Do you think the government should bring back

[...of J.Temperance]

Apprenticeships? Would doing this solve the problem of today's yoof hanging round streets causing trouble?

What about letting them leave school at the age of 14, putting them on an apprenticeship to learn them a skill with a guaranteed job at the end?

Instead of spending BILLIONS on ID cards, fund the return of apprenticeships instead.

[Mythsaje]

1. Not an outrageous suggestion...

It could be part of the massive overhaul on education I see as necessary at this point.

[...of J.Temperance]

2. Agreed

I've been thinking a lot about this for a while. I wish they'd do it.

[Igel]

3. Apprentices, vocational training ... various things.

The one-size-fits-all approach to education assumes that everybody's one size. It's possible to have a valid syllogism in which a true conclusion is based on a false premise. But betting that way is silly.

[...of J.Temperance]

4. I fear that

This Andrew Adonis crackpot is deliberately going to mess things up more. So if anything things probably will get worse.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Agree about Adonis!

He is to the right of many Tory ministers of education, and completely flakey as far as I can see.

[...of J.Temperance]

13. Gosh yes

He's absolutely horrid. And Blair was so OBSESSED with putting Adonis in as number two at the Education Department, he made him a Lord OVERNIGHT, just put him in the House of Lords overnight! What TOTAL arrogance.

Adonis could possibly end up being worse than Keith Joseph.

[wli]

5. hell, Bushler's trying hard to re-establish serfdom as it is

He may as well go back to apprenticeships, guilds, and hereditary trades while he's at it.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. I think children shouldn't leave school at 14

If anything education should at least continue to 18 years old, with a post-16 choice of:
* Academic qualifications for university progression
* Apprenticeship for specialist trades (not unlike your apprenticeship idea)
* General vocational training for service sectors
* Vocational qualifications for business

[...of J.Temperance]

7. Yes but

What if the children just ARE NOT academically minded? Isn't keeping them on until they're 18 just a waste of time for them, if they have an inability to take in and absorb knowledge in a classroom environment and also a waste of government funds?

Wouldn't it be better, if one were to take THOSE sort of teenagers out of school and teach them a MANUAL skill eg. motor mechanics, carpentry, metal work etc. And to do this via a revamped apprenticeship scheme that would after say two years on, have a job waiting for them? Like they USED to do until that bat Thatcher got in and destroyed it.

[...of J.Temperance]

8. I MUST be going BLIND!!

Sorry, ignore what I've just written above, as you covered apprenticeships in choice B.

:dunce:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

9. lol n/t

[...of J.Temperance]

10. You're VERY kind! n/t

[LeftishBrit]

11. I think that apprenticeships should be brought back ...

but I'd prefer 16, rather than 14. I think that the availability of apprenticeships would be good both for improving morale and hopefully behaviour in young people, and, even more crucially, for improving British industry - so badly damaged by Thatcher.

I think pupils should still stay in full-time education to 16. I don't want to go back to pre-1944; but I don't agree with the Blairite idea that there is only one educational path, and it's university or nothing. I also think that there should be more opportunity and financial support for those who wish to enter an educational program - university or vocational - later in life. I know Blair TALKS about lifelong learning, but he seems far more interested in getting as many 18-year-olds as possible into university than in increasing chances for mature students.

[...of J.Temperance]

14. Good

Comments.

Blair wants as many 18-year-olds as possible into university because he wants as many of them leaving with a £30,000 debt as possible.

At least we all seem to agree that some form of apprenticeships being brought back would be a positive thing. Now only if we could get it through to this deaf government.

I've got to go to a business meeting for my Dad right now. How boring :(

[Kipling]

15. Definately. It's a crucial part of rebuilding our industry.

Every child should have the choice, at the age of 15, after their GCSE's, to do either an apprenticeship, vocational training for business or government, or A-levels (only for those with good GCSE's). Each option would last 2 years. There should be some kind of information campaign to make sure that each choice is available to anybody, not just one option for the rich.
You shouldn't be able to leave school and do your own thing at 16. Proper education with a garunteed occupation will give us a good economy and healthy-minded citizens. Anyone who wants to go back and try a different option (say you fail your A-levels) can. While I'm at it, time for serious discipline in inner-city schools and student grants.

[sweetheart]

16. Just as long as they're not age biased

Current aprenticeships are for young-twenties kiddies, and this age
bias is not fair to a mature workforce.

[emad]

17. I thought this was going to be a thread about "the Death Penalty"

which I would happily endorse for the following high crimes and misdemeanours:

Wearing orange fake tan
+
Motorists who enter the yellow box at junctions/traffic lights - without a hope in hell of exiting for more than a minute
+
TV ads for female incontinence products: SOoooooooo sexist it's unbelievable
+

[lockdown]

18. Don't go there

ANYTHING but orange fake tan, heh... :spank:

Agree on apprenticeships anyway, how many takers there would be is another question. Shortages of skilled manual labour are at least partly down to how those vocations are looked down on now, not just because of any lack of training opportunities. No one wants to be a plumber nowadays, yuck how nasty, got to be an aspiring go-getter like on the tele nowadays or you're nothing...