Well, a bit of Blairism is to bite the dust.
Gavin Williamson has criticised the idea of wanting half of all young people to go on to higher education, describing it as an “absurd mantra” and signalling an end to a pledge made by Tony Blair in the 1990s that has been supported by successive governments.
It was always a stupid idea from the outset. University should only be necessary for vocational degrees. So if you want to be an engineer, doctor or vet, for example, then a relevant university degree makes sense. For many occupations, vocational education is the way to go.
He said: “I don’t accept this absurd mantra: that if you are not part of the 50% of the young people who go to university that you’ve somehow come up short. You have become one of the forgotten 50% who choose another path.
“It exasperates me that there is still an inbuilt snobbishness about higher being somehow better than further, when really, they are both just different paths to fulfilling and skilled employment.”
I agree.
There is also another benefit. Young people who go into vocational development, will be learning in the workplace while earning and will also be avoiding the poison of academia, so will avoid the Marxist indoctrination. They will be mixing with ordinary people from a variety of backgrounds and not be constantly bombarded with the far leftist ideology that has made universities so toxic.
So, a win, win, then.
Much of Williamson’s speech criticised universities for their expansion in recent years, suggesting that they were failing to prepare graduates for the UK’s workforce.
“For too long, we’ve been training people for jobs that don’t exist. We need to train them for the jobs that do exist and will exist in the future.
Which is why we have graduates flipping burgers and manning call centres, weighed down with massive debts they will never pay off.
How refreshing to hear a politician talking common sense. It makes a pleasant change.
I find it a little depressing to see how long it takes for shit ideas to be recognised as such and abandoned. The more perceptive among us tend to catch on quite early and have to watch in frustration as the rest slowly catch up.
I remember listening to a programme on Radio 4 many years ago about a certain snootiness in university circles regarding vocational courses. One target of their contempt was the subject of ‘Golf course management’. One guy who ran such courses pointed out that almost all of his graduates went on to well paid jobs mostly, but not always, managing golf courses.
Lol When I was a student we were a bit snooty. Arts and humanities looked down on social sciences (with the undernoted exception) which looked down on sciences. Media studies were but a twinkle in a university’s eyes….
At the bottom of the pile was Sociology whose status only increased with the advent of women’s studies…..
@Stonyground – <<the subject of ‘Golf course s’>> Where they would meet quite a few people who could afford to play golf, AND who might need ‘staff’ who could be trusted with
a) Looking after many acres of valuable ‘Real Estate.’
b) Getting on with lots of ‘The Well Off’ & ensuring they went home pleased with the day’s activities.
Another effect of making a degree far more commonplace was to give an indirect boost to social connections over academic ability. I think that effect was deliberate.
Was it this year or last that beeb gushed that 50% of school leavers had entered further education of one form or another ?
It is obvious that the economy does not need 50% of the workforce to hold a degree hence
This is the reason why swathes of the public sector have become Graduate Entry only from the Police to teaching, Civil Service and nursing. It has created an employment apartheid in which only those with any old degree may apply while those who posses the much more appropriate and necessary right attitude or empathy are excluded.
Result = police soaked in political correctness bending the knee when what we need are more Gene Hunts who know how to give crooks a good kicking. Nurses who think it’s beneath them to wipe patients arses and teachers more intent on finding their quota of Trannies rather than teaching pupils how to read and write, when they can be bothered to go into work at all.
o/t oh dear. Just watched Groundhog Day again. I’d forgotten the scene, right at the end, where they held a Mock Slave Auction with WHITE PEOPLE ! ! So there’s another one for the Bonfire.
Quite right LR ! Now we need to shut down all useless universities offering crap degrees and get rid of the Marxist filth infesting them. Get young people into useful apprenticeships leading to worthwhile jobs. Williamson is absolutely right !
Gavin Williamson is my MP: whilst I view all politicians with a degree of scepticism and/or distrust, I have come to view Mr Williamson as one of the better ones. Sedwill disliked him, which is a strong point in his favour – so I was pleased to see an MP stating the bleedin’ obvious without worrying about toeing the Blairite/Liberal/SJW virtue-signalling line.
More of it, please.