This article will help you recognise how to build a constructive argument quickly and concisely:
What became of education, education, education?
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was arguably the greatest figure of the Industrial Revolution. The Victorian engineer changed Britain’s landscape and reimagined public transport with dockyards, railway lines, tunnels and suspension bridges, many still in operation today. He was a true British success story.
So it was cause for celebration when Brunel University, which took his name, launched its first medical degree in September. The cohort of 109 students will become desperately needed doctors. Yet not a single one of those bright and ambitious youngsters is British.
Brunel is accepting only foreign students, whom it will charge £44,905 a year in fees — more than four times the sum it could impose on UK students. Chester University, which will open a medical school in September 2024, is also planning to accept foreign students only. A handful of places for British students in a third new medical school, at Worcester University, have been made available only thanks to the generosity of a local philanthropist. Yes, some of these foreign students are likely to stay in the UK after graduation and join the vast international workforce keeping the NHS afloat. But we cannot continue to rely on foreign labour to fill our needs. It is surely a missed opportunity that government funding has not been secured to help train more homegrown doctors and plug the gaping skills gap in our hospitals.
It is not just doctors we need. It seems almost every industry — from software development to construction to the restaurant trade — is crying out for well-trained, motivated employees. There are 1.2 million job vacancies in Britain today. Half of engineering companies say they are lacking skills in their own workforce. A third of radiologist positions in hospitals are unfilled.
Perhaps most alarming of all, we can’t even recruit people to teach these skills. Three quarters of colleges lack teaching staff in technical and digital subjects, according to the Association of Colleges.
Yet other graduates cannot get a job in the subject for which they have been trained. Lizzie Crowley, a skills adviser for the CIPD, the professional body for staff development, said: “The expansion of the higher education systems actually meant that far more graduates are now finding themselves in non-graduate roles.” That is not to say that there is anything wrong with education for education’s sake. To argue for the strictly utilitarian application of education risks leading us down a road with no place for the study of history or literature, arts or philosophy.
But there is no denying that in modern Britain there is a fundamental mismatch: our education system is not meeting the needs of industry. Universities are underfunded and teetering on the edge of collapse, riven by industrial disputes and bloated with too many students. Further education colleges — likely to be attended by poorer mature students, those starting apprenticeships and those resitting exams — are arguably our hidden gems and potential drivers of social mobility. But too often they are overlooked.
So what do our politicians offer? New apprenticeships? Upskilling? No. Instead parliament is bogged down in an unedifying row over VAT rebates for private schools — institutions attended by just 5.8 per cent of schoolchildren in the UK. Impose VAT charges on private schools or allow them to remain exempt, but do not expect either decision to transform education. That this is still being debated reveals a depressing fact: neither Labour nor the Conservatives have an education policy that comes close to addressing the aforementioned problems.
At the very least both parties must look again at the apprenticeship levy. This is a 0.5 per cent charge on employers’ pay bills over £3 million. Companies are free to spend this money on apprenticeships, but any left over at the end of the year must be handed to the exchequer. In theory it is a good system, but bosses say it is easier just to pay the bill than to try to recruit apprentices.
But the problems really start with our schools. Curriculums are narrow and unambitious, teachers exhausted and uninspired. The fact that maths is now the most popular subject at A-level suggests children — and their parents — have their eye on the future. In many respects they are ahead of politicians. T-levels, which offer training in vocational subjects, are a promising start but must be properly promoted to parents and pupils.
The skills gap is one of the most pressing issues facing post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain. We need our political leaders to stop bickering and take control.
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