Minister defends government on swing towards more academic curriculum

Lord Agnew at yesterday's EPI event

A minister has defended the government’s emphasis on academic subjects in schools in the face of criticism that vocational courses are being downgraded, arguing that getting more young people to university is central to improving social mobility.

Lord Agnew, a schools minister who oversees the academies system, told an Education Policy Institute conference in central London that “delivering” on social mobility was “why I do this job”.

He was responding to a question from Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers who is a former CEO of the OCR exam board. Dawe had asked: “As we watch the evisceration of vocational education in schools, do you think that detracts from the social mobility agenda?”

Agnew responded that the government had got rid of “about 4,000” vocational qualifications which had been criticised following a review for government by the Professor – now Baroness – Alison Wolf of King’s College, London. Some schools, he said, had been encouraging pupils to take vocational courses which had been said to be worth four GCSEs for league table purposes, only to find them not recognised by employers.