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Tag: Education

  • Those are my principles: Claire Cookson on employing people with learning disabilities

    Claire Cookson is CEO of the DFN Foundation and DFN Project SEARCH, a charity dedicated to supporting young adults with learning disabilities and autism spectrum condition prepare for the world of work through on-site training.

    When I first started my career with special needs, I realised that people are really low aiming for somebody who has a learning disability in terms of their transition to employment. But I was struck by the skills and talents of these young adults, and I just felt really concerned that the world of employment would never know of their skills. For as long as I’ve been doing this, in the UK, the statistics of people with learning disabilities transitioning into paid employment are woeful. Right now, only 5.1% of those with a learning disability or autism who are known to adult services are in paid employment. I was looking at this trajectory for these young children and young adults finishing their time at my school, and I became really concerned about what their adult lives would look like if they were going to live a lifetime on benefits.

    When you train to be a teacher there is very little training around supporting people with learning disabilities – it’s a real gap in our training system. So in truth, I didn’t learn a whole lot about how to support people with learning disabilities, or autism spectrum condition. It was actually in a role that I had in a mainstream college, as part of an internal inspection team. I was inspecting a special education department in the area, and just became overwhelmed by the fact that nobody was being hired and nobody was looking at their future, and that’s when I transitioned to work in a special education school. I think that’s where you learn everything about yourself, because suddenly you are working with these people who have faced such unbelievable challenges on a daily basis, more than I’ve ever had to face, yet they still come to school and give you their best day.

    The word disability is so negative, and if you look at the skills and qualities of people with autism, for example, often they have really amazing attention to detail and they’re able to follow standard operating procedure to the letter. People with a disability are incredibly solution-focused because they’re constantly finding workarounds. They’re typically in a world that’s not set up for somebody with a learning disability, so they have to find workarounds to fit in. That translates so beautifully into the world of work – where we need to be resilient, and we need to be reactive, and we need to be able to make changes and work with others, and I just became consumed with how incredible they are. When I started partnering with organisations, I realised they were already employing people with different learning styles, with undiagnosed learning disabilities, and undiagnosed autism spectrum condition. It was really enlightening to be able to say to companies, ‘you are already doing this – you are already making great adaptions’.

    In terms of value for the businesses who take part, we know that productivity goes up. What we then see is that staff satisfaction goes up. In organisations that partner with us, people feel more proud to work for their organisation. What we also think is that people working within that organisation start to disclose their own hidden disabilities, because suddenly they feel like they work for an organisation that values diversity and that is inclusive, and that wants people to be open and honest and bring their whole self to work. And suddenly, they feel like they’re working for an organisation that demonstrates in real terms, their social values.

    Every single young adult who does our programme, they change. They change the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they feel about themselves, and the way they present themselves, because suddenly, some of them for the first time ever, they’re integrated into society, they’re adding real value, they’re developing their skills, and they feel like they’re giving back to their community.

  • Michel Roux Jr: ‘Le Gavroche is more than the food’

    Michel Roux Jr: ‘Le Gavroche is more than the food’

     

    As part of our regular series examining the impact of family relationships on careers, we spoke to the La Gavroche chef about keeping the family flame.

    If ever you’re lucky enough to eat at Le Gavroche, your good fortune is likely to be compounded once you’ve had the excellent food. It’s Michel Roux Jr.’s habit to do the rounds after lunch, and perform a friendly tour of the room. Roux will pose for photographs and laugh genially as the complements accrue. ‘I love being able to provide a total experience for our guests,’ he tells us. ‘I love meeting out guests, whether regulars or new.’

    As a result of this tactileIf ever you’re lucky enough to eat at Le Gavroche, your good fortune is likely to be compounded once you’ve had your food. approach to the business, you’d think lockdown might have been difficult. Roux strikes a cheerful note. ‘I’ve been incredibly busy during lockdown, not least with the arrival of our first grandchild, which is really wonderful.’

