The vision of mayor Andy Burnham’s Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc) took a step further yesterday as he held a summit between business and education leaders. FE Week reporter Josh Mellor visited the event to find out more about the perception of this “alternative EBacc” set to launch in September…
Burham appeared energised and confident as he addressed the room, drawing a laugh at the irony of trying to speak over the din of a heavy drill from a neighbouring construction site as he tries to galvanise support for his “integrated” technical education plan, dubbed the MBacc.
In front of him, around round tables, sat hundreds of school, sixth-form and college leaders, business representatives and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) staff acting as “facilitators”.
The all-day event – which included “collaborative sessions” about how to make the proposal a reality – was organised by the mayor in a bid to get more schools and employers from the region signed up to work with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to offer a different pathway to the government’s current English Baccalaureate (EBacc).
This could, in some quarters of central government, be seen as a potential regional rebellion against the English education system’s alleged bias towards academic subjects.
In short, the MBacc is a list of core and optional GCSE subjects that will steer pupils towards technical training routes leading to in-demand jobs in the local economy.
This contrasts with the EBacc, a Conservative-government measure of schools’ academic success that promotes five core subjects, English, maths, science, a modern language and either history or geography.
Like the EBacc, the MBacc suggests core GCSEs in English language and literature, maths and sciences but also ICT.
However, instead of languages and humanities as options, it steers students towards engineering, design and technology, business studies, drama, music or performing arts.
Fresh from the metro-mayor’s well-publicised visit to Downing Street after Labour’s election victory last week, Burnham said he has a “willing audience at the heart of government”.
“The big message is, if we don’t fix technical education, that will be a risk to the growth that we all want to see,” he added.
He slammed the “snobbery” around technical education in England and the “obsession” with the university route, which is only followed by about a third of students in his area.
He said: “That is what the MBacc is all about – let’s give everyone growing up here a clear and equal path in life.”
‘Colleges have fought tirelessly to get that buy in’
Echoing the language of the new Labour government, Burnham said promoting a “clear and equal” pathway for young people to get technical work is a “Manchester mission”.
But despite the independence Greater Manchester now has, both the mayor and attendees recognised that much of his vision will not be possible without the government’s support due to the way schools are judged by Ofsted by taking account of EBacc take-up and the need for funding for expert teachers and equipped classrooms.
From September this year, the GMCA will offer a “toolkit” of careers advice with graphics showing a student’s progress route through GCSEs, then T Levels, apprenticeships or technical qualifications, followed by “great jobs or higher education”.
Seven technical “gateways” have been laid out, leading to work in key industries that match in demand sectors in Greater Manchester’s economy.
Alongside this, the GMCA wants to use its regional influence and careers advice website “GMACS” to offer work experience opportunities.
GMCA also plans to offer schools a package of support with the technical route for students, with the hope that it can be built up so “every” young person who wants one has an “integrated” technical educational pathway by 2030.
The combined authority team will connect schools to the Careers Enterprise Company to offer 50 hours of “high quality” work experience, tailored to each gateway for years 9 to 11.
There will also be an Annual Festival of Technical Education hosted by GMColleges, to raise awareness of technical education pathways.
But signing up to the MBacc offer will be voluntary, the GMCA will not offer any incentives or publish any league tables showing which schools, or how many students, are participating.
Despite therefore risking appearing as a branding exercise, moving towards the MBacc is a step in the right direction for Anna Dawe, chief executive at Wigan and Leigh College. She said: “For me, as someone who’s worked in education now for over 30 years, [it’s great] to hear technical education being promoted and told that it is just as valid a pathway as an academic pathway, and to actually get buy-in from employers in a city region such as this.
“As FE colleges, we have fought tirelessly to try and get that sort of buy in, but for employers to actually be incentivized to be part of it, that that puts technical education in a very, very different space.
“The mayor can broker conversations with employers in a different way to the way that colleges can and that is incredibly welcome, and also it just puts it out there at a very, very top strategic level.”
Policy issues
The mayor admitted there are “policy issues that might stand in the way” of his vision.
Appearing to address his Labour government directly, he pleaded that funding for BTECs and other level 3 alternatives to T Levels should not be withdrawn as currently planned, estimating that this would affect 4,500 learners in Greater Manchester.
He also raised concerns about apprenticeships increasingly being accessed by older people.
Greater Manchester’s schools and colleges will also need more “capital” to build learning spaces for technical subjects to be taught in.
Chris Cox, vice principal at Ashton Sixth Form College said: “Originally when this was first launched a year ago I thought it was about a separate qualification.
“But now I understand that it’s a collection of GCSEs I’m much more supportive.
“I think it has real potential… but I do worry ever so slightly, are we asking students to make very, very specific choices that might be wrong, that might narrow their opportunities later on?”
Claire Cronin, headteacher at West Hill School in Stalybridge, said: “I think the principal [of a technical pathway] is 100 per cent needed because there’s a gap between the amount of children who take a skills and academically-supported route.
“About 70 per cent of children fit the mould of not following the traditional university academic pathway.
“It perpetuates the skills divide of those children following in that and going into lower pay work or falling into NEET.”
However, Cronin added that she had “some hesitation” about teacher recruitment after recently truing to find a design and technology teacher for two and a half years.
James Eldon, principal of Manchester Academy, said: “Andy has forced the conversation around students who don’t do the EBacc – that’s long overdue.”
Your thoughts