Situation critical

Author David Goodhart talks about his book "The Road to Somewhere" at the Grange Theatre, Oldham College.

EMPLOYERS have cut investment in staff training by 25 per cent over two decades, a post-Brexit business and skills debate heard.

Openness towards immigration, rising numbers of university graduates and a neglect of technical education have allowed British employers to radically reduce training bills, the event at Oldham College was told.

Author David Goodhart made the observations in a panel discussion on how business, education, training and politics have contributed to employment and skills challenges and social divisions.

Other factors were said to include government cuts to adult skills training and an almost constant change of politicians at Westminster responsible for skills provision.

The debate, called Oldham And The Road To Somewhere, was held at Oldham College's Grange Theatre and organised by college principal Alun Francis.

The college has restructured itself to focus on future jobs growth and runs vocational courses, apprenticeships and services for businesses.

Mr Francis said: "This is a critical time for all of us in national politics and locally with our new Greater Manchester Mayor and a whole set of challenges for Oldham and other towns like it. The education system may be part of this division or part of the potential solution, so we think it is a very important discussion to have."

Openness

Mr Goodhart's new book, The Road To Somewhere - The Populist Revolt And The Future Of Politics, argues that economic and cultural openness in the west has not benefited all citizens.

A former Financial Times correspondent, he has written on topics including UK immigration, German reunification and Oldham's Waterhead Academy, which brought together pupils from different ethnic backgrounds.

He said academic skills and exam-based learning now dominated UK education, training and political thinking.

"In recent years it has been almost universally proposed that we need a 'knowledge economy' but this has also been very alienating.

"Government, politics and education have valued academic skills and passing exams far more than other attributes such as experience, practical skills, personal character or moral standards.

"At the same time, manual skilled jobs that often required significant experience and provided some status have disappeared. Consequently we have an economy in which 80 per cent of jobs either require a degree or can be learnt in 30 minutes."

Most higher education was now focused on three-year, full-time degree courses. At the same time, other types of further and higher education and training, such as apprenticeships, HNDs and adult education, had been reduced or seen as inferior.

Furthermore Mr Goodhart said there was a division between the 24 older Russell Group universities and newer universities created since 1992, which include former polytechnics and other institutes.

He said: "We are recreating class divisions in our universities."

Some speakers feared that competition pressures were making UK universities lose their local links, undermining their historic purpose to serve local economies.

Challenges

Professor Ruth Lipton said key challenges include addressing the problems faced by non-graduates, who were often ignored by university-educated politicians and other decision-makers.

Jobs growth in Greater Manchester had been focused in central Manchester while employment rates elsewhere had fallen. Furthermore, the amount and quality of work had fallen, along with its dignity and value, creating a 'political disaster'.

She stressed: "We have to manage the next transition better than the last. We have to think about plural strategies to localise the economy, so it does not depend on inward investment. We need to think about micro-businesses, supporting non-graduates to start businesses and take the risk out of entrepreneurship."

The other speakers were Professors Andy Westwood and Ruth Lipton, both from Manchester University, Jean-Noel Ezingeard, deputy vice chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, Oldham Council chief executive Carolyn Wilkins and Professor Kevin Orr from the University of Huddersfield.

Professor Orr criticised the annual summer ritual of celebrating A-levels exams successes while effectively ignoring the achievements of others.

He said: "Less than half of young people take A-levels yet the newspapers are full of photos of A-level students jumping for joy. Where are the photos of people who've passed their BTECs?"

Prof Westwood said: "Mass access to higher education is not the problem. The problem is the dominance of three-year, full-time residential degrees in contrast to a 50 per cent drop in non-degree courses such as HSE and HND. We need variety."