    So another Roux enters the world, no doubt stocked with the genes of a master chef. Roux has followed in the footsteps of not just one but two famous relatives. You might think that his father might have been Michel Roux Sr., who died in March of this year, but you’d be wrong: in fact, his father is Albert Roux, and Michel Jr. was named after his uncle. Le Gavroche – which opened in 1967 – was the first UK restaurant to obtain three Michelin stars, and Michel took it over in 1993. How did it feel to be following in the footsteps of famous relatives? Roux recalls: ‘Of course, it was a massive responsibility when I took over the reins at Le Gavroche, nearly 30 years ago now. But if my father hadn’t thought I was ready, he wouldn’t have handed them to me. There is no question I feel a commitment to maintaining the Roux flame, whether in the restaurants or through our Roux Scholarship competition.’

    One often feels for the children of famous parents: it must be hard to achieve anything in your own right. Martin Amis frequently complains about the Kingsley comparisons, and Euan Blair cannot discuss his own original (and unBlairite) views on education without having ‘education, education, education’ returned to him.

    So did it take a while for Michel Jr. to arrive at his own identity as a chef? Roux explains that he’s moved with the times: ‘Over the years, the food at Le Gavroche has evolved to embrace the requirements of modern diners, so a meal at Le Gavroche will be a lighter one than when the restaurant first opened, but the essence of French classicism is very much there.’

    It’s a good point: we might sometimes strive to differentiate ourselves from our parents’ achievements in the workplace, but usually time will do that for us anyway, and ensure that we inhabit a different moment in history. One example where that’s proven the case with Michel Jr. is in his highly visible TV career.

    So how does he think shooting will be in the post-lockdown era? ‘I was lucky to be involved in the production of ‘Hitched at Home, Our wedding in Lockdown’ for Channel 4, which was definitely TV for lockdown. It was very different to the usual filming set-up.’ How so? ‘It’s going to be incredibly difficult to make the same sorts of shows as before, even with one meter social distancing.’ But Roux adds that he’s ‘seen a lot of creativity: talking heads, and getting family members to film over longer periods using professional equipment at home.’

    Interestingly, the Roux tradition is already being continued in the next generation. Emily Roux and her husband Diego Ferrari have their own restaurant Caractère in Notting Hill. So what would Roux say to young people mulling a hospitality career? ‘Front of house and in the kitchen, hospitality can offer an amazing career. You’re always learning, you have the opportunity to experiment and be creative, and it’s incredibly satisfying to provide good service. But it is hard work, and you need to put in the time to learn the craft.’

    And how has lockdown been for Le Gavroche? ‘The most important thing for me is to make sure our staff are doing as well as they can. It was frustrating waiting for the government to come up with their guidelines for the hospitality industry.’

     Roux chose not to home deliver (‘Le Gavroche is more than the food’) and instead kept in touch with regulars through newsletters ‘to keep everyone engaged.’

    Despite his obvious love of his work, the question persists. One can’t help but wonder whether the family name hampers people like Roux, and whether some other career might have been possible had there not been the need to keep it in the family.

    But Roux doesn’t feel this way. ‘I never considered anything else. Food is in my DNA, and I love working in the industry.’ Parfait and bon appetite.

     

  • Lessons from a young entrepreneur: a conversation with Zack Fortag

    Patrick Crowder talks to the 21-year-old entrepreneur on how he got his start and what his future holds

     

    Zack Fortag never connected with the traditional education system. He left school at 16 to find his own way in life through entrepreneurial spirit. Now, at 21, he is both a business and charity owner. I spoke with him to find out how he’s made it happen.

    “I basically grew up in an entrepreneurial type of family and also an education type of family where some were teachers and some were business people. At around 13-14 years old I started to really dislike school,” Fortag says, “I was always very naughty at school, and I never really got on well with traditional education, so I basically decided to start two different businesses at school.”

    One of these businesses was the fairly classic game of selling candy to other students, but the other was much more innovative. The video game FIFA’s online currency, which can be used to buy items in-game, would often fluctuate in price. Fortag saw this opportunity and began selling FIFA coins to other students much in the same way that a stock is traded – buy low, sell high. Fortag says that it wasn’t until he began reading Alan Sugar that he began to branch out into different business ventures which eventually led to the creation of Ahead of Time Academy.

