Concern about inadequate opportunities in post 16 education and training in the UK is not just a matter of skills shortages in the economy. This was the preoccupation of the Major government when it introduced the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, and Blair governments persisted with the same priority 1997/2007. Although academic studies for a minority are always supported, funding for basic skills and general education, the requirement of the majority of over 16s, has always been insignificant.

This misguided policy means that there is no suitable further education for the majority of teenagers and adults who need it. The serious social consequences of such large-scale exclusion from, in so many respects, society have been given scant attention by UK governments. Despite setting up an “exclusion unit” and, later, a government department with a remit to address exclusion, Blair governments were not prepared to take the radical steps necessary to create fair opportunities for all citizens.

Even when resources have been made available to target the excluded, they have been in the form of one-off initiatives; often under the control of the institutions which have contributed to the exclusion. The curriculum offered to unqualified young people and adults is not based on a proper assessment of their needs: it is a, completely unsuitable, watered down version of academic and vocational curriculum.

In policies for further education, recent governments have shown no understanding that the participation of tutors and students – in organisation, curriculum, development – is essential for equal and suitable opportunities to be created. Instead, we have had policies and procedures imposed by “experts” with no experience of education beyond academic provision for an elite.

A European Perspective

The consequences of exclusion, especially exclusion from the “information

society”, are recognised more realistically by the European Commission. To

quote from one of its White Papers (Teaching and Learning: Towards a Learning

Society 1996):

Long term unemployment, which continues to increase, and the spread of social exclusion, particularly among young people, has become a major problem in our societies.

This White Paper (available when the first Blair government was formed in 1997) argues that modern Europe’s three essential requirements – social integration, the enhancement of employability, personal fulfilment – are not incompatible objectives. This view is clearly not shared by politicians and civil servants in the UK, who restrict most further education to academic and narrow vocational studies.

Their emphasis is on enhancing employability to the virtual exclusion of the other two “essential requirements”. Yet UK governments have persistently failed to achieve the employability objective precisely because they ignore the other two. Almost all government funding for colleges is for vocational or academic curriculum. There is very little funding for the type of community education which reaches out to the excluded and assists personal fulfilment and social integration.

The point persistently missed is that, unless individual needs for an enhanced level of personal and general education are met, for millions of people there is no prospect of vocational training leading to nationally recognised qualifications. There has been no serious attempt to bridge the gap between the limited attainment of millions when they leave school and the level of education needed to acquire vocational qualifications.

The Consequences of Neglect

Gordon Brown’s government is, understandably, pre-occupied with the recession. However, it is essential to recognise the danger of education policies which deny suitable education for the majority of teenagers and adults.. Continuing neglect in a period of high unemployment will undoubtedly lead to a rise in crime and social unrest.

The best means of tackling crime is not to build more prisons, but to provide the kind of further education which enables the unqualified to obtain jobs when the economy recovers. Young people drift into crime not because they are born criminals, but because society denies them the opportunity to compete in the job market.

They are unable to obtain employment because they lack the level of education required to be accepted on study programmes leading to recognised qualifications. Unsurprisingly, those denied opportunities are overwhelmingly working class.

What they require, because they have been neglected at school, is basic skills tuition, especially literacy and numeracy, to enable them to join vocational programmes of study.

The Policy Solution

Radical policy changes for education at 16 plus are essential and urgent. They must remove the current divisions between education and training and between academic and vocational studies. They must also ensure that suitable curriculum is developed for all, irrespective of class, race or gender.

In particular the new policy must tackle institutional racism, which is the reason thousands of applicants are rejected. This will require a system of funding with the most generous allocation to those in greatest need – the opposite of the present system which awards the greatest funding to the most highly qualified.

The recession and high unemployment must not be used as reasons for delay: both are reasons for urgent action.