The UK still has a Status Problem when it comes to Education

For decades, young people have been encouraged to see vocational routes as alternatives to success rather than central to it. Yet at this very moment, our economy is crying out for practical and technical skills, from housing and infrastructure to clean energy, digital technology and advanced manufacturing.

That disconnect is becoming harder to ignore. The industries shaping our future depend on a new generation of highly skilled people trained through technical pathways delivered at further education colleges. In many sectors, these are no longer “Plan B” careers. They are becoming some of the most important jobs in the modern economy.

But if we are serious about the future of work, policy needs to change too. Colleges are expected to support economic growth, help employers respond to skills shortages and give people opportunities to retrain throughout their working lives.

However, parts of the system still reflect technical education as secondary to academic routes. Longstanding issues such as VAT rules affecting colleges may sound technical, but they send a wider message about who we truly value in our economy. Colleges currently cannot recover VAT on most purchases related to their core educational activities, a constraint estimated to cost the sector around £200 million annually. That money could be going directly into teaching and learning.

The same is true for teacher pay. According to research from the National Foundation for Educational Research, the longstanding pay gap between teachers in further education colleges and secondary schools is continuing to widen, with FE teachers earning on average 20% less than their secondary school peers. Although colleges are responsible for setting pay, funding cuts over the last 15 years have created significant budget constraints.

During my time in local government in Newcastle, I saw first-hand the growing gap between the skills employers needed and the people available to fill those roles. Conversations with businesses across the North East were often strikingly similar. Construction firms struggling to recruit skilled tradespeople. Employers working on retrofit projects unable to find enough trained staff. Engineering and digital businesses looking for talent in sectors critical to the UK’s future growth.

This picture will be broadly familiar to every town and city across the country, including, and perhaps especially, in London. We have enormous potential, but realising it depends on developing local talent through local institutions. Our further education colleges are often the ones stepping up to meet those needs, working closely with employers and adapting quickly to changing demands. Yet they are doing so with one hand tied behind their back, operating in a system that has historically undervalued what they do.

These days, the debate about the future of work is often dominated by fears about AI replacing jobs and the collapse of entry-level roles, particularly for university graduates. But the bigger challenge may be how quickly people can adapt to change. We are effectively living through the equivalent of the 18th century industrial revolution compressed into a fraction of the timespan. In a modern economy, the ability to retrain, upskill and access new opportunities throughout working life will matter more than ever.

That is why further education colleges are so important. They already provide flexible routes into work for young people, support adults looking to retrain and work closely with employers to meet local skills needs. As industries evolve, colleges will become even more central to helping people navigate economic change.

The government’s Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, published earlier this year, acknowledged that for too long further education has been “treated as second rate.” It set out plans for what ministers called a “standards revolution” in the sector, including investment in teachers, curriculum reform and stronger employer partnerships. Skills England has reported that we will need 900,000 more skilled workers in priority sectors by 2030, a target that simply cannot be met without a properly resourced FE system.

These are welcome signals. But ambition needs to be matched by action. VAT rules affecting colleges remain unchanged. The teacher pay gap persists. And as the Centre for Social Justice noted in a recent report, we have built an education system “obsessed with the academic pathway” that leaves too many young people without a clear route into skilled work. Nearly a million 16-to-24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training, and three in five of them have no qualifications beyond GCSEs.

The call for “parity of esteem” between academic and vocational education has appeared in policy documents for decades, from the 1944 Education Act to the present day. Yet the gap persists. Vocational education is still introduced to many young people only after academic routes begin to falter, rather than being presented as a credible option from the start.

If we want growth, we need to stop treating practical and technical education as an afterthought. That means fairer funding, genuine parity – not just in rhetoric but in resources – and a recognition that education policy is effectively economic policy.

The UK has the talent, the ambition and the institutions needed to succeed. Our colleges already transform lives and support local economies every day. But if we are serious about building a stronger and more resilient economy, we must properly value practical and technical expertise. The future of the country depends on it.

By Lord Forbes of Newcastle CBE, and President of Capital City College