    “I did that until about 15 then started reading Alan Sugar’s book, and it basically told me about wholesale goods. I spent 500 pounds on a load of wholesale goods, things from your portable phone chargers, toilet roll, all sorts of different things. I’d wake up at four or 5am doing boot sales all day, and selling door to door at all the big houses. We’d say ‘this is for a school project’ when obviously it wasn’t, which I know is quite bad, but it was just a sales tactic,” Fortag says, “Once I had sold that out, I wanted to help different groups of young people in the education system, so I created a clothing brand called Ahead of Time Academy. We helped over 100 young people get into fashion-based opportunities, and I was the youngest designer to work with ASOS and Pure London Fashion Show.”

    Ahead of Time was a way for young people to help develop and sell their business and fashion ideas. Through partnerships with clothing and accessory companies, people whose ideas were not getting seen could be elevated to the big leagues at a young age. It ran for about two and a half years before Fortag had his next big idea; Cozmos hospitality.

    “When I was about 17 I wanted to move into the sport space, because I love sport, so I ran a hospitality company, which I still am involved in now. We work with agents all across the world providing sport and travel packages. Now we’ve got over 25 employees and over 500 agents working for us throughout the UK in America,” Fortag says.

    During Covid, Ahead of Time Academy led webinars teaching education materials not taught in school, such as entrepreneurship, mental health pathways, and employability. Now Fortag has started a new charity called the Inside Out Clothing Project, which is the UK’s first clothing brand run by ex-offenders. Fortag explains how Alan Sugar led to the connections necessary to make it happen.

    “While I was running Ahead of Time I got promoted by Alan Sugar, and through that I got interviews with Forbes, the BBC, and the Guardian. When I got interviewed by BBC, I met a reporter called Greg McKenzie. He was in care growing up, and we discussed ideas, and that’s how we created Inside Out,” Fortag says, “The idea was to get the most vulnerable groups of young people to launch their own businesses. It had never been done before in the UK.”

    Now that Inside Out’s eight-week run has come to a close, I asked Fortag about his plans for the future. He answers with quiet, casual confidence.

    “Next we’re hopefully going to be moving into another business soon – we’ve just reached 500 agents worldwide working for us which is obviously a massive achievement, probably one of the biggest deals in UK hospitality this year. On the charity side, we’ll just keep progressing. I’ve got some interesting projects coming up.”

  • 1.5 million adults miss upskilling opportunity, research shows

    Patrick Crowder

    The online education provider Emiratus sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department for Education. The data shows that the government underspent on its upskilling programme by £1.2 billion over the programme’s 8-year run. The scheme, which funds qualifications for people who cannot afford them, has allowed 1.5 million adults to slip through the cracks due to underspending.

    According to Emitatus, the government has only spent 42% of the scheme’s budget on average per year. Anand Chopra-McGowan who is the General Manager for the UK and Europe at Emeritus explains how upskilling has not been prioritised by the government.

    “While the skills revolution has become the mantra of the Government, this data paints a worrying picture. Year in year out, the Government is missing its target to help reskill adults across the country even with funding available,” Chopra-McGowan says, “Without genuine reform, the same decisions that resulted in over £1 billion of skills funding being left unspent will happen all over again.”

    On average, each person taking part in the scheme receives £770. Last year, £97 million in funding was left on the table, which could support 120,000 people through the programme. Now, the DfE is holding a consultation for an initiative called the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which offers individuals a loan equivalent to four years of higher education over the course of their lifetime. Chopra-McGowan believes that this could mean major improvements to the programme which seeks to solve a crucial problem.

    “Developing skills in adulthood couldn’t be more important. As new technology and industries emerge, the UK workforce must upskill to keep pace, preparing today for tomorrow’s workplace,” Chopra-McGowan says, “As the Department for Education consults on their new Lifelong Learning Entitlement, we now have an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past. From opening up the eligibility requirements so more adults on more courses can apply for funding, to working more closely with businesses so that this scheme
    can help them to upskill their employees, the Government cannot just carry on as before as this approach clearly isn’t working.”

     

    Credit: https://emeritus.org

  • New online diploma for changing events industry

    Patrick Crowder

    The event management industry has undoubtably taken a hit from the pandemic, and with the rise of new norms in safety, communication, and event expectations, the industry is quickly changing. Despite setbacks, the events industry is expected to grow by 19% in Europe between 2021 and 2027, so events managers are soon to be in high demand. A new online course called Event Crowd allows students to earn a diploma in events management in just three months.

