Category Archives: Vocational education

Sunak’s plan to ditch A-levels is out of touch with reality, says union

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Head of National Education Union says new qualification would need 5,300 additional teachers in England

Rishi Sunak wants to scrap A-levels and replace them with a single qualification that includes compulsory English and maths, bringing upheaval to sixth-form education in England that would last a decade.

The new baccalaureate-style Advanced British Standard, which Sunak announced in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester, would also kill off the T-level vocational qualification the government launched just three years ago.

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King Charles criticises lack of vocational education while on The Repair Shop

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Outspoken comments about schools policy were made before he became king in one-off episode of BBC show

King Charles has criticised the lack of vocational education in schools during his appearance in a special edition of the BBC television show The Repair Shop.

In the one-off episode, to be broadcast by the BBC on Wednesday, he praises the value of technical skills and apprenticeships, and describes the lack of vocational education as a “great tragedy”.

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People with dyslexia have skills that we need, says GCHQ

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UK surveillance agency says it has long valued neuro-diverse analysts – including Alan Turing

Apprentices on GCHQ’s scheme are four times more likely to have dyslexia than those on other organisations’ programmes, the agency has said, the result of a drive to recruit those whose brains process information differently.

GCHQ says those with dyslexia have valuable skills spotting patterns that others miss – a key area the spy agency wants to encourage as it pivots away from dead letter drops and bugging towards high-tech cybersecurity and data analysis.

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