Crossover
Without getting political, on the 28th July 2026, the new Prime Minister for the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham announced a new direction in vocational education with more opportunities for apprenticeships, “Can Burnham’s vision for Manchester’s schools really work for the rest of England?”. Coming both from my own education and having taught a vocational subject at a secondary school, key stages three to five (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_England), this caught my attention.
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Thoughts
Whilst the idea of having vocational courses is not new. I took part in ‘TVEI‘ and then went on to do a ‘BTEC OND‘ at College after having done sixth form to gain the additional qualifications to get there. This is in my view a positive step to facilitate a different path for those wishing to enter certain fields without having to be constrained by the more traditional restrictive paths that are in effect a collection of puzzle pieces that then have to be combined and added to when you start the job. Getting those pieces correct can be a challenge.
Crossover
Education is a progressive process of building skills and knowledge from the ground up, with each layer facilitating the next. To do well at any subject to need to be engaged and motivated to learn it. To understand it’s purpose and how it will serve your life aspirations. At all ages we get information from the environment that sparks thoughts in our minds leading to an interest in a given subject. We learn about ourselves and what we like. This drives our choices, leading to the selection of skills that enable those choices to come to fruition.
We have to understand in ourselves that individual building block subjects facilitate career orientated jobs. That whilst initially the contextual linkage can be difficult to grasp, there is a purpose
I’m going to pose questions. Are all jobs / careers actually vocational in nature? If all jobs require you to have a combination of skills at certain levels, and an interest in it backed by experience. Then is this vocational in nature? Possibly, as everything we do requires that the skills we have interact and complement each other to provide us with solving the problems that any job presents.
Therefore are we actually in effect should be ‘crossing over’ from the traditional single discrete subjects where the subject matter used to facilitate their understanding doesn’t link with the other subjects to an architecture where it does? That the traditional method does not provide the best framework for any career and that needs to change.
What do you think please?
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Interesting post.
I always worry when a political party, newly elected, starts changing education.
If we look around the world we can see so many different models of what post compulsory education can be, and every possible variation of academic v vocational implemented.
I’m not sure I’m smart enough to know what is best, but I’m fairly certain there is no completely “right” solution – we need different pathways for different careers, different abilities, different economies, etc.
Let’s not forget, for many western countries the education system is a product of historic patterns, and concepts of self-study, lifelong learning, online learning – these are all incredibly new.
And once you add in the reality that many of us don’t have a job for life, but multiple roles, across different decades, then an ability to learn, and re-learn, is perhaps one of the most vital skills.
Thank you Stuart.
There is always the thing that can happen, where those with the power to change education don’t understand education.
The only “right” solution is the one that works for the learner and it’s a matter of discovery for the learner to understand what works for them with all the available options and discussion with those that understand the options.
I’m starting to think that everything could be perceived now as a form of vocational learning. That all jobs / roles require a collection of skills that interoperate and compliment each other. Even if one of the skills could be considered to be the primary one.
I agree with re-learning, with refection to drive improvement and identify areas of such. Nobody can afford to stagnate in our ever competitive communication technology driven world where geography is no longer an important boundary as it used to be.