Burnham in Number 10: A New Dawn For Education and Skills?

When Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham walks into Number 10- be that Downing Street or the ‘Number 10 of the north’ in Manchester- what should his top priorities on technical education and skills be? In his speeches since re-entering the Commons, Burnham has hit the right notes, including the ritualistic commitment of any prospective Prime Minister to ensuring parity of esteem between academic and technical education, as well as talking up the importance of increasing the supply of apprenticeships and work placements for young people.

The early direction is promising, and Burnham is understood to be working closely with Alan Milburn on his Young People and Work Review. But how can he transform these principles and his record as Greater Manchester Mayor into a credible policy platform on skills? Edge’s research and practice offer a series of lessons for a Burnham Government as it seeks to address the NEETs crisis.

A stronger voice for employers in education

Alan Milburn’s interim report was unequivocal in its diagnosis that the school system is built on young people gaining qualifications rather than preparing them for work. The national curriculum and high-stakes assessment system prioritise a narrow range of academic subjects, meaning (in Milburn’s words) that some students are “effectively set up to fail.” The removal of EBacc and Progress 8 performance measures following the Curriculum and Assessment Review have been a step in the right direction, but we can do more to connect education to the world of work.

Burnham Government could build on the MBacc’s success by putting mechanisms in place to incentivise schools and colleges to place a greater emphasis on essential skills in the curriculum

Through the introduction of the MBacc in Greater Manchester, which Edge supported, Burnham sought to create a broader curriculum for young people and one that offers a line of sight to fast-growing industries in the local economy. A Burnham Government could build on the MBacc’s success by putting mechanisms in place to incentivise schools and colleges to place a greater emphasis on essential skills in the curriculum, such as those in Skills Builder’s Universal Framework. There is also an opportunity to go further by encouraging practices like Real World Learning, Project Based Learning, and teacher externships, all of which help learners better understand skills needed for the workplace and different career pathways.

Work Experience

Burnham has also spoken proudly about his efforts as Greater Manchester Mayor to mobilise local employers to offer 1,000 T Level placements for students in the region, as part of the MBacc. There is an opportunity for a Burnham Government to bring a similar zeal to improving careers guidance and work experience for young people across the country, which, according to Milburn, remains “deeply unequal” and the “single most-cited barrier to work amongst young people.” To ensure Labour’s manifesto commitment for two weeks’ work experience for every young person by age 16 does not become a hollow promise, he should consider innovative measures to scale up provision from employers. These might include promoting meaningful employer encounters through volunteering, projects, mock interviews, work taster sessions, and more. In addition, careers advice on technical education pathways remains patchy, requiring greater enforcement of the Baker clause.

A localised approach to apprenticeships and skills provision

Nonetheless, an education system that better prepares young people for employment will be futile without accessible pathways into employment, including apprenticeships. The current Government has been correct to focus on re-balancing apprenticeships towards young people, after years in which entry-level provision has been “hollowed out,” in Milburn’s words.

As Greater Manchester Mayor, Burnham was vocal in his calls for greater devolution of post-16 funding and employment support, so they could be aligned with local labour market need. This principle should also extend to an expansion of local brokerage services, which exist across the country, to encourage more small businesses to offer apprenticeships. These services are not present in all local authorities, and the level of brokerage provided varies. Central co-ordination and funding for these services, many of which are run by local and combined authorities, would ensure high-quality provision is available to every SME, as called for by Edge’s Agents of Change report.

Sustained investment in youth employment programmes

Burnham has long been an ardent critic of short-term funding cycles, which, as he rightly points out, prevent effective, long-term reform. In no area is this truer than youth employment, which has seen a series of Whitehall-driven initiatives come and go over recent years, plagued by fragmented delivery and short-funding cycles.

Conversely, Burnham should learn from the success of the previous Labour Government’s New Deal for Young People, a mandatory programme offering a range of options for unemployed young people from 1998 to 2009, which resulted in a 20 per cent increase in the number of young people entering work. As outlined in Edge’s Learning from the Past paper on the scheme, its long-term success was in large part due to stable investment and clear goals, as well as the targeted and evidence-driven support it offered.

As Milburn set out in his diagnosis, “there is no system in Britain that takes young people from education into work as adults.” Upon entering No 10, Burnham must act decisively to fill this gap with an approach based on stable investment and clear goals across Whitehall departments. Breaking the Treasury out of its propensity for short-term funding cycles will be a formidable challenge, but one that Burnham must be prepared to face up to in addressing a challenge as great as one million NEETs.

By Alice Gardner is CEO of the Edge Foundation