Schools and Universities: Language Learning

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I will be brief. I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, on her brilliant introduction to this debate and I am delighted to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard. We are both alumni of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and we are both passionate about languages.

As a child, I lived in Paris for three years. I studied French and Spanish at university, then lived in Germany for four years with my RAF husband and was employed to teach French and English in a German Gymnasium. It was quite a challenge. We had married too young for the RAF, so were not allowed to live in military married quarters and lived in a German town surrounded by German speakers. Although the head teacher always addressed me in French, I picked up a great deal of German. Sadly, as I seldom have a chance to speak other languages now, most of my fluency in all three languages has largely gone, but I still value the learning of them, the window on different worlds they gave me and the sheer enjoyment of chatting in a language that was not English.

It has to be a matter of deep concern that our country is becoming monolingual. At one stage it appeared that it was more difficult to get good GCSE and A-level grades in languages than in other subjects, and that was a deterrent to students. The exam boards addressed that to equalise the marking, but it was damaging. Of course, Brexit has greatly harmed our international relations. The demise of Erasmus was another blow. We have to hope that now Erasmus+ is to be restored, young people will once again enjoy travelling abroad and finding out about the languages and customs of other countries.

Damage was done under Labour when a language ceased to be compulsory for GCSE. The EBacc brought it back, but in a programme which was highly academic and ruled out many more creative students. As fewer students study languages, fewer go to university and emerge as enthusiastic teachers. It is a vicious circle which has seen universities close their language departments with further dire effects.

We need solutions. We rely heavily on international recruitment, yet put barriers in the way, as the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, set out. Bursaries have been reduced and the difficulty of getting visas has prevented possible teachers getting jobs. Will the Minister say what is going to happen about bursaries and visas?

We need a strategy to boost language learning. Ideally, as the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard, set out, this should start at primary school when young minds are open and young mouths can develop to make the different sounds needed by different languages. If you do not start languages until secondary school, young people are already getting anxious about making new noises and talking with new words. Can the Minister say what is being done to encourage languages in primary schools? Some years back the British Academy ran competitions to find imaginative language learning in primary schools, with some schools focusing on food and some on drama, music or clothing to stimulate ideas, often with great success. What happened to those imaginative programmes?

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Languages, of which the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, is a critical part, has had meetings where, as the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, said, we have discovered that learning a language leads to increased cognitive flexibility and adaptability. Numerous studies have supported the claim that learning a second language affects a person’s brain, with differences depending on the age of the person when they learn the language. Who knew that languages are good for your health? They are also good for business, international relations and friendship between countries and peoples. We used to have diplomats who were totally fluent in obscure languages and able to contribute to a peaceful world by dint of communicating in native tongues. Where will they learn these languages now if university departments close?

We need also to support the Open University, which is the UK’s largest provider of university-level education across a variety of language-related subjects, including French, German, Spanish, Chinese and others. They have programmes at all levels of difficulty. Their studies are nearly all via flexible distance learning, so are widely available to anyone interested, and they have short courses and modules as well as full-time courses. Can the Minister say if the Government would support a new national strategy to incentivise language learning and teaching? Languages should be supported within the Lifelong Learning Entitlement to send a strong signal to employers and the public that they are a valuable tool in our country’s wealth and well-being. We cannot allow this drift to continue. Urgent action is needed if we are to remain an international country with trade and friends around the world. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.

Graduate Jobs

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, on the question of internships and apprenticeships for those who are going into specialist areas, the DWP has been working to find internships or work experience opportunities for young people. We all know from the number of requests we get from them that it is an awful lot easier to get internships if you have money and connections. One of the challenges for us is to make sure we create opportunities for work experience and internships for those who do not have those things. We are doing a huge amount of work specifically with the one in eight young people who are not in employment, education or training, of whom some will be in the north-west—they are around the country, but they are more likely to be in areas of deprivation. So, we are looking at how we can support that. At the other level, for example for young people who have been on universal credit for 18 months looking for work and not getting it, at the end of that we will give them a guaranteed job for six months to make sure that they have that experience of work.

