Education: Black British Students

Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The impact was substantial. I will have to write to the right reverend Prelate to give him more details.

[Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Noble Lords]

Lawrence!

[Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon]

My Lords, what happens after school and university is equally important. The latest figures show that 45% of young black people in the UK are unemployed. What steps are the Government taking to stop the overrepresentation of young black African and Caribbean people among the unemployed?

[Lord Nash]

Our apprenticeships programme is very much aimed at this. We have also reformed vocational qualifications. In the past, too many of these qualifications had no real job value but were overpromoted in equivalence tables. Alison Wolf did a study on this, and we have dramatically reduced the number of equivalent vocational qualifications that count, which will be of much more value to all pupils and I think will particularly help black pupils.