Schools: Careers Advice

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Wednesday 19th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

Yes, I am, and there has been a question in the House previously on that very point—I think from the noble Baroness, Lady Garden. It is a matter that we are looking at seriously. It is important that each school takes careers management seriously, with the focus particularly on head teachers in doing that. It is also important that schools do not operate on their own; they have to work with careers advisers and the hubs to ensure a co-ordinated response and that every pupil receives the right careers advice.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

My Lords, the Baker clause came into law last year. It allows apprenticeship providers, university technical colleges and other providers of technical education to go into schools and speak to 14 and 16 year-olds. This is simply not being followed. Providers are being excluded because the schools fear they may lose their pupils to them. Is it not about time that the Government insisted that the law of the land be followed, so that youngsters in our schools can learn of all the alternative careers available to them apart from going to university?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My noble friend is right, and that is why we recently announced an upgrade from 20 to 40 hubs. The whole point is that there is a co-ordinated response, with careers leaders in schools and careers advisers, one to one and in small groups, linked to the enterprise advisers, so that there is a cluster of help for these young people.

Museums

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 10th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I acknowledge the success of V&A Dundee, and setting up satellite museums under the same banner in other locations around the UK certainly sounds like a good idea on paper. However, it is down to the trustees and leadership of museums to decide how to deploy resources and display their artefacts and treasures. In 2018, the Government published a partnership framework to support and enable the national museums to act ever more strategically as a whole on how they work with the wider sector. Contrary to what the noble Lord said, experience has taught the sector that partnerships offer a successful approach for jointly curated exhibitions and galleries, exchanging skills, and so on. In 2016-17, the national museums loaned objects to 1,356 locations across the UK.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

My Lords, I hope the Minister recognises the importance of small museums. The most successful small museum in London is the Cartoon Museum, which has been running for 20 years. This week, it moves to new and enlarged premises in Wells Street, near Oxford Street. I hope he and other Members of this House will visit this museum—they might see themselves there. It is the only public building in London that aims to send people out happier than when they entered.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

All I can do is acknowledge what my noble friend said. We have heard an extremely good marketing campaign from him.

Design Engineer Construct Programme

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 5th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

I thank the Minister for referring to UTCs. The decision to remove these two exams is a mistake. It reduces further the amount of technical education in our secondary schools. Design and technology has already fallen by 57% in the lifetime of this Government. T-levels in engineering will not come in until 2023 and 2025. University technical colleges are the only colleges in the country that every year provide employable technicians and engineers at 16 and 18. We should have many more of them.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I thank my noble friend for his less than helpful reply; I was trying to be helpful to him. I hope he will understand that much effort and focus have gone into these particular Design Engineer Construct qualifications. At the end of the day, it was deemed that they were not up to the standard required.

Apprenticeships: Levy

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 25th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

We are certainly not going to abandon this: we believe that it is working well. We have explained already that it takes time to bed in. Yes, I acknowledge that starts have dropped, but we make a comparison year on year to last March when there was a considerable spike in the old apprenticeships. At the moment, 37% of people doing an apprenticeship are now starting on standards, compared to 3% last year.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that apprenticeships at 16 and 18 have fallen in the last two years? To call people in their 40s, 50s and even 60s apprentices is not really a meaningful expression of what they are doing. Is he also aware that youngsters at 16 will not be employed as apprentices by companies because at school all they are studying is a narrow, academic curriculum and all technical subject are being squeezed out of our curriculum? We are the only country doing this and it should be stopped.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

The whole gist of our programme is to ensure that anybody who wants to become an apprentice can do so, but the main thing is quality. We are very much focusing on standards and the Institute for Apprenticeships has a mandate to focus on quality. Quality is important, rather than quantity.

Apprenticeships: Training Providers

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Wednesday 29th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I hope I can give the noble Lord that assurance. The construction sector is particularly important. Regarding the temporary drop that we have seen, 3,000 apprenticeship vacancies have been posted this month by 40 employers. So I think this comes back to the point that employers are taking their time—which they need to do—working with HMRC and the Treasury to bed in these new changes.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the number of apprenticeships for those aged 16 to 18 declined this year, as they did last year? These are the important ages for apprenticeships, and that decline will persist if the Government continue their school education policy of eliminating all technical education below the age of 16. If they do that, very few students at 16 will want to take an apprenticeship. He has to join up apprenticeships with the education policy and try to get it changed.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I am aware of my noble friend’s interest in this area, and I have also read the report linked to the UTCs. His point is noted, although I do not entirely agree with him.

Student Loans: Interest Rates

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 11th September 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

There have been rumours in the press about a review but I cannot really confirm that at all. We believe the balance is right between making sure that the interest rates are right and that we encourage people to go to university.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

My Lords, when we introduced student loans back in the 1980s, we did so because the Treasury would not accept a student tax. It would be a much better way of dealing with this problem because it is not strictly a loan; it is a lump of government expenditure that is passed from the Department for Education to a student, who then passes it on to the university. That is the amount that I believe a student should pay without any interest at all, and that is what would happen if we had a student tax in this country.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I note the fact that the noble Lord has raised.

Technical Education and Apprenticeships

Debate between Lord Baker of Dorking and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Wednesday 7th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

That is certainly right. We know, for example, that the number of learners in further education studying for qualifications at level 4 and above has gone down by 3,800. This was partly because there was, perhaps, a little too much emphasis on the higher education side. A balancing out is needed and our advertisements, and our work with parents, schools and the university technical colleges—which I suspect my noble friend Lord Baker is about to ask me about—are playing a part.

[Lord Baker of Dorking (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for the introduction. Is the Minister aware that university technical colleges now send 44% of their students to technical universities—more than the national average—and that they produce 30% of apprenticeships, which is higher than the national average of 8%? If we are to close the skills gap, we must produce more technical home-grown talent. The only way to do that is to expand university technical colleges.