From education to employment

The Brexit Party: Investing in Young People

Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, an educator of over 20 years experience

The Brexit Party cares passionately about young people. They are our future and investing in their education is crucial for our country’s future prosperity and cultural development. Our policies will ensure students and every young person can reach their full potential.

It is worth mentioning that in schools, we believe in more choice not less. Recent investment in academies, free schools and indeed schools set up in partnership with Universities has helped improve learning and results. This investment must continue.

We think the next generation needs a rounded humanistic education, in the arts and humanities as well as STEM subjects, before moving on to work, or more specialised vocational or academic study.

To this end, we will undertake a review of the intellectual content of teacher education courses on offer to ensure they provide an intellectually robust preparation for the complex work undertaken by teachers.

For too long the role of the FE teaching workforce has been overlooked when it comes to these important matters of how we shape and deliver a curriculum fit for the 21st century.

For university students we will abolish all accrued and future interest on student loans. As graduates will be paying back the principal sum rather than paying off such high interest rates, we anticipate that this will result in higher recovery rates.

At universities, it is clear that major change is required. Critically many degrees are delivering poor education for students, with not enough hours taught with often questionable teaching quality as the sector has undergone such rapid growth. Many degrees could be completed in two years, and grade inflation is rampant. In addition, we will bring to an end the system of unconditional offers which distort outcomes.

Many young people do not go to university. We must therefore invest more in their training as they start their careers. We will scrap the cumbersome and inefficient Apprentice Levy, which currently prevents many small businesses from hiring young apprentices and has led to a collapse of new apprenticeships since its introduction. Instead, we will develop a simpler system with better tax incentives for all employers to take on apprentices and give young people training up to degree-level equivalent.

Furthermore, we will re-open the nursing and midwifery professions to recruitment without the requirement for a degree, alongside a new nursing qualification in social care.

Finally, we will conduct a review of the large number of unelected quangos in the education and skills arena and wherever we can streamline the bureaucracy. This will free up significant resources that can be better spent on young people themselves.

Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is an educator of over 20 years experience. She currently works as an English teacher, and educational writer and consultant.


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