Academic or technical training – it’s your choice
Many educational organisations, whether they are awarding bodies, colleges, or sixth forms, are busy planning to implement the Government's new post-16 skills plan.
This came out nearly two years ago but will be implemented over the next two to four years.
So what does this mean for our post-16 students? When a 16-year-old completes their GCSEs they will have two choices, firstly, to follow an academic route by taking A Levels, or secondly, to follow a technical training route by either taking an apprenticeship or a technical level college-based study programme.
The academic route (A Levels) will be for students who want to progress onto a degree programme after they are 18-years-old and the technical route is for students who want to progress into employment either straight away via an apprenticeship programme or within two years via a college-based study programme.
On the surface the choice students will have is not too dissimilar to the choice they already currently have as students can choose between studying A Levels or take an apprenticeship or go onto college and take a vocational study programme (diploma or certificate).
There will not be much difference with regards to A Levels and apprenticeships but where the difference is is with the technical level college-based study programme where there will only be 11 technical routes and so a lot less choice. These technical routes will lead into employment.
Thankfully land-based has been recognised by the Government as an important and crucial industry and so agriculture, environmental and animal care technical levels will be developed.
To know more about technical education I would suggest you follow the BTEC qualification website where you can see how these new technical qualifications (T Levels) are developed from Level 1 through to Level 5 with the new BTEC Higher Nationals. These qualifications are written by the industry for the industry.
It is fair to say that the Government has recognised the importance of Further Education (Technical Education) and the important role it has in developing the next generation of trained young people.
The early talk is the Government will financially support colleges in providing worthwhile study programmes which will involve the use of high level vocational resources and comprehensive work experiences in supporting the necessary skills and knowledge required by young people to be fit for purpose when going into the world of work.
The proof of the pudding is always how it tastes so we will see how this pudding tastes over the next four years.
Chris Jones is involved in land-based education, training and mentoring