    The course offers a fast way into event management, backed by industry professionals who organise everything from Glastonbury to the Olympics. Dodge Woodall, who founded Event Crowd Diploma, highlights the changing nature of the events industry and the urgent need for new, swift training methods.

    “Like every industry, we have had to adapt. As the events industry recovers from a challenging economic period, losing many staff and with production, health and safety changing vastly over the last few years, we felt we had a responsibility to support the industry’s recovery and upskilling of new talent in current times,” Woodall says, “We reached out to leading events figures across the world and over the last two years cumulatively have created a high quality, up-to-date, world-leading learning experience in events management. With the events industry booming again post pandemic, the demand for fresh talent in the industry is at an all-time high. Event Crowd provides three years’ worth of education in the space of three months and covers things that you won’t learn from textbooks in a library. The course is already proving to fast-track graduates into a career in the events industry.”

    For 22-year-old student Ben Onslow, Event Crowd provided a way for him to stay focused and increase his skill set during the pandemic. Though he was once worried about the pandemic affecting his career prospects, he is now employed by international exhibitions organiser Mack Brooks.

    “I knew I wanted to have a dream career in Events, so I focused on what I could control and took the Event Crowd Event Management Diploma. I needed something to keep me motivated and act as a light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to be set for when the normal world returned,” Onslow says, “The course was challenging, but it definitely gave me a competitive edge and, as the pandemic was ending and the events industry started bouncing back, I secured a full-time, salaried event executive position at Mack Brooks getting to plan and work on large exhibitions. I am hugely grateful to the course for the insight and motivation it kept within me.”

    While you can finish the course in three months, it is not required.  You can take up to one year to finish, which allows for flexibility. Students learn how to plan, deliver, and market an event, learning from industry professionals. The course costs £2995.

    https://theeventcrowd.com

  • Edtech Interview: Plum Innovations founder Ji Li on the rise of remote learning

    Christopher Jackson

     

    By the time I talk to Ji Li the pandemic has receded enough that I could probably meet with him face to face, but it’s fitting that I don’t. That’s because our conversation is all about the way in which information technology has changed in schools over the last twenty years or so – and the remarkable ramifications that’s had for education in this country.

    Li is the CEO and founder of Plum Innovations which specialises in the provision of education technology to schools, and so is well-placed to give an overview. “It’s a fascinating evolution,” Li says over Zoom. “It helps to look a bit deeper at the statistics to consider the scale of the change. According to the British Education Supplier Association Research, in 1998 there were 820,000 computers in schools in the UK. That amounts to about 31 computers per school.”

    It’s worth briefly concentrating on that statistic, and thinking about what it meant. This was a world without that culture we’re familiar with: a laptop for every table – a computer as a kind of accessory of yourself. And of course that had ramifications for schools. “As a result of that,” Li explains, “most of the schools in the UK were serviced by local authority IT technicians.”

    But then Li produces the latest statistics: “However, in 2019, before the pandemic, there were over three million computers in schools. And you also have to remember that during the pandemic – because of the way that period went – that number has increased dramatically.”

    Those statistics aren’t yet available but are likely to be equally eye-popping when they are released. So what are the ramifications of that seismic change for the IT industry? “The IT landscape has changed absolutely. But what’s most notable is the way in which schools have relatively limited budgets and so technicians have to provide a cost-effective way to manage large quantities of computers – and they have to do that still with very limited time. They might still only visit each school once or twice a week.”

    It’s a radical but also exciting change – although, of course, it places stress on teachers, parents, students and the education technology industry alike. But Li also points out that it’s taken place alongside another development which might be deemed to be as significant in its way. “This trend for remote-learning and remote-working has come along at a time when there has also been a dramatic expansion in the number of multi academy trusts,” he says. “Before these came along, most of the computers were located in one premises – and so the technician’s role would be to attend that site, and whatever problem needed solving would be done there, within that boundary.”

    That might feel like a simple way of servicing schools, but of course it also places a certain strain on the technician involved. “Not only has the quantity of computers increased but the workload has too, and technicians have had to change their schedules in order to meet other requirements. On top of that,” Li continues, “another issue must be navigated: a good education technology company will also need to service the question of working from home and working at school – and that may even include servicing the parents as well. So I think all this has changed the way in which technicians work with schools, and how they can work more closely with providers. It comes down to a question of there being far more devices in circulation in schools – but a perennially limited budget.”

