BearTricks
Established Member
Probably giving a bit too much away here, but I'll throw my two cents in.
I worked in the prison service, particularly around offender learning, for three years. I think the system was roughly equivalent to the academies that we're going to be getting soon in that they were free to teach whatever they wanted. Naturally they taught english, maths and ICT to cover their OFSTED bases, then the rest of the subjects were essentially whatever they could gain the most funding for with the least effort. This meant a lot of incredibly useless courses with the least amount of resources needed.
I feel as if the academies will probably follow the same arrangement. In some cases it might mean that the technology subjects are most cost effective, particularly in schools where they already have the equipment. I can't see them replacing those nice big bandsaws and drum sanders in five to ten years when it'll be cheaper to shut down that course and replace it with a sociology qualification taught by an apprentice teacher who earns less than most of the kids will be getting from their education maintenance allowance.
Personally, as a 16-17 year old I was swindled in to taking a useless degree by a university using it to subsidise their STEM courses. I thought I was smart enough to make my mind up back then and I did blame myself entirely for a while (and still do partially). Looking at the few mid-teenage kids I know now, however, I would never trust them to decide their future particularly when most colleges and schools seem to have conflicting interests these days, as bright as some of them are. I wish I had either put more time in to serious academic subjects and made steps in to a career earlier, or learned something that would get my hands dirty and maybe teach me some skills that I could moonlight with.
The second is more likely. I feel as if I'm fairly bright, but I would never have finished at the top of my class at medical school and the myriad of subjects that fill the space between the doctors, mathematicians and engineers, and the builders and plumbers are such a minefield that they're almost not worth considering unless you're happy to be another shelf-stacker with a degree.
I feel like this government are seriously setting the country up for even more mass-unemployment in the next decade.
I worked in the prison service, particularly around offender learning, for three years. I think the system was roughly equivalent to the academies that we're going to be getting soon in that they were free to teach whatever they wanted. Naturally they taught english, maths and ICT to cover their OFSTED bases, then the rest of the subjects were essentially whatever they could gain the most funding for with the least effort. This meant a lot of incredibly useless courses with the least amount of resources needed.
I feel as if the academies will probably follow the same arrangement. In some cases it might mean that the technology subjects are most cost effective, particularly in schools where they already have the equipment. I can't see them replacing those nice big bandsaws and drum sanders in five to ten years when it'll be cheaper to shut down that course and replace it with a sociology qualification taught by an apprentice teacher who earns less than most of the kids will be getting from their education maintenance allowance.
Personally, as a 16-17 year old I was swindled in to taking a useless degree by a university using it to subsidise their STEM courses. I thought I was smart enough to make my mind up back then and I did blame myself entirely for a while (and still do partially). Looking at the few mid-teenage kids I know now, however, I would never trust them to decide their future particularly when most colleges and schools seem to have conflicting interests these days, as bright as some of them are. I wish I had either put more time in to serious academic subjects and made steps in to a career earlier, or learned something that would get my hands dirty and maybe teach me some skills that I could moonlight with.
The second is more likely. I feel as if I'm fairly bright, but I would never have finished at the top of my class at medical school and the myriad of subjects that fill the space between the doctors, mathematicians and engineers, and the builders and plumbers are such a minefield that they're almost not worth considering unless you're happy to be another shelf-stacker with a degree.
I feel like this government are seriously setting the country up for even more mass-unemployment in the next decade.
