly contributing to an environment favourable to systemic change. There has been a growing recognition at national level which was evident even in the Sunak government’s policy proposals, that the historical preference for academic learning alongside undervaluing and underfunding of vocational education has contributed to the country’s relatively poor levels of productivity and economic growth in recent years. On top of this the negative impact on many young people has become increasingly evident.As we all know the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has risen to just under a million and the interim report of the Milburn Review has identified a range of long standing weaknesses in the education and skills system which have contributed to the current crisis. They include the ever narrowing curriculum and focus on university entry at school to which Lucy Powell has referred with children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds often being left behind, relatively weak careers guidance provision resulting in inadequate support at crucial ‘transition’ points at 16 and 18, limited work experience opportunities and cuts in funding for colleges and apprenticeships. In addition the growing need for mental health support for young people is not being met by relatively threadbare services. A key message of the report is that ‘There is no system in Britain which takes people from education into work as adults’.

Many universities are also facing a growing existential crisis. In an LSE Impact blog earlier this year entitled ‘Why UK Universities are Failing’ Constantine Alexiou and George Saradakis argue that ‘Universities are facing unprecedented turbulence’. They identified key factors as including ‘ A broken funding model’ based on a dysfunctional student fees and loans system which has resulted in a lifetime of debt for many thousands of graduates and growing market resistance. Also ‘Communities witness universities retreating from public service towards corporate partnerships and property ventures’ so that ‘the sector has become a hybrid institution caught between public expectations and market imperatives, governed by leaders rewarded for financial agility rather than intellectual integrity’. They call for universities to reaffirm their public mission and in return to receive the policy stability necessary for long term planning.

Can We Seize The Opportunity?

In the context of the government’s commitment to educational reform, the increasingly urgent needs of the most vulnerable young people and the growing demands and pressures on vocational and higher education institutions there is  now  an opportunity for systemic change which perhaps comes only once in a generation. The government’s proposals are still at a relatively early stage so it will be critical for the sector to seize the opportunity to help shape the reform agenda before the details become ‘baked in’. Curriculum reform, for instance, has to be a central component of any serious reform programme designed to promote parity between academic and vocational options, enhance engagement in learning and maximise flexibility and choice for young people whilst meeting the economy’s skills needs more effectively. Although the provision of new technical pathways from age 14 is therefore welcome, the government has been indicating that it will broadly accept the recommendations of the National Curriculum Review which reported last November and opted for an incremental approach to post 16 reform including the retention of T levels and the proposed V levels alongside the apparently sacrosanct A level structure.

There is a strong case for looking again at the findings of the Tomlinson report on 14-19 education published in 2004 which proposed replacing England’s fragmented collection of academic and vocational qualifications with a single coherent 14-19 diploma framework combining a common core of English, Maths, digital and personal skills with academic and technical specialist learning. Despite winning widespread support throughout the education and training sector the report’s recommendations were scuppered when the Blair government got cold feet over the replacement of A levels. Peter Hyman, a former adviser to the Blair government, recently published a summary of an interview with Sir Mike Tomlinsonin which he concluded that the proposals were even more relevant now due to the changing nature of work. ‘All jobs combine thinking and doing. All young people need to do both academic and technical education while at school. That is why an overarching qualification, not separate lanes, must be the right long term approach.’

In her interview, Lucy Powell indicated that she may revisit aspects of the curriculum review calling for ‘a bigger suite’ of technical qualifications at age 16 as well as including more practical elements into mainly theoretical GCSEs. She also said that she didn’t want to ‘throw the entire system up in the air and start from scratch’ which is understandable, but we still need to agree on what the ultimate goal of the reform process should be even if it takes time to get there.

There are many other aspects of the reform agenda that we need to engage in, including how devolution is going to work at local/regional levels, where lifelong learning fits in and so on, but we are not only reliant on central government to promote reform and change. To some extent we can take matters into our own hands. Over the last couple of years collaborative initiatives have been launched all over the country by groups of colleges, universities, local authorities, employers and other stakeholders to develop partnerships from the ground up designed to create more unified and flexible progression pathways more responsive to the needs of learners and the labour market. Skills Minister Angela Smith paid tribute to these in her recent speech to the annual Universities UK conference.

It is through this combination of innovative and hopefully more joined up government policy and sector engagement and action at ground level that the ultimate shape of a modern reformed Post 16 Education and Training system which more effectively meets the needs of learners and employers will emerge.

By Martin Cumella, Co-Founder and Editor of the Skills and Growth Initiative, he has 35 years’ experience as a UK and International education consultant and is a former Chair of Newham College of Further Education