    All that, of course, means that Li, who has a team of four, has to pay extra attention to looking after his staff, as well as making sure that all things run like clockwork in the schools which he services. “The workload my technicians have is something we have to think about – but also we deal with the fact that every day we’re confronting new challenges. That’s part of the joy of working in a changing industry. But it also means that I need to make sure I concentrate on the well-being of my technicians – because that’s important to the schools as well.”

    So how does Ji Li cope with all this? This is where it helps to be a small and nimble business, he says: “As Plum, we’re quite small and more flexible than a large company and can adapt to changing situations. When teachers work remotely, we also work remotely so we don’t have to visit all different physical locations.” It’s details like this which make you realise how Li’s success is partly due to an ability to be in lockstep with his schools. Li continues: “We’ve also been very diligent about setting up a proper infrastructure so that when we have more devices we can manage them in a centralised unified platform and that reduces workloads.”

    The more time you spend with Li, the more you realise that what sets him apart is his passion for education – and his admiration for the teachers he works with. “We also work with teachers who are tech-savvy,” he explains. “And we work with teachers until they feel they’ve become used to the technology we’re all working with. That way everything goes smoother. It’s a challenge for them sometimes on the IT side – so our job is to reduce this stress wherever we can.”

    And how do schools feel about this seismic shift? Li is admiring of the headteachers he works with and their ability to see the bigger picture. “A good leader in schools will know what’s happening in their schools – and the ones I speak to are simply happy that they have more devices to access. The most important thing we can do is create a trusted relationship with schools, and send a positive message about the potential for IT learning.”

    And how are teachers handling the shift? Li is very positive about this. “In one of my schools in Kent, one of the teachers was pinged during the pandemic and told he had to work from home. But there weren’t enough supply teachers. Luckily, we had enough laptops for the class. So the teacher in question was able to be at home and do a Zoom call with his teaching assistant to plan the lesson. He was then able to do the whole class on Zoom, and the assistant was able to be present in the classroom. This was a huge reduction in stress for everyone – without that arrangement, the children would have missed the whole day.”

    What is enjoyable in this story is the sense we get of how much each day matters in a child’s education. Another positive is that the pandemic has accelerated teachers’ familiarity with technology. “Throughout the past two years, teachers are up to speed now. During lockdown, teachers had to use these platforms,” Li explains.

    Talking with Ji Li, I am struck by his passion for education, and his desire to drive things forward: “I’m lucky to work with schools who continue to utilise the equipment they became accustomed to throughout the pandemic. When they can, they want to teach in class, but they also understand the importance of digital skills especially from the top down. Headteachers know that for future generations digital skills are going to be vital.”

    All this makes for considerable job satisfaction for Ji Li, and for those working with him. “It’s a great feeling,” he says. “Before the pandemic and during it, we’ve tried to see how we can be ahead of the curve and that’s what we’ve done.” They certainly have.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Katharine Birbalsingh on grammar schools, universities and wokeness

    I was at Oxford University and I didn’t really know what to do with my life – I only knew I wouldn’t really fit in at McKinsey’s and places like that. I was involved in an organisation at that time which was about opening up access to Oxford and Cambridge. They would send black students at Oxford to schools with a diverse intake and say: “I’m there, and I’m doing okay.” I used to go to schools in Birmingham, Manchester and London and I could see children changing their minds in front of me. I thought: “You can really make a difference.” And I’ve never regretted my choice.

    Grammar schools aren’t really the gold standard anymore. They take the best and capable kids, but they’re not necessarily the best schools. In fact, I’d argue that grammar schools don’t have to be particularly good at all – precisely because of their intake. The kids will always do well because they’re super bright. At Michaela Community, we don’t have those kids – and it’s really complex teaching your bottom sets. If you only get the top slice you don’t have to think about learning in the same kind of way. If you have a school with real diversity, you have to be doing a great many things to get those kids learning.

    If a private school headmaster came to my area, they wouldn’t have a clue. That said, there are ways in which private schools can support state schools, without going in and telling them what to do. They can send some of their students over to do some tutoring of younger children, or they can offer their careers fair to the local state schools can go and join. Or they can send teachers across – these are things they can do without seeming patronising.

