Work hard, get the best qualification you can, and you’ll get a better job, be happier, and earn more money...

I’m now three-quarters of the way through the Nuffield report 'Education for All – the future of education and training for 14-19 year olds'. For me, any really good book will at some point smack me in the face like a Tango advert. It all happened in chapter nine, on ‘employers and the labour market’. Strange but true!

There are two types of incentives for young people to do well in education:

- Ones internal to the system; making learning more interesting e.g. what is taught and the way it is taught.

- External ones; such as future wage returns, access to high-status employment (linked to getting a degree) and the status that comes from going to university.

I feel I know about the first. There is so much more we can and should do relating to higher-quality practical and vocational learning, more ‘learning by doing’ – all that is the basis of Edge’s Six Steps to Change.

With reference to the second type of incentive, the authors point out:
“… for young people who live in communities where the range of local job opening is narrow and often leads to lower end occupations, and for whom escape via HE entry appears an unrealistic or unappealing prospect, the reasons to stay on and try to achieve a qualification may not appear particularly compelling.” Basically, for very many young people it makes sense to get out of education and earn some money – by fair means or foul.

Wonderful schools, with wonderful facilities, mixed styles of learning suited to the individual, a wide range of experiences, inspiring teachers, great advice and guidance for young people – not enough! We have to reform the labour market as well as education. Perhaps we need more ‘license to practice’ - you can get this job and earn reasonable money but only if you have this qualification.

So much policy, the authors go on to state, is driven by faith in a universal incentive that should work for everyone; ‘work hard, get the best qualification you can, then you’ll get a better job, be happier, and earn more money.’ Actually, for very many, it’s just not true. And why isn’t this received wisdom challenged? “It is simply that most of our policy makers, and many educationalists, were themselves good academic students, who followed what we called the ‘royal route’ through A-levels to a top university. For them, that is the norm.”

I was Tangoed.