King’s Speech

Lord Aberdare Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Aberdare (CB)]

My Lords, I will speak about education and skills. Although the King’s Speech included an encouraging paragraph on this topic, there was rather a dearth of specific action, legislative or otherwise. It is good to hear that:

“My Ministers will strengthen education for the long term”.


But we need to know more about how this goal will be pursued in the shorter term, beyond a consultation and White Paper, which could presumably take us close to the end of the current Session, if not of the Parliament.

The principle of introducing an advanced British standard, bringing technical and academic routes into a single qualification, sounds like a promising move towards a baccalaureate-style system. But how will it be brought about, and in the time available?

Seeking an answer, I consulted the public policy paper on the advanced British standard published last month, and I was delighted to read that:

“Education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet. It is the best economic policy, the best social policy and the best moral policy”.


I strongly agree—so how is the silver bullet going to be forged?

The paper sets out some excellent aspirations. Greater parity of esteem between academic and technical routes has long been a sort of holy grail, and the Government are right to pursue it, even if defunding well-regarded existing qualifications such as BTECs in favour of T-levels may not be the right answer, at least in the short term. More teaching hours for pupils, as in other countries, must be good, especially if that enables them to study a broader range of subjects than at present—but how will teachers to deliver those extra hours be recruited, motivated and retained? The paper also sensibly envisages alternative qualifications for the so-called forgotten third of pupils who find it hard to pass GCSE exams in English and maths at 16, and as a result are condemned to an often prolonged cycle of morale-sapping resits before they can make further progress.

The gracious Speech spoke of increasing the number of young people undertaking high-quality apprenticeships. I say amen to that, but what are the Government’s plans to make it happen, given the poor take-up of apprenticeships to date, particularly among 16 to 19 year-olds, and widespread employer concerns that the apprenticeship levy is not flexible enough, and that few small businesses find the support available to them adequate to persuade them to offer apprenticeships? I hope the Minister can tell us.

I will also say something about education for 11 to 16 year-olds, as a member of the House’s committee on this subject. We have heard from many witnesses about issues that badly need to be addressed. These include the baleful impact of the English baccalaureate measure in crowding out subjects not included in the five EBacc pillars, notably arts and creative subjects such as music. Another concern is the unreasonable pressures imposed by GCSEs, resulting from their excessive content, their rigorous assessment and the resulting high level of stress that they impose on pupils and their mental health. GCSEs are also far from ideal for many less academic subjects—the more practical subjects.

A further concern is the current imbalance between knowledge and skills, with insufficient focus on key technical subjects such as digital and green skills. I am confident that the committee will come up with excellent ideas for tackling such issues when it publishes its report shortly, but I am less confident of the Government’s likely commitment to implementing them beyond “looking at further improvements to GCSEs”. Perhaps the Minister can reassure me.

There is only a passing mention in the ABS paper of the importance of careers advice and guidance. Much progress has been made in this area over recent years, thanks to the efforts of the Careers & Enterprise Company, the National Careers Service, local careers hubs, and careers leaders in individual schools and colleges. But there is still some way to go to ensure that all students are made aware of the range of career pathways available to them, including through employer encounters and work placements. What plans do the Government have to produce an updated careers strategy, building on the success of the previous one in 2017, and to ensure that schools deliver the minimum number of employer encounters required by the Skills and Post-16 Education Act?

I accept that forging a silver bullet to deliver a world-class education system is a long-term project which could indeed take up to 10 years. That underscores the need to seek a strong consensus on the approach to be taken, across government departments, across the devolved nations and regions—some of which, including Wales, Scotland and Manchester, are pursuing ambitious education ideas—across education institutions, teachers, parents and pupils, and, of course, across political parties. This should not be a party-political issue. I hope that the Minister will be able to tell us how the Government’s laudable commitment to a world-class education and skills system will aim to set a clear and widely agreed long-term direction, rather than one open to abandonment or redesign with each change of Administration, as has happened too often in the past.

The theme of the debate today, given that so much of the King’s Speech was about long-term laudable aims, is: what can actually be achieved in the current Session that does not then find itself becoming a dead end?