By Lucy Phillips
20 January 2010
A government drive to improve the aspirations of young people and boost social mobility has been criticised by experts for not being radical enough.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn published a report last year on fair access to professional careers, such as the civil service, law and medicine. Ministers this week said they had accepted the majority of his 88 recommendations.
But major recommendations from the report, which was commissioned by the prime minister, were shelved. These included closing Connexions, the government’s careers service, and using tax incentives to encourage employers to open up work experience to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Lee Elliot Major, research director at education charity the Sutton Trust, told Public Finance that ‘far more radical reforms’ were needed to address social mobility, with access to the professions forming only one strand. He said early years and pre-school education in particular should be addressed.
He also called for a ‘far more fundamental review of careers advice in schools’, advocating a network of independent careers advisers, supported by councils. ‘[Careers advice is] such a crucial issue because the type of qualifications and subjects you take at 14, or even earlier, determine your options later on,’ he said.
The Milburn panel, which said it ‘barely heard a good word’ about the Connexions service, proposed transferring its £250m funding to individual schools, but the idea was rejected by the government.
Teaching unions said the government’s policy to increase social mobility was inconsistent with its planned spending cuts.
Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: ‘It is difficult to square recent government announcements for higher education cuts with aspirations to encourage more young people from disadvantaged groups to go on to higher education.’
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, responding to the Milburn report on January 18, said: ‘We can’t be a truly aspirational society if some people are still denied the chance to get on, and although we have raised the glass ceiling we have to break it.’
The government has accepted recommendations on structured assistance in secondary schools for 130,000 young people from low-income backgrounds and a new Social Mobility Commission to provide expert evidence on mobility trends and policy.
Brown’s response came as the Conservatives published the first part of their draft education manifesto. Tory leader David Cameron pledged to take a ‘brazenly elitist’ approach to the school system, barring anyone without a 2.2 degree or higher from teaching roles.
20 January 2010
A government drive to improve the aspirations of young people and boost social mobility has been criticised by experts for not being radical enough.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn published a report last year on fair access to professional careers, such as the civil service, law and medicine. Ministers this week said they had accepted the majority of his 88 recommendations.
But major recommendations from the report, which was commissioned by the prime minister, were shelved. These included closing Connexions, the government’s careers service, and using tax incentives to encourage employers to open up work experience to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Lee Elliot Major, research director at education charity the Sutton Trust, told Public Finance that ‘far more radical reforms’ were needed to address social mobility, with access to the professions forming only one strand. He said early years and pre-school education in particular should be addressed.
He also called for a ‘far more fundamental review of careers advice in schools’, advocating a network of independent careers advisers, supported by councils. ‘[Careers advice is] such a crucial issue because the type of qualifications and subjects you take at 14, or even earlier, determine your options later on,’ he said.
The Milburn panel, which said it ‘barely heard a good word’ about the Connexions service, proposed transferring its £250m funding to individual schools, but the idea was rejected by the government.
Teaching unions said the government’s policy to increase social mobility was inconsistent with its planned spending cuts.
Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: ‘It is difficult to square recent government announcements for higher education cuts with aspirations to encourage more young people from disadvantaged groups to go on to higher education.’
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, responding to the Milburn report on January 18, said: ‘We can’t be a truly aspirational society if some people are still denied the chance to get on, and although we have raised the glass ceiling we have to break it.’
The government has accepted recommendations on structured assistance in secondary schools for 130,000 young people from low-income backgrounds and a new Social Mobility Commission to provide expert evidence on mobility trends and policy.
Brown’s response came as the Conservatives published the first part of their draft education manifesto. Tory leader David Cameron pledged to take a ‘brazenly elitist’ approach to the school system, barring anyone without a 2.2 degree or higher from teaching roles.
