Education and skills

Notes from a preparatory meeting on 14 March 2011

Present: Colin Greenhalgh (formerly Hills Road 6th Form College), Lynne McClure (Millennium Mathematics Project), Gill Prangnell (Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce), Susanne Stent (Huntingdonshire Regional College) with Peter Carolin and Peter Landshoff (2030 Vision)

There is constant tension between generic and specific skills. Employers complain that young people get qualifications instead of skills.
What is needed is the ability to think and to solve problems, and the attitude to do these things.
Too many schools in the sub-region are no more than satisfactory and fail to inject aspiration into students from poor backgrounds.
High-level technical education has not taken off in this country, unlike in France and Germany.
Central government has imposed de-professionalisation on teachers.