By trade I am a teacher, and latterly I worked as a teacher trainer. I know that there are many who would refer to George Bernard Shaw’s maxim that those who can’t teach teach teachers but I shall ignore that slur and concentrate on the more edifying thought that we need to recognise the importance of teacher training and all that it offers.
In particular I refer to a recent report by the Skills Commission which has just concluded an inquiry into teacher training in vocational education, a particular interest of mine, as I was once a Business Studies teacher.
What the report said was that there was a need to recognise that the traditional divide between academic and vocational subjects was unhelpful in getting to best out of teachers and students. That for those students who choose to go into a skills route of education must not be discriminated against or given less funding as we need to build confidence that a career in the vocational area is at least equal to one in the narrow academic world.
For those undergoing this mode of study the role of mentors was seen to be crucial including how this would raise the morale and self-esteem of students. Thus teacher trainers must pay due regard to this linking with careers education and more generally giving good information, advice and guidance. Much of the student’s experience will depend on what work experience and employer-placements can be made available. To encourage this, incentives should be allowed for employers, particularly those in small and medium sized businesses and applied also to the third or voluntary sector.
To advance the status of vocational subjects significantly more effort needs to be put into teaching styles, research and new forms of experiential learning to maximise the student experience. Of great relevance is how students in further education can access higher education to achieve those higher level qualifications at least up to technician standard of attainment. Making sure that this can be undertaken by part-time study has also to be a priority.
Now all this may appear to be somewhat theoretical to us in the Stroud area, except that Stroud College has just launched its engineering initiative to meet the training needs of tomorrow’s employees. This involved a visit by Lord (Paul) Drayson the Science Minister who has been instrumental in giving support to the College to set out to meet its ambition to fulfil the requirements of not just the area, but the whole country.
We still underestimate how important engineering specifically and manufacturing in general is to the Valleys. We need to remind ourselves that 24% of employment here is in manufacturing, more than twice the national average. That is why it is so important to invest, time, effort and money in the Stroud College endeavour for their future is our future and let us not fall into the trap that manufacturing does not have a future here.
David Drew
MP for the Stroud Constituency