Vocational and technical training could become more popular than going to university, according to education secretary Gavin Williamson as he prepares to announce £120m in extra funding for a new wave of specialist institutes.
Williamson will tell the Conservative party conference on Monday of plans to launch a further eight institutes of technology – a collaboration between further education (FE) colleges, universities and employers to offer higher level technical training – joining the 12 opening this year to rival higher education as an option for students.
“When we have implemented all the reforms in this sector, one of the great challenges is that people may see this route in higher demand than a conventional university route. That’s what you’ve seen in Singapore and we should have the same level of ambition in this country,” Williamson told the Guardian.
“I’m seeing evidence of it when I speak to young people, they are switching on to the fact that there are different options that are just as attractive as university.”
The education secretary will also announce new efforts to start specialist maths colleges for sixth formers, opening at least one in every region, following the success of the Exeter and King’s College London maths schools.
Williamson told the Guardian that the new institutes of technology (IoTs) were intended to end the sector’s image as a poor relation. They come on top of an additional £400m in funding for FE and sixth-form colleges announced at the end of last month.
“Ultimately I want to see all the regions in this country have a specialist maths school, I want every big city to have at least one great institute of technology that can act as a focus to drive forward technical and vocational qualifications, working closely with industry and higher education institutions,” said Williamson.
The new IoTs are to focus on the Stem subjects of science, technology and engineering, as a route to gain high-quality skills and technical qualifications. Each will have an industry specialism, with capital funding and a licence to call itself an institute of technology, awarded after a tender overseen by the Department for Education.
The education secretary said the success of encouraging half of sixth formers in England to enter higher education shouldn’t obscure the plight of the “forgotten 50%” who didn’t do so, and to improve the sophistication of the courses open to them through further education.
“All of this is based, quite simply, on the key fact that over the next 10 years we have got to be in a position where the quality of our technical and vocational education and training is matching that of Germany,” said Williamson, who studied at Scarborough sixth form college in north Yorkshire.
“We’ve made great strides for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds in terms of their educational attainment. But it’s not just about industry and having the right skills. This is about making sure that children, from whatever background they come from, have a opportunity to succeed in life in a way that sometimes people can only dream of.”
Among the first IoTs to be announced was the Institute of Technology North East, a collaboration between New College Durham, Newcastle University and Nissan. But the locations of the initial 12 IoTs, backed by capital funding of £170m, saw three in London but none in the north-west or east of England and none on the south-east coast, putting those areas first in line for the next wave.
Williamson compared the mission of the new IoTs to the polytechnics and colleges of an earlier era, based on the needs of local economies: “In many ways this is going back to the roots of what all these great institutions were originally founded as, and we’re putting the investment behind them.”
Unusually for an education secretary, Williamson has claimed the technical and vocational education brief for his own portfolio, and aims to establish a new skills and productivity board to advise him on the courses needed.
“It’s wrong if we are in a situation where we are selling people courses that aren’t going to lead them into employment. The whole purpose of this is to drive up the level and type of courses that people are taking,” Williamson said.
“The reason I am setting up a skills and productivity board is to focus on what the economy needs and how I can best spend money to equip people with those skills, so we are providing the employers of Britain with the people they need for the modern economy.”
England’s more than 240 FE and sixth-form colleges educate more than a million young people up to the age of 24, many of them taking higher national diplomas or certificates.
Williamson said the mood in cabinet remained positive and Boris Johnson had been “incredibly supportive” towards vocational and technical education.
Asked about the Labour party conference’s backing for taxing private schools and adding VAT to fees, Williamson said: “I am not going to get dragged into ideological battles of the left and the Labour party. If the Labour party wants to bring ideology into the classroom then I think that’s a bad move.”
