157 Group welcomes renewed focus on advice and guidance for vocational education
23rd January 2013
For immediate release: Wednesday 23 January 2013
The 157 Group supports the call for improved career guidance, as highlighted in a speech by the shadow education secretary, Stephen Twigg, which chimed with a report from the education select committee describing the decision to transfer responsibility for guidance as "regrettable" and making several recommendations to hold schools and colleges accountable for the quality of guidance offered to young people.
In his speech to the Policy Exchange, Mr Twigg challenged current guidance arrangements and outlined his current thinking on raising the status of vocational education. He advocated a coherent technical baccalaureate at age 18, incorporating mathematics and English, and outlined proposals for engaging employers in providing meaningful work experience for school pupils. He also challenged notions of a system that "pigeonholed" young people into academic or vocational routes and said that Labour's Skills Task Force was working to develop a system where flexibility would remain possible for all.
Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said, "Mr Twigg's speech presents a positive vision for the future in which coherent vocational training routes are valued equally with academic study, as they seem to be in other countries. We look forward to engaging in discussions about the nature of a technical baccalaureate; how to engage employers in effective work experience and curriculum planning; and raising the level of young people's readiness for work.
"Mr Twigg is correct to say that the need to focus on providing young people with high-quality guidance about vocational options is more important than ever if we are to have a system that equips our young people with the skills they need to be economically successful. We have already advocated the reinstatement of face-to-face guidance, in our policy paper, Information is not enough.
"The select committee's conclusions about the state of guidance in schools are worrying and we welcome its recommendations about clearer accountability in the future."
Peter Roberts, chair of the 157 Group and principal of Leeds City College, said, "Today's report presents an opportunity to reform the guidance landscape and ensure that young people can truly value the high-quality vocational routes open to them. Our member colleges are ready and willing to work with schools locally and nationally to make this aspiration a reality."
ENDS
Notes for editors
The press notice is available online at http://www.157group.co.uk/news.
Information is not enough: the case for professional careers guidance is available to download in PDF format at http://www.157group.co.uk/files/information_is_not_enough_.pdf
About the 157 Group
The 157 Group represents 29 of the most influential colleges in the FE sector. It was formed in 2006 in response to paragraph 157 of Sir Andrew Foster's report on the future of further education colleges, in which he argued that principals of large, successful colleges should play a greater role in policymaking.
CONTACT
Andy Gannon
07581 354750
The 157 Group Limited
PO Box 58147
London
SW8 9AF
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