UKC

The new T level

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/08/t-levels-aim-to-improve-t...

I suppose its a start but it seems like wishful thinking compared to investments made elsewhere in the western world.

In reply to Offwidth:

Who knows, perhaps someone will come up with a bright idea like T-Colleges! Youngsters could go locally without having to go to the other side of the country and have all the crippling expenses of student and accommodation debt.

Oh hang on, didn't we used to have something like that, years ago?


[I experienced both Technical College and University education and I have a huge respect for both]

In reply to wercat:
Funny you should say that...

http://feweek.co.uk/2017/01/22/industrial-strategy-will-put-fe-in-spotlight...

I watched Andrew Neil skewer a government minister on this having checked up the annual turnover of his alma mater Glasgow University and finding it was much more than that just for one institution. How many colleges will this fund?....asked again and again with no answer.

In reply to Offwidth:

An improvement is long overdue - the neglect of technical education affects people of all ages - I did an adult education evening A level course at Durham Technical College at the end of the 1970s, 1 Tuesday evening per week for 2 years and ended up with a top pass grade. When I look at opportunities for adults round here it's fine if you want to learn facebook, flower arranging, scrap-booking or digital photography but nothing to do with life-long learning in anything challenging or technical.

Our course had people from 6th formers wanting an extra computer "fix" through to retired people and was taught excellently with texts that turned out to be from a book supporting OU studies. I was working temporarily at the other half of the college on a pioneering study based at the college into the applications for microcomputers in Education (as a historical materials researcher, nothing technical except having to add data to an Apple II). Those were the days!

Sadly I'm sure this won't end up as more than a gesture

In reply to wercat: And if I remember correctly, those things called Polytechnics (clue's in the name) did degree courses that were more vocationally and technically based. Now what happened to them I wonder.

In reply to Michael Hood:
I think the availability of decent and free or cheap technical and vocational training at all ages would transform employment prospects, particularly for the young and in later life which are the difficult times generally, either starting out or restarting after being discarded. The knock-on would provide an economic boost not only in making our economy more productive but also increasing spending power of people moved into decent paying work


And by technical education I do not simply mean "skills training" but education. My uncle started as an apprentice and because of the level of technical education available in the 50s and 60s went to HND level after radar school in national service and then on to King's College Durham, now Newcastle University, and ended up as a degree educated chartered engineer.

In reply to Michael Hood:
They became new Universities and initially taught exactly the same courses with exactly the same focus. My place only dropped HND awards reluctantly when the government let EDEXCEL define fixed (dumbed down) syllabi thet we could no longer tailor to meet transfer between them and our degree courses. Later on (mid 2000s) we lost all but one of our 'expensive' Engineering courses as Universities operated in a 'free market' and state industrial needs were never factored in to agreed University places. This was a massive disappointment to our significant industrial partners (like Rolls Royce). We are now in the process of reopening them again with the help of much the same compaines . Hey ho.

In reply to wercat:


I don't know if it would.
One of my customers is a large technical Collage and they have been a customer of mine for 25 now.
When I started they had very large woodworking and metal working shops and also upholstery shops.
The students were turning out excellent work and the reception desk in Leeds townhall was apparently built by students at this place.

These large rooms have been partitioned off more and more each year though because they struggle more and more each year to fill the places.
On the other hand the photography courses, fashion design courses, the graphic design courses and my personal favorite conceptual design (seems to revolve round cutting up lots of cardboard and gluing it together) are over subscribed so they keep taking more and more space from the more physically demanding skills.