Skills, Vocational Training, and Further and Higher Education

Debate between Baroness Whitaker and Lord Wilson of Sedgefield

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the inclusive approach of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Coventry. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Morgan on instigating a vital debate, and my noble friend the Minister on policies that widen access to skills and training, but some will not reach these opportunities. Alan Milburn’s searing diagnosis notes that 50.8% of females and 41.3% of males characterised as “White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller” are NEET. He says that

“Black, African and Caribbean young people had the highest NEET rates of all ethnic groups included in large scale national surveys”,

but Gypsy, Roma and Irish Travellers are, in the National Institute of Economic and Social Research report,

“2.5 – 3 times more likely to be NEET”

than average. Their increase in NEET status is 210% for Irish Travellers and 155% for Roma. However, the population context, at 0.16% of 18 to 24 year-olds, is too small for large-scale surveys. My first plea to my noble friend the Minister is to include in government analyses specific research into this neglected minority, and disaggregate Gypsies, Irish Travellers and Roma students so that the experience of these very different communities is clearly seen.

Alan Milburn omits race prejudice, the cause of negative assumptions about motivation and ability. The EHRC reports that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families experienced the highest level of prejudice of any minority ethnic group. Those who succeed in work often hide their heritage, thus also hiding useful role models. He is surely right that alienation from paths to qualifications and employment begins in school. Gypsy, Irish Traveller and Roma children—again, because their actual experience tends not to be identified—suffer different but widespread bullying and have a far higher dropout rate in all schools from that and other causes than any other minority ethnic group. Often, it is the provoked victim who is excluded, not the perpetrator, but there is no proper research. NGOs point to a lack of valuing of their cultures and history—the Council of Europe ranks the UK lowest in coverage of Roma experience and history in textbooks—lack of positive contact with parents, digital exclusion, especially during the Covid lockdown, and lack of support to get such children up to entry to skills training.

I recommend this month’s Friends, Families and Travellers report on educational inequalities for useful proposals. I declare an interest as its president. FFT’s pledge to get schools to report on progress to welcome their Gypsy, Traveller and Roma students works, as does a successful initiative for higher education institutions, which I was proud to launch in your Lordships’ House. Will my noble friend the Minister affirm her support? The gap is now in further education institutions, of particular importance for the acquisition of skills. How can my noble friend help here?

Without more practical attention, some marginalised families will continue to behave in a marginalised way and very many others will never get the chance they—and we all—could use well. Should we really allow this injustice to continue?

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Before we move on to the next speaker, this is a very important debate and I am really enjoying listening to it, but we need to stick to the three-minute limit. We are going over only by several seconds, but those seconds add up, and we do need to hear from the Minister.