RTL> I agree with the above, my mother left school at 14 and did very well for herself, so there is no reason why children these days can't do the same.
Most children at school when they reach about 14 normally choose subject to study for their GCSE's, so I think offering kids the chance to go into training schemes at this point would be very good. As long as a basic level of education was taught along side the skills for a further two years this could be very good.
When I say basic level of education, I think it would need to be tailored in a manner that would be useful to the kids e.g. basic book keeping skills etc. and the emphisis on why this is important if you are going to be a self employeed brickie or plumber.
Thinking back to my University days I think we have probably got too many higher education institutes that under perform and dish out degrees in ****. This needs to be re-addressed. I've also found from working in the industry that a lot of I.T skills would be better off taught outside of an University environment. Whilst there is certainly a massive need for an academic study of I.T and the Maths that goes with it, the majority of skills that your average programmer, project manager, anaylist etc. need to use should be taught in a way that is actually beneficial to the industry.
Far too many I.T grads come out of university with skills that are out of date (the I.T industry moves at such a speed 6 months can make a big difference) and skills that aren't speicifically useful enough for a job.
Even if universities continue to offer courses in Software Engineering etc. there needs to be a practical route as well as academic. Our programmers and such like are the brickies and plumbers of 21st C technology and we need to recognise this and treat the industry with the same level of professionalism that you would expect from skilled tradesmen (there are far to many cowboys in the I.T industry with a degree and F*** all skills).
As for schools in general, I'm all for the voucher system. Let people go to grammar schools, private schools, home schools if they want to, enough of the socialist nonsense of everyone is equal, we aren't so Labour need to get over it.
Vouchers would allow those who go to private schools to at least use some of the tax money they have paid into the education system to be redeemed against their fee's!
Ea of dune
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