Why is Professional and Technical Education so important
Two announcements this week are intrinsically connected. The ONS announced that productivity had again contracted between Q1 and Q2, by 0.1%, leaving output per hour 0.3% below where it was in Q1 2008 (prior to the global financial crisis).
Productivity growth is important as it determines aggregate wage growth across the economy. Unless we see productivity growth, wage growth cannot occur, without which we see no material improvement in our living standards. Innovation and productivity growth has enabled us to own cars, computers and smart phones, have universal access to the internet, as well as choice and variety in what we wear and what we eat.
The fact that we have seen no increase in our productive capacity for nearly 10 years poses a real threat to our economy. The CSJ report ‘Great British Breakthrough’ details the problems and some of the solutions to our productivity conundrum. One of it’s key themes is investing in a more diverse and economically valuable technical education system.
Vocational Education is often perceived as the ‘blue collar’ alternative to learning maths, English, Latin and Spanish in a classroom. The reality is very different though. Professional and Technical Education (PTE)combines those academic subjects with professional and technical abilities (in computer coding, financial planning, or product design). These abilities can be taught in unconventional contexts, such as a laboratory or on a factory floor. Most importantly, PTE often engages students who find traditional academic environments less appealing and are often excited to learn a skill that has a very obvious career path.
PTE is important in tackling productivity stagnation because (i) evidence shows young people leaving school, college and university in the UK have a skills deficit when compared to other countries, (ii) surveys of business leaders repeatedly show low supply of practical and professional skills among young people as posing a real problem for their business, and (iii) the UK chronically under invests in vocational education whilst countries that do exhibit higher aggregate wage levels (see below).
So, it is with real delight that the Department for Education announced this week further progress in developing T-levels. Each T-level will be designed to set students up for a career in a certain field, with a significant amount of study time spent ‘out in the field’. Representatives from industry will help direct each T-level, ensuring (hopefully) that curriculum content remains economically valuable and relevant. Lastly, T-levels will take a student past A-levels and into Level 4 and 5, allowing T-level students to transfer on to a university degree programme.
T-levels will improve PTE provision in the UK, improve the diversity of our slightly monolithic education sector and help improve the quality of our labour force as we adjust to our post-Brexit world. It is also what businesses leaders want and believe should happen to boost productivity.
Going forward, T-levels should continue to be supported, the Government should review FE provision with the sole aim of improving quality at FE colleges, and lastly Government should address the huge gender and social imbalances among STEM students in higher education. Only then will we see Britain become a more productive and economically powerful nation.