    All universities are influenced by popular culture. And our culture now is one that’s woke –  that’s the problem. Of course, you might say, “Oh, but that isn’t the case everywhere and if you go out somewhere in middle England you can find families who are not thinking that way. Yes, possibly. But the media, the establishment, and all the people who set the tone for the country, are of that mindset. And the universities are also that mindset and perhaps even further along. So it it’s not even as if you can choose: any university you go to, that’s what you’ll come across. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything I can do about that. It’s great that there are people thinking of setting up non-woke universities like Barry Weiss in Texas – but it’s still worrying. Having said that, if our students have spent seven years with us, hopefully we’ll have done a good job of grounding them and giving them certain values. 

    Often, I think families think that tutors are some kind of magic pill that you take families. And you can tell the tutors come by once a week, they do a bit of teaching in an hour. And it’s something but the habits of learning are created over years on a daily basis. The problem you’ve got is if you aren’t being given the correct work to learn and if you’re not being taught properly in essence, it is hard for a family to support the home with that. I could suggest to you online maths programmes that would be far better than any maths tutor because the maths tutor can only do it once a week.

    I have to remind parents: it’s not just the quality of the school, but the quality of the teachers. Within one school, there is more in-house variation in one school in terms of the quality of the learning that takes place than there is between schools. So families often think: “If I just get them into good school, then that’ll be fine”. But within that good school, there will be more variety than there is between the good school and the bad school. So even in the good school, you will have teachers that are not necessarily able to teach your child in a way that helps your child learn. Now what is good is if the good school has good behaviour, then that certainly makes it easier for the for the weaker teachers in the school.

  • Opinion: Gina Miller on a new beginning for schools

    Gina Miller

    We have 167,000 charities in the United Kingdom – that’s a phenomenal number. But we have only one or two parenting charities. That’s a pity because the days of learning parenting from your own parents have gone: the family network isn’t there as it once was. You can’t leave the welfare of children only up to the schools. When they’ve had initiatives in the past such as SureStart it got commandeered by middle class parents even though it wasn’t particularly aimed at them. These initiatives have failed to bring in the parents who really need the support.

    Our schools could be used more as a hub to provide for the people who need assistance. Too many people are stuck in the idea of what a school is for. A school is actually to serve our community – it’s not just about educating people. If you think of it that way, you can utilise schools as a way of teaching in a wider sense. We don’t need to be so narrowly focussed.

    Education, a bit like the NHS, has been used as a political football and political parties tend to guard their territory jealously. This is why I propose a fourth summer term. The weather can create a sense of summer school, and volunteering could enter the picture. One charity I know works with ex-service people and they go in and teach sports. They understand that kids can get into mischief. They do phenomenal work – even the most difficult teenager will pull their socks up.

    We also have a retiring population who have so much knowledge and experience and who are actually physically fitter than they were in the past. We need to think more broadly about what happens to them and use the wisdom they’ve accumulated in their lives to better our own children.

    That also means we need to broaden and rethink the curriculum. At the moment, the conversation is all around history and how we teach it, but this approach is nowhere near bold enough.

    When I speak to the educators and they’re very frustrated. As a result, we’re losing good people in our education system because of the politicisation of our schools. It’s so interesting to me that whenever I speak to a politician about education it always starts from a position of defensiveness. I always say: “What are you defensive about?” I don’t mind which political party they come from. The facts are clear: we can’t deny that we are failing in our educational standards, that we have a low take-up when it comes to further education, or that we made a mistake when we got rid of training colleges. When we got rid of training colleges, and qualifications in plumbing, hospitality, or food and drink, we devalued those professions. Before, when you had the qualifications, you gave those careers standing.

    My daughter is 14 and her school is offering coding for GCSE. Only two girls out of 90 took up the task. We have to think about what we’re teaching for. That will go in hand-in-hand with the need to put more resources into life learning as people will change professions at least twice during their lives now.

    We used to laugh at Nordic countries, and the fact that children go to school at six and not four. But look at the statistics: they are much more confident at six. Sending children to school at four is to rip them from their mothers and fathers. If you’re really retiring at 70, what’s the rush? You’re teaching them to: “Don’t cry, be tough.”

