EYP Talk - Your voice on Europe's future. This is the online forum of the European Youth Parliament in the UK.

Skills for Life?

Skills for Life? How can education better prepare the workforce of tomorrow for an uncertain labour market?

The panellist in this discussion is

Linda McAvan MEP, Yorkshire and the Humber

Linda McAvan was first elected as an MEP in 1998. She is Labour’s spokesperson in the European Parliament on the Environment and Public Health.

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Today I discovered through

Posted by chris.mackin on 08/02/2007 - 17:31

Today I discovered through the French department in my university that French degrees in all universities in the UK must follow the same course of examining students in FINAL YEAR in ENGLISH. I chose to do a French degree as I wanted to ensure my language skills would improve greatly and therefore give me a high chance of employment. I am sure that employees who see people come from a French degree must assume, as you would, that these students will be fluent in French. I feel that it is however possible to graduate with a degree from my university in particular, having a minimal knowledge of French. I am quite annoyed that I pay 1200 pounds tuition per year and the final exams are not even in the target language. I really feel for those who are paying 3000 per year

Flexibility

Posted by Sophie Stewart on 07/02/2007 - 10:45

I am personally wary of categorising students as suitable for 'practical' or 'academic' paths even earlier than we do now. Already, I know how it feels to be forced to make decisions which could affect the rest of your life in terms of a career, even as young as 14.

If, as Linda McAvan has pointed out, our and future generations will switch job fields numerous times at various stages in our working lives, is it not essential that everyone receives the same broad variety and balance of subjects, both 'academic' and 'practical' for as long as possible before choosing a preferred option later on?

No compulsory education for 17/18 year olds

Posted by chris.mackin on 05/02/2007 - 22:27

I disagree with what Ed has said, I do not think that post 16 education should be made mandatory! If we decide to force those who ordinarily would prefer to work in an unskilled job to continue education, isnt there a risk that these people may cause disruption to classes where people who would have chosen to continue with education are trying to learn in order to prepare for exams. Do we want to force people to continue with education, perhaps even enhancing the view of the UK as the 'Nanny State,' but from a different perspective?

From a personal point of view, I think it is perfectly possible to work your way up from a position in an unskilled job to earning a decent salary for yourself and providing for a family. If education was to be made compulsory up to 18, there would need to be far reaching reforms to the education systems to further include vocational education in order to accomodate those who would ordinarilly leave school at the age of 16.

Student ALREADY have options.

Posted by Edward Warrillow on 04/02/2007 - 00:56

Having spent the past 6 months working in a college of further education in the UK, I would argue that contrary to many of the previous posts, many measures are currently being taken to prepare tomorrow’s workforce. In addition to the core academic subjects, the UK’s post 16 education system offers vocational courses in Catering, Public Services (for those wanting to become police officers) and even Electrical NVQs to name but a few. All of these are geared towards employment and many include a weekly work placement. Students from low-income families can even get paid a weekly allowance for attending these courses. With all of these opportunities available, I would argue that enforcing post 16 education is the best way to support the younger generation. Whilst the argument for allowing people to pursue unskilled jobs at 16 does exist, do we really want to condemn these individuals to a life of low paid labour with little prospect of job progression?

Do school leavers want this?

Posted by AHardman on 02/02/2007 - 17:34

I agree with James, that there has to be an element of 'option' to this scheme. Enforcing something upon anyone tends not to work, particularly if you are trying to engender any kind of enthusiasm for it. While, like Mike I can see the advantages and merits of extending school leaving age - it does seem detrimental to society that those who are set on a particular vocational course or employment at 16 that they will possibly excel at and enjoy may not have this option for a further two years. It's certainly a hard balance to strike...

Raising the school leaving age

Posted by Mike Leyland on 19/01/2007 - 00:17

I can certainly see the reasoning behind this and I do agree that there is a definite need for a more vocational approach to education in general. However, we must not forget that there are also a large number of 'unskilled jobs' which may well appeal to some 16 year olds wishing to pursue these careers. The idea of these youngsters spending another two years in school seems to be a bit of a waste of time for both the pupil and the school.

To start off...

Posted by James Montgomery on 16/01/2007 - 16:13

To start off, there are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't! Just thought I'd lighten the atmosphere a little.

As the eloquent and clearly brilliant moderator points out, a purely binary education system has many bad points, firstly how do we read all those ones and zeros, ha ha, just another little joke...

But to be serious for just a second, an "either/or" system segregates pupils, but vocational training within schools clearly has advantages. What is clear is that it has to be an option, rather than something that is enforced - pupils must still be given a choice.

School leaving age to be raised to 18 in England

Posted by Emma Campbell on 12/01/2007 - 17:15

Any thoughts on this?

Thank you to Linda McAvan

Posted by Emma Campbell on 12/01/2007 - 07:26

Thank you to Linda McAvan for opening this topic, and to Corrine for her comments. My name's Emma and I'll be the moderator for the Life Skills discussion. I study English literature and French, and I've had more than enough of people assuming I'm going to be a teacher. It's good to be reminded that there are many other options available to people who speak a second language.

There's something that has always bothered me about the balance of "practical" and "academic" subjects in schools (please note "postmodern" use of inverted commas - it's how people avoid "meaning" anything, apparently). Would this kind of subdivision of subjects mean labelling people at a very early age? Of course, whatever route pupils choose at high school, you would hope that they would have the opportunity to reassess their choices later and to change the direction of their studies or career. But any suggestion of categorising pupils into "academic" and "vocational" classes still bothers me. It would be great to allow people who felt sure of their goals to specialise in a particular area, but it would be very important to avoid narrowing pupil's options before they even knew their strengths. A binary system of employment categories, if you like, would not be helpful for young people or employers.

"Education, Education, Education"

Posted by corrine_noble on 10/01/2007 - 16:25

Ten years on from Tony Blair's promise to make education his priority in government, clearly something is still missing if we are to return to the proposition that ‘life skills’ are not being taught in schools. If we consider an education system where practical subjects are taught as opposed to academic subjects, this would obviously not accommodate everyone, and this circular argument leads us back to the drawing board. What needs to be struck is a balance, that vital life skills are taught alongside the opportunity for people to progress into their chosen career with the skills they need. In order to prepare pupils for the labour market a suggestion could be to set up links between schools and businesses where work experience could be undertaken in a variety of sectors.