Real Skills Will Help The Young Go Far In ‘Levelled-Up' Britain

Practical training for practical jobs is the promise from Boris Johnson in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, giving “rocket fuel” to our economy by ensuring young people can get the right skills and knowledge for employment in the real world.

- Tim Newark

For too long, students have been encouraged to take out expensive loans for pointless degree courses at poorly performing universities – with low job prospects at the end of it.

Now, young people and adults can get career-boosting training at local colleges without incurring the further costs of moving to city universities.

Fifty per cent of young people do not attend universities and a degree level course is not the only gateway to success.

Many are keen to get on with real life and have little interest in academic studies. From the age of 16, they’d rather get onthe-job experience and pick up the practical know-how necessary from work colleagues rather than classroom teachers.

Five more years of academic study – A-levels and a degree – add little to that, plus they won’t be racking up a £50,000 university loan debt that could be put to better use funding a deposit on buying a home.

TONY Blair thought sending more youngsters to university was the answer to social mobility. Instead, universities and their administrators got richer, with some vice-chancellors being paid over £500,000 a year.