    Resilience for me isn’t about being tough, it’s about being empathetic and being able to turn yourself to anything and not being rigid.

    In a similar spirit, I would also get rid of the 11+ as that’s far too early to be pigeon-holing people. I’d also get rid of the 7+. The narrowness of choice at GCSE level also needs to be looked at. If you don’t do sciences it narrows you, and if you don’t do languages it narrows you – and again we’re locking people into the consequences of premature decisions. I would also argue that projects are much better than exams: the inventiveness required for a history project is a world away from what you get when students just regurgitate facts from memory for an examination. If we could look at all of the above, then we might begin to address the problems of education in our society.

    Gina Miller is the founder of the True and Fair Party

  • Opinion: Independent thinking is the only basis for a fulfilling career

    by Finito World

    The conservative thinker Peter Hitchens begins his book The Cameron Delusion with these words: “Conventional wisdom is almost always wrong. By the time it has become conventional, it has ceased to be wisdom and become cant.’

    Hitchens’ brand of conservativism is unfashionable to say the least and he probably wouldn’t have it any other way. The things he’d have to say to be fashionable would be anathema to him.

    But what marks Hitchens out from numerous commentators today is the habit of independent thinking: on any subject from the railways to grammar schools and to the Russia-Ukraine war it is always difficult to predict what he will have to say.

    That was true also of the last generation of polemicists which included Gore Vidal or Clive James: the pleasure of reading them was in not knowing what they were going to say. The experience must be contrasted with those numerous columnists on both the right and the left where one can easily guess in advance what is to be said. This melancholy truth is also the case with many politicians, as left and right become harder to distinguish from each other, and as each party’s acceptable ideological band narrows.

    At time of writing it isn’t clear how Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine will transpire; perhaps it will take decades before we really know. What is clear is that we are witnessing repeated crises and that these seem to represent a failure of independent thinking. It is enough to make one wonder whether we have lost that art altogether.

    Why is this? It is partly due to the busyness of our lives. Who nowadays has the time to acquire the skills to really look at a problem – to assess the available information, to delve into it, to decide which information is worth trusting and which isn’t? They are few. And once those skills have been acquired, who then has the time to be up to speed on the controversies of the day – at time of writing, climate change, Russia and Ukraine, inflation and a myriad others.

    The answer is that only a select number of intellectuals and semi-retired entrepreneurs have the bandwidth. One might add that students also have time, and it’s this which makes education such an unmissable opportunity. Many people reach middle or old age and wish they’d worked harder at university – enough to call it a cliché. But there are also those who wish, all too belatedly, that they’d acquired a different mode of thinking in their youth.

    Of course, this has always been the basic idea behind a university education – that the young are shaped, as it were, while the clay is still moist. But in this era of partisan media, and of received wisdom, it becomes more and more necessary to always ask oneself whether a writer of an article has sufficient information for what they proclaim, and whether they have an agenda. It is also helpful to know – as students of history are taught – what primary sources really say about a topic.

    That means that it’s increasingly important to seek out those who hold an opposite opinion to oneself on a topic – and to be suspicious if one can find no dissenters regarding a particular point of view. Above all, one should always be willing to pivot if a powerful argument presents itself to the contrary of something which had seemed certain: there is nothing more retrospectively pleasant than to realise you had the flexibility to let a previous false position upended.

    The great economist John Maynard Keynes, presented with an apparent inconsistency in his stated positions on an economic question famously said: “When the facts change, I change my mind.”

    If such skills can be learned – and they may have to be forged in opposition to the intellectual climate of today’s universities – then the rewards are enormous. The independent thinker is better able to contribute in an original way in the workplace, and to adapt to shifting markets. Since this is now a scarce skill in society, such candidates tend to be rare, and so they also end up as leaders. The best thing you can do at the outset of your job search is to build that capacity within yourself. It will stand you in excellent stead. 

  • Inspiring the next generation of engineers

    Natasha Bougourd

    The future of engineering has never been more important. According to a report by the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the UK science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sectors are experiencing a shortage of 173,000 workers, and 49% of engineering businesses are struggling to recruit skilled workers. Therefore, as the technological world continues to evolve and advance, the government strives to prioritise STEM education within primary and secondary schools.