On the question of professional apprenticeships, the Government are prioritising young people but that includes apprenticeships up to level 7 for those who are under 22 when they begin. The right reverend Prelate mentioned nursing; sometimes they will be post-degree, but they will often be level 6, and there are young people who qualify as solicitors or accountants, for example, through the apprenticeship route. Again, we are interested in where we can grow jobs. I read an interesting World Economic Forum report about the areas that are growing, and one of the growth areas is nursing.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, can the Minster assure us that university undergraduates are not only learning academic skills but skills that will be useful for work? Many years ago, when I graduated from Oxford and told them that I was marrying an RAF officer, I was told that I was unemployable, which was actually pretty accurate. Can the Minister say whether university career guidance is more positive these days than the guidance that I was given?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

For someone who was unemployable at the age of 21, the noble Baroness has not done too badly for herself, and I am sure that the RAF has also benefited from the work that she has done over the years. This is incredibly important. University career support has come a long way, as anyone who has had children or known others who have engaged with it will know. There is more and more engagement with local employers, and we on the DWP side are doing huge amounts with employers. Our aim is to try to make sure that, as we develop the skills requirement, we are working in areas of labour demand, and that we work with those who provide both FE and HE apprenticeships to make sure that the right skills are there, that people are going into the areas where there is growth and that they will get jobs. That is quite broad. A good degree takes somebody into lots of areas. Employers want a good range of skills, including creative thinking, analytical thinking and resilience, and those can come from any discipline.

Curriculum and Assessment Review

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Monday 10th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, like others, we warmly welcome much in the report, particularly on languages and the arts, as we have already heard. I want to raise one thing mentioned on page 37 about the technical awards. We have not had any briefings or debates on V-levels; they have suddenly appeared as if from the blue. The Government should have learned from the T-levels that it takes a long time to introduce and embed a new vocational qualification. What is wrong with BTECs? They are understood by everybody. They are understood by pupils and even by parents—ye gods, that is a triumph. Universities and employers all understand BTECs. They have served people very well. T-levels have not really got properly embedded yet. Why on earth are the Government involved in embarking in something new when there is something perfectly good already there?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

There will be plenty of opportunity for people to have their say about V-levels, not least in the consultation that we published alongside the skills White Paper. It has never quite been my approach to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. There are improvements that we can make to the standard of our vocational education. T-levels are now achieving considerable success, both in the outcomes for students and for a broad range of students in terms of their prior attainment. As we carry out that consultation, I am very happy to carry on talking about where we think V-levels fit in the important range of choices and options for students aged 16 to 19.

Antisemitism: Universities

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Yes. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State met the Union of Jewish Students just last week and wrote directly to vice-chancellors to outline the seriousness of this issue and the responsibility and action that she expected them to take. This was further pursued in a call with vice-chancellors that the Secretary of State attended last Friday, organised by Universities UK. In addition, we are using the additional funding for antisemitism training across schools and universities to address this issue. The OFS, through the new condition E6, which started this August, has made completely clear to universities their responsibility to prevent the sort of harassment and intimidation that we have seen too much of.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, can the Minister say whether universities are required to have designated places of worship for Jewish students, and, if so, what security arrangements they are expected to put in place to ensure that Jewish students can worship in safety?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I will come back to the noble Baroness on the point about designated places, but it is absolutely imperative that all students are able to pursue their religious faith while they are students and be protected in their ability to do that. That is one of the reasons why the Government have made £500,000 available to the University Jewish Chaplaincy to support Jewish students. It is also why, as part of the other work that we are funding, we will train university security staff in how to counter antisemitism and support students in the legitimate following of their faith.

