My heart sank when I read that Sir Tony Blair had waded into the education debate again calling for the scrapping of GCSEs and A-levels. I don’t disagree with his analysis. Many young people leave school ill-prepared for the exigencies of today’s fast paced and volatile world of work. Is yet another ‘new approach to educational reform’ the answer, and particularly now hard on the heels of an education and skills world still reeling from the pandemic? 

It is not hard to imagine the systems meltdown – the collective chaos and seismic stress that would ensue by implementing new ideas posited by political pundits rather than experienced, evidence-based practitioners. Does the energy and resilience of students, parents, teachers, leaders, assessors, civil servants, unions, and employers alike need to be subjected to unnecessary upheaval? I think not – and here’s why.

Firstly, Tony Blair is out of touch. He fails to recognise the plethora of education and skills reforms that have been made during the long years his party has been in opposition. Ironically some of them, like academisation, built on the school reforms he himself made in office. The former prime minister has not kept up with his own former secretaries of state for education, David Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Ed Balls, Alan Johnson, and Charles Clarke all of whom agree publicly with their former Conservative counterparts that the overriding policy reform needed now is a 10-year vision with strategic funding guarantees similar to the NHS (see FED).

Secondly, Tony Blair has lost his touch – his touch for tuning in to the Zeitgeist. He discounts, or disregards, the positive skills and post-16 educational improvements that have been introduced by successive Tory prime ministers since 2010.

Take David Cameron, who stole a march on Labour with a bold market intervention (yes, a Tory policy) of a compulsory training levy on employers thereby reinvigorating the value of apprenticeships. This was followed by Theresa May, who commissioned an independent panel to review post-18 education and funding. Led by Sir Philip Augar, it produced an almost universally acclaimed report that finally recognised the decade of systematic underfunding of further and adult education and work-based learning and the disastrous consequences of this for the economy and for communities.

And bang up to date, ‘get-Brexit-done-Boris’, to whom the lesser-known sobriquet ‘got-Augar-afloat’ might also be attributed, has with all political party endorsement (on the whole), got the recent skills act through parliament. This has paved the way for a fourth Tory PM since Tony Blair left office to reap the rewards of the current PM’s passion for and promotion of skills and the world of work – the cause now championed by one of his predecessors in Downing Street. Under the tutelage of a well-respected crossbench peer and academic, Professor Alison Wolf, seconded into number 10 to work with the Department of Education, the vast bulk of the Augar Report recommendations have now been understood, accepted, and are being implemented.

The lifetime learning entitlement (LLE) has been instigated, and there is increasing devolution of the adult education budget to a growing number of mayoral and other types of combined local authorities. All, whether Tory, Labour, or Lib Dem, relish the powers and financial control this enables, particularly in relation to the wider levelling-up agenda, and the opportunities to work with and meet the needs of local and regional employees and employers.  

All this within the framework of LSIPs (do you know what these are Sir Tony?) – local skills improvement plans. Through LSIPs, now out of pilot phase and about to be driven forward, employer representative bodies (ERBs) are working with colleges and skills providers to ensure employers’ needs are met. These employers, working in a world increasingly shaped by new technologies, automation, and AI, as Tony Blair’s analysis highlights, are central to shaping the way forward on skills for individuals and communities. Through LSIPs and ERBs, colleges can ensure there is a skilled local and regional workforce in which high aspirations, high wages, and high productivity go hand in hand with the high skills of the Fourth Industrial Revolution of which Tony Blair speaks. This reform emphasises the place colleges and employers, working together, occupy at the heart of local community regeneration and growth – the place adult and further (lifelong) education has always been. Somehow, under Prime Minister Blair, Labour failed to recognise, champion, and fund this.

Finally, there is already out there the ‘new qualification’, you seek, Sir Tony. It’s called T Levels, and it sits alongside the A-levels you want to abolish. Think of T Levels as ‘Conservative speak’ for a way of looking at, and labelling, your International Baccalaureate (IB) proposal. T Levels are different from the IB, of course, in construct and content but not, I think, in intent. Granted, they are very new, and the jury is out but I love that T Levels have already entered the psyche and language of the educational world and the media. As with all the reforms to which I have drawn attention here, there is still much to develop with T Levels over the coming years – in conjunction with employers, assessors, regulators. teachers, students, and apprentices. However, it’s right we give them a proper chance to evolve as they sustain a central plank of post-16 education reform. The divisive cultural taboo on ‘technical’ is broken, the genie is out of the bottle, and like apprenticeships, parents and young people are now increasingly coming to realise that practical and technical skills (T Levels) that prepare for the world of work are as key to healthy lives and productive communities as is academic study (A-levels).

