Das Institut für Public Policy Research (IPPR) stellte fest, dass die britische Wirtschaft künftig nicht global konkurrieren kann, ohne die Berufsbildung im Land umgehend zu verbessern. Denn innerhalb der nächsten zehn Jahre erfordert eine große Zahl von Arbeitsplätzen jene Kompetenzen, die eine berufliche Bildung vermittelt, so das IPPR.
Practical education 'needs more focus'
Too much attention has been paid to increasing the number of young people
gaining a degree, a report claims. A paper by the Institute for Public Policy
Research (IPPR) says Britain's economy will be unable to compete globally if
vocational education is not improved.
Over the next decade, a
large number of jobs will be in industries that rely on vocational - or
practical - education and qualifications, the IPPR says.
Ministers said they were reforming vocational courses to ensure rigour.
The IPPR report suggests, over the next 10 years, just over a third of all
jobs created will be in high-skilled occupations, requiring a high level of
qualification, such as a degree, while the rest will be in medium and
low-skilled areas.
By 2022, there will be an additional 3.6
million jobs in medium-skilled occupations - this figure includes "associate
professional" jobs in healthcare, skilled trades and public services, it
says.
All these industries employ large numbers of people with
vocational qualifications equivalent to A-level or above or with
apprenticeships.
'Mismatch'
The study also suggests that in some sectors there is a "mismatch" between
the skills and qualifications needed by businesses and those held by workers -
almost two-fifths (39%) of openings in skilled trades are due to skills
shortages, with shortages emerging in areas such as health and care
work.
"In their desire to 'win the global race', policymakers
have focused on increasing the number of graduates in the economy. However,
winning the race will require more than simply expanding general higher
education," the IPPR says.
"Britain also needs stronger and
better quality vocational education, coupled with new business models that make
better use of workforce skills and enable companies to move up the value
chain.
"This will require employers to engage in a more
meaningful way in vocational education and skills development.
"Without action in these areas, our economy will not be equipped to compete
successfully on the global stage."
Polarised labour market
The IPPR concludes that in the last 30 years, it has become widely accepted
that the labour market has become polarised, with high-skilled jobs at the top
and low-skilled jobs at the bottom.
It suggests this is largely
down to advances in technology and global competition which have cut the number
of middle-income jobs available.
These changes in the job market
have come at a time when increased focus on university study is creating more
high-skilled jobs, the report says.
"This has led to a focus by
successive governments on expanding higher education, with relatively little
attention paid to vocational education and training, or the way that firms
demand and use skills in the workplace," it says.
"A recent
example of this tunnel vision is the decision by the government to remove the
cap on student numbers, with the express intention of attracting more young
people into full-time undergraduate degree courses, while at the same time it is
cutting funding for further education and presiding over a reduction in the
number of young people going into apprenticeships."
'High quality'
The report was commissioned by the Edge Foundation to mark Vocational
Qualifications Day 2014.
Edge chief executive Jan Hodges said:
"This research clearly demonstrates that we must continue to support high
quality vocational education if we are to meet the needs of our future
economy.
"Education that combines rigorous academic teaching with
a more practical and technical element - as we are seeing at university
technical colleges, career colleges and studio schools - is a good example of
how we can address the future skills issue."
Skills and
Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock said: "VQ day is about celebrating the ways
in which high-quality vocational education and training, in all its forms,
benefits learners, employers and the economy as a whole.
"We are
reforming vocational qualifications to make sure they are rigorous and
responsive to employers' needs, to ensure all students get a valued
qualification."