Looking at the options facing school-leavers

What is the future for our school-leavers? As GCSE results are announced today, the Grimsby Telegraph's Parliamentary Correspondent, David Torrance, looks at options facing our young people today.

AT LAST year's Labour conference, Ed Miliband announced plans for a radical shake-up of vocational education to benefit what he called the "forgotten 50 per cent".

These, he said, are the school leavers who did not go on to university – neglected by successive governments.

The Leader of the opposition said "gold standard" vocational qualifications were needed for young people who did not want to go on to further or higher education; he proposed a new technical baccalaureate, awarded at 18, to those who had completed a programme of work experience, school-based vocational training and academic courses in English and maths.

With pupils eagerly anticipating their GCSE results today, and others contemplating their A-levels, the need for improved vocational training and qualifications is still high on the political agenda.

The idea is not a new one: training school leavers for practical occupations rather than more academia goes back to the end of the Second World War and the 1944 Education Act.

But vocational courses suffer from educational stigma, a feeling that, however beneficial, more hands-on courses are – not least in terms of getting young people into paid employment – somehow less desirable than getting a degree.

This week, the Prince's Trust published a poll of 2,300 16-25 year olds with poor grades, 34 per cent of whom believed they would "end up on benefits".

Most of those had experienced particular problems at home or in school, but Prince's Trust chief executive Martina Milburn, pictured, said it was "more important than ever to invest in vocational support and training for young people who are not academically successful".

She added: "Government, employers and charities must work together to get them into jobs.

"Without this, thousands will struggle to compete, leaving them hopeless and jobless."

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition says it is already taking "decisive action" to transform vocational education.

Indeed, this month a new project designed to offer 16 to 24-year-olds in England work experience and training to help them secure their first job gets under way.

More than 100 employers, such as HSBC, BT, General Motors and Virgin Media are all hoping to run youth traineeships under the Government's scheme.

The initiative will offer help writing CVs, interview practice, work placements of up to five months and training in English and maths.

Funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, it followed complaints from business leaders about poor skills levels among young people.

Recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics indicate that 959,000 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were unemployed in the three months to May, a jobless rate of more than 20 per cent.

Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers said: "Obviously we need to ensure our exam system is rigorous and that we are giving our young people the best ability to compete in what is now increasingly a global market.

"But we also need to provide vocational skills and the Government has done a great deal to enhance the position of youngsters who want to pursue more practical routes and thus providing the skills – electricians, plumbers and the like – we so desperately need."

The Government's plans include new "Tech Levels" and a Technical Baccalaureate which will, according to a spokeswoman, "finally put high-quality vocational education on a par with A levels".

But the Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg says ministers are still doing too little to help young people who do not go to university.

He claimed: "With A-level results already out and GCSEs released today, we know many young people have high ambitions. But sadly, this Government is holding them back by cutting careers advice, threatening school standards, and leaving nearly a million young people out of work. While David Cameron has done nothing for the 50 per cent of young people who don't go to university, Labour would give them a gold standard vocational option through our planned Tech Bacc. Labour would ensure that all young people get high quality qualifications and there is a jobs guarantee for young people out of work for a year."

With signs the UK economy is gradually emerging from its post-2008 stupor, linking exams more closely with gaps in the labour market is likely to become an increasingly high-profile issue.