A decade ago in 2012, I wrote an article for Progress entitled ‘Has Labour finally got skills?’. At the time, I was, under Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party, a Member of the shadow ministerial skills task force and chair of its FE reference group. I firmly believed that his 2012 speech to the Labour Party conference was eye catching not just for its spontaneous and seemingly unscripted delivery but because in policy terms, it felt like a moment when Labour finally ‘got it’ in terms of skills and vocational education – for the many and not just the few. I hope the current Labour shadow education team do not give undue attention to their former leader’s latest salvo – because I fear it will not help the very education system those aspiring shadow ministers seek to lead.

As thousands of students celebrate results today, another cohort feel forgotten – and not for the first time, writes Alice Barnard

There is one key question since last week’s results. Where is the data on BTEC results?

The full suite of BTEC results have still not been released and we can only imagine the uncertainty and worry that students and teachers must be feeling as they anxiously await their results.

Although this has been reassured as only a ‘small percentage of students’, these students still matter and deserve equal opportunity to their peers.

However, we have heard little reassurance from government or a timeline outlining when the issue will be resolved.

Why does it feel, time and again that some of our vocational students are either forgotten or provided with a second class service?

This isn’t the first time that vocational students have felt forgotten.

Looking back to January 2021, the government announced that summer exams would be scrapped, although January exams would continue as normal.

They failed to remember that thousands of students studying BTECs and other vocational and technical qualifications were due to sit their exams within a matter of days.

So, the sector had to step up to remind government of these learners.

The government’s current plan to scrap valuable level 3 qualifications (including applied general qualifications such as BTECs) undermines yet again the integral role that vocational qualifications play.

Voices across the sector have called this decision a ‘hammer blow for society’ and an ‘act of vandalism’.

This potential scrapping will impact thousands of learners.

Around 34 per cent of the 921,046 16- to 18-year-olds studying a level 3 qualification in England are pursuing at least one applied general – some 313,163 students.

BTECs are also engines of social mobility – a quarter of students now enter university with BTEC qualifications and they are likelier to be from disadvantaged backgrounds.

They can also be taken alongside A levels, and scrapping them will leave many students without a viable pathway at age 16.

So why are we constantly having to remind government of the value of broader vocational qualifications?

It is not necessary to replace valuable level 3 options to make T Levels a success.

We continue to work alongside the Protect Student Choice campaign to urge government not to scrap these important qualifications.

Progression into work, apprenticeships and higher education

The next few weeks will open an exciting new chapter in student’s lives, and this shouldn’t just be dominated by higher education as the golden route to success.

Students can choose to progress directly into the world of work or explore other level 3, 4 and 5 higher technical qualifications.

Routes such as apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships offer work-based alternatives to develop work-ready skills, while also earning on the job and should be celebrated equally.  

Opportunity for reform

Finally, exams alone fail to tell employers or universities about a student’s breadth of skills and abilities

After two years of Covid, we should not simply digress back.

Instead let’s develop a system that is fairer, and reduces the high-stakes burden for all learners – whether they study A levels, T Levels or other applied general qualifications such as BTECs.

This should include more multi-modal assessment options and a better way of evidencing skills and experiences via solutions such as a learner profile.

Meanwhile, in relation to T Levels (the government’s ‘flagship’ new technical equivalent to A levels) it will be interesting to see where these learners choose to go next.

We await detailed information on the progression routes of learners and whether they were offered their places of choice.

So, a huge congratulations to all BTEC, T Level and A level students! Despite the disruptions over the last few years, our learners have demonstrated considerable resilience.

We must also thank our fantastic teaching staff who worked tirelessly to support their learning and welfare

But at the same time there is broad and growing consensus across the sector that our assessment system in England needs reform.

We now urge the government to join us in taking action.