By Christopher Winch Author’s Note. This article was first published in July 2003. It is a mark of the lack of progress that the left has made since then, that in preparing it for Labour Affairs in 2024 I have had to make minimal changes, like substituting ‘Starmer’ for ‘Blair’. It is often said by … Continue reading Equality and Socialism
A New Beginning? Dave Gardner This journal has for some time bemoaned the Labour Party’s lack of interest in a matter of the first concern to working people, vocational education and training (VET). In Robert Halfon MP on the other hand, the Tories have a Minister of State responsible for VET who is exceptionally knowledgeable … Continue reading Labour’s Vocational Education Policy
Skills v Knowledge, or the balance between university education and vocational education. The Tory head of the Education Committee has the right ideas, as seen in his exchanges with Nadhim Zahawi, the Secretary of State for education, during the debate on the Schools White Paper, Monday 28th March 2022 — Commons Chamber Robert Halfon: The White Paper … Continue reading Skills v Knowledge
Labour and Housing – Part 6. The financial implications of the Right to Buy scheme By Eamon Dyas The Thatcher legacy that began as practical policies in 1979 and which continues to permeate British politics was based on a strategy consisting of three components. Firstly, the oft-repeated mantra of the need to roll back the … Continue reading Labour and Housing
What am I going to do next? Part 11 Dave Gardner In part 8 of this series I looked at mass university education in Britain and concluded that it had some significant harmful side effects. This was not a whinge along the lines of ‘more means worse’, a snobbish slogan attributed to the novelist Kingsley … Continue reading University or bust Part 2
Thoughts on a High Wage High Skill Economy Dave Gardner Last month I wrote about the government’s desire to force most young people not doing A levels to do a new type of demanding qualification called the T level. They intend to do this by defunding vocational alternatives such as the BTEC level 3. I … Continue reading What Am I Going to do Next? Part 10.
EUGENIA RUSSELL explores how meaningful employment can be created for prisoners and ex-offenders (Morning Star 23/10/21) THERE are not many businesses that employ prisoners in a meaningful way, but those that do deserve to be known about and supported by the public. A prime example is The Clink charity, which equips prisoners with catering skills that will … Continue reading Where to get your photos printed
T levels: Reform and Disaster. The Bourbons of Vocational Education strike again. Dave Gardner. This month I was going to continue my discussion of the pros and cons of university education as a possible route to work for young people. That will have to wait until November because it is becoming apparent that a new … Continue reading What Shall I do next? – Part 9
Dave Gardner Part 7 One way of getting a job is to work for someone who will employ you on the basis that you look as if you can do the job. This could come from a demonstration (eg repairing a bike for a bike repairer) or from a personal recommendation. These are also ways … Continue reading What am I going to do next? Young People and Unemployment.
No or bad work experience can have long term scarring effects leading to long spells of unemployment, dissatisfaction in the workplace, the inability to build a career and a general cynicism about employers and employment. Even an adherent to ‘household economics’ should recognise the long term economic cost of failing to provide work and good quality vocational education and training that includes work experience.
What am I going to do next: part 3? Youth Unemployment and the White Paper on Skills for Jobs Dave Gardner I’m interrupting the plan I had for this series of articles on youth unemployment to look at the just-published White Paper ‘Skills for Jobs: Lifelong learning for Opportunity and Growth’, which is both topical … Continue reading What am I going to do next? Part 3
Labour Affairs 