More than 50,000 18-year-olds in England will not receive exam results this week, prompting the Education Secretary to promise a major overhaul of vocational and technical education. Lucy Powell, appointed to the role three weeks ago, described the situation as a “clarion call” to address the rising number of young people not in employment, education, or training (Neet).
Sharp Rise in Neet Numbers
The Department for Education estimates that nearly 58,000 18-year-olds will get no results this week because they have dropped out of education and training, although some are in employment. This comes as the latest data, published in May, revealed that the number of young people aged 16 to 24 neither working nor learning surpassed one million for the first time since 2013, reaching 1.01 million in the three months from January to March.
Speaking ahead of A-level and T-level results day on Thursday, Ms Powell told the Press Association: “It’s a big number. We know that they’re more likely to be not in education and employment for the years to come, already being out of the system. This is a clarion call for all of us in Government, and business and employers and society more widely, to really address this issue because this has a huge impact not just on those individuals for the rest of their lives but on society and the economy for years to come.”
Vocational Revolution Promised
Ms Powell said she is focused on a “revolution” in technical and vocational pathways to tackle the Neet crisis. She made clear she would not oversee a “two-tier system” in education, ensuring youngsters can choose between vocational routes and going to university. “So that we don’t just have an education system that says: ‘You’re a failure, you’re a failure, oh now you’re out of it’,” she added.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced last month that technical subjects will be available to 14-year-old pupils from September 2028, in the latest of a long line of attempts to get parity of esteem between vocational and academic education. A series of governments have over decades pledged to get technical and academic routes on an equal footing, from General National Vocational Qualifications under Tony Blair’s premiership to T-Levels under Theresa May and proposed V-levels under Sir Keir Starmer.
University Sector Warns of Rhetoric Impact
The chief executive of Universities UK, which represents more than 140 universities, said she agrees higher education is not the right route for all young people but the rhetoric should not be “going backwards in terms of encouraging people to participate in universities”. “I think what we need to keep a close eye on is whether the rhetoric around the value of a degree has a different effect on different types of students,” Vivienne Stern told PA. “Those people who can see people in their family who’ve got a degree and have done very well out of that probably have a greater degree of confidence to follow that route, but what if you are coming from a background where nobody in your family has ever been to university, not really sure what it involves, and all you can hear is people talking it down? Well maybe that’s more likely to put you off.”
Asked if there was a danger of an anti-university rhetoric being spun and putting young people off pursuing higher education, Ms Powell told PA: “I’m absolutely clear I’m not going to be overseeing some kind of two-tier system in education. This is about having high standards across the piece, high aspirations, high expectations.”
Equal Opportunities for All
Ms Powell, whose Manchester Central constituency has high levels of child poverty, stressed that young people from all backgrounds must have the same opportunities. “The kids from my constituency in Manchester Central, which has got very high levels of child poverty, absolutely they must continue to have, and I will make sure that they’ve got, every opportunity to go to Oxford, Cambridge, or a Russell Group University from going to a school in my constituency. As much as there are options for young people in my constituency to also have a good career in construction, health and social care, and all the other jobs of the future for which we don’t have enough young people to do.”
Ms Powell added that employers should be “hunting out” young people who can be “at the forefront of this technological revolution”. She said her “pretty much” first meeting as Education Secretary was with former health secretary Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into the Neets issue. Mr Milburn told The Guardian last week that primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet.