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 18th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Layard (Lab)]

My Lords, I am most grateful to everyone who spoke in this excellent debate. The noble Lord, Lord Macpherson, got us off to a good start on the economics, which is, of course, a central part of this—but economics can appear to look just at the whole economy rather than at the fates of individuals. Ultimately, of course, the economy is about the fates of individuals and especially the fates of these young people who are headed for lives of such poverty and also, in many cases, inactivity, at a cost then to the rest of us.

I am very grateful for what I think was the main theme, which came out of almost all the contributions—from the noble Lords, Lord Deben, Lord Storey, Lord Hampton and Lord Addington, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Barran, Lady Wolf and Lady Coffey. It is that we have taken our eye off the needs of these young people at the lower levels of skill. How do we get people to levels 2 and 3 as the top priority for the use of the levy money? What has been happening, as we know, is that the levy money has been increasingly diverted, I would say, to supporting older people—often existing employees—and to higher levels of qualification. That would be all right if it were not being diverted from the needs of young people, whom employers have increasingly been turning their backs on. That is what we have to reverse, and it requires a major policy decision by the Government and the setting up of a major administrative structure to reverse this whole trend. I think it is encouraging that the survey by the CIPD showed that employers are up for this if some leadership and support is given to make it come about.

We are worried that the levy is being diverted. We should revert to the principle that its main purpose is to get people up to levels 2 and 3—when it comes to levels 4 and above, there are many other potential sources of funding. There is obviously the student loan. It is not so obvious that essentially the taxpayer, through the levy, is funding higher-level education for people taking levels 4 and 5 or degree apprenticeships at level 6, when most of those studying at levels 4 to 6 are on student loans or alternative sources of funding. Obviously, if the employer wants to get a bright young person quickly, they can contribute to the cost. We must re-establish the idea that the central—the first—overriding claim on the levy is young people doing levels up to level 3.

I am very grateful to the Minister for what she said and for the sincerity of her concern about all this. We would very much like to meet and see how this can be carried forward and, in the light of that, for the moment I would like to withdraw the amendment.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

I thank the noble Lord, but we are debating Amendment 483A, so I need to ask the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, to withdraw that first.

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lucas (Con)]

My Lords, my hope is that this amendment has been rendered unnecessary by the Government’s plan for school profiles, so I will speak to the principles of it rather than the details. For parents, admissions information is of great importance. If they are looking around for a school for their child, they need an understanding of which schools they have a chance of getting them into. The admission rules and outcomes from those rules are vital information for parents.

Local authorities used to publish a booklet every year setting out exactly that—what the rules were and what the outcomes had been—but the more that academy schools have grown, the less that has become the practice. I ran off the booklet for East Sussex—where I live—senior schools. Out of the 20 or so schools available at secondary level, full admissions information is available only for four of them. The others just say, “Contact school”. Although there is supposed to be a system whereby schools provide local authorities with the information they can put in their schools booklets, this is no longer happening.

East Sussex is by no means an outlier. This is common. The system for providing parents with easily accessible schools admissions information has broken down. If, as part of the forthcoming school profiles, we are to have proper school information available on the government website and if, as with the other excellent information that they provide on that website, it will be available in electronic form in bulk, then we have solved this problem. I hope that is the answer. If not, we must do something to get back to the position we all thought we were in. I beg to move.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I have not had much input into the Bill, which colleagues with much greater knowledge of the issues than me have covered so ably, but I have tabled two amendments in this group, Amendments 452A and 452B. Refugee and asylum-seeking children and those on resettlement schemes may be among the most disadvantaged in our society. They may be accompanied, but the adult or adults with them may be as traumatised as the children. I should like any child in the asylum process or with refugee status, irrespective of whether they fall under the category of unaccompanied asylum-seeking child, to be treated as worthy of special treatment. This is unlikely to open the floodgates, but it would help some very needy children who otherwise would fall outside the criteria. I hope the Minister will be able to look kindly on these modest amendments.