    So how can we ensure that engineering remains an attractive career choice? The UK is encouraging young people into engineering careers in many ways, from stimulating interest at a young age to creating an inclusive space for underrepresented groups in STEM and equipping students with transferable skills they will use for life.

    Stimulating an interest in STEM education from a young age
    There are many organisations that are encouraging STEM learning within primary education. A continuing professional development (CPD) programme, STEM learning supports primary school teachers in its endeavour to inspire the next generation of engineers. It offers regional and remote courses, bursaries, and other online materials. The Institute of Engineering and Technology also offers free material for children aged between 5 and 11 years of age, such as lesson plans and education videos. This equips teachers with the tools to inspire the next generation.

    In addition to this, children can begin their STEM education outside of the classroom. To encourage this, parents can teach their children to question the world around them. Even the toys children play with can be used for this purpose. Educational toys, such as coding robots, enrich children with life skills as well as the tools to excel in STEM subjects.

    Encouraging STEM subjects within underrepresented groups in schools
    In order to inspire the future generation of engineers, we must continue to offer educational tools to underrepresented groups. In 2021, women accounted for just 14.5% of the engineering sector. The number of girls taking STEM subjects in school is significantly lower than boys. This is apparent in A-Level technology subjects, such as computer science. In 2021, the number of A-Level students taking computer science rose from 12,428 to 13,829 across the UK. Out of these, 11,798 were boys and 2,031 were girls. This gender gap within STEM subjects can be partly explained as a result of harmful stereotypes. According to Women In Tech, early socialisation and classroom culture can deter girls away from STEM subjects, as they are traditionally portrayed as boy-dominated subjects.

    Computer science and technology subjects are a great way to inspire the next generation of engineers. The skills that young men and women will learn in these subjects can form a foundational knowledge to succeed as an engineer. This can lead to the cultivation of multiple skills, for example, the development of engineering software such as building design software.

    Furthermore, students from low socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to choose STEM subjects in school. Research from In2ScienceUK shows that students from disadvantaged backgrounds can be 2.2 times less likely to take triple science at GCSE when compared to other students. This could be due to a number of factors, from individual student interests to counter-culture within disadvantaged youth.

    To tackle this, the UK government is investing money and resources into initiatives. These schemes encourage underrepresented groups to take part in STEM education and inspire the next generation of engineers. It intends to improve the accessibility of computer science with female students at GCSE and A-Level. This corresponds with other incentives, such as the Gender Balance in Computing Programme.

    Thankfully, the efforts to make engineering an inclusive space is paying off. The number of people within these underrepresented groups undergoing a degree in a STEM subject has increased. Between 2010–2020, the number of women accepted onto undergraduate courses rose by 49%, and the number of people from disadvantaged backgrounds achieving places on such courses increased by a staggering 79%. This is an encouraging sign for the future minds of engineering!

    Highlight the importance of the transferable skills students learn in STEM subjects
    STEM education equips children and young adults with transferable skills which will aid them in their future endeavours. These skills transcend the ability to solve an equation or design a building. By highlighting the importance of these transferable skills, students will realise the value of STEM education and how this can help them in multiple careers, from business management to teaching and much more.

    STEM education requires students to think for themselves. Tasks often involve problem-solving, and this encourages critical thinking. Not only is this skill highly important in STEM careers, but it is also a well-respected transferable skill. Any career involving research and development would benefit from this.

    Another transferable skill students learn from STEM subjects is teamwork. To work in a team, they will develop their communication skills, which is vital for practically any career path. Finally, STEM education requires management skills, from overseeing a project to delegating tasks. This is particularly beneficial for careers in business, as well as any engineering role.

    Overall, the UK is taking the necessary steps to encourage the younger generation into STEM careers. This can start as early as childhood, with the toys they play with to the subjects at primary school. Although STEM subjects are predominately made up of boys, more and more girls are choosing to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects, such as computer science. As STEM begins to create an inclusive space for more underrepresented groups, students will gain transferable skills that can be used within engineering and a plethora of other careers.

    Sources:

    The Engineer

    Stem.org.uk

    The IET

    Today’s Parent

    Independent.co.uk

    Computer Weekly

    Women in Tech

    ResearchFeatures.com