Boris Johnson vows to end ‘bogus’ UK discrimination against further education
Boris Johnson has vowed to end the “bogus distinction” between further and higher education by providing £2.5bn in skills training and increasing access to loans for technical courses.
This will include free courses to any adult that does not have an A-level, or similar, qualification from April and increased funding to SMEs to take on apprentices as a part of a previously announced multi-billion pound skills fund.
Further education colleges will receive £1.5bn to upgrade facilities and make repairs as a part of the increased funding.
Johnson also said in his speech – delivered at an Exeter further education college – that his changes would make it just as easy to get a loan for a technical course than for a university degree.
The Prime Minister said the UK needed “radical change” to encourage more people to take up further education.
“A growing minority of people leave university and work in a non-graduate job and wonder if they did the right thing,” he said.
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“Business isn’t happy, the economy is underproductive and many working adults are stuck in jobs without much future when they’re hungry for new opportunities.”
Johnson said that the UK needed to get more people into further education training like in other western countries.
Only 10 per cent of Britons hold a Higher Technical Qualification, while 34 per cent of Canadians and 20 per cent of Germans hold equivalent qualifications.
The Prime Minister said that the post-Covid economy in particular will need more people able to work in jobs that do not require university education.
“Our economy has been shaken by covid, and in the hand-to-mouth scrabblings of the pandemic the shortcomings of our labour market – and our educational system – have been painfully apparent,” he said.
“We seem on the one hand to have too few of the right skills for the jobs our economy creates, and on the other hand too many graduates with degrees which don’t get them the jobs that they want.”
He also said that the UK needed to end its “pointless, snooty, and frankly vacuous” distinction between further education and higher education.
“We’ve got to end the pointless, nonsensical gulf that has been fixed for generations – more than 100 years – between the so-called academic and the so-called practical varieties of education,” he said.
Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the changes represented “an important step toward a more agile adult skills system”.
“Apprenticeships will remain crucial to solving the skills crisis and employers need support to recruit and retain apprentices throughout the pandemic as cashflow restrictions force firms to make difficult choices,” she said.
“The government’s renewed focus on further education, greater investment in technical and digital skills and a more flexible skills system must go hand in hand with high quality local delivery that responds quickly to the growth aspirations of business.”