Examination of Witnesses (Questions 120
- 124)
MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2004
MR MARK
HAYSOM, MS
CAROLINE NEVILLE
AND MR
DAVID CRAGG
MBE
Q120 Mr Pollard: Quickly, on careers
guidance, it concerns me greatly that teaching staff who deal
with this in schools might not be fully aware of all the opportunities
available. How do we ensure that children at this critical time
of their lives, when they are making really important decisions
with their parents, get the right sort of advice, not just for
them but for society, and are given the widest possible opportunities?
Ms Neville: I agree with the point
you are making. We are very concerned that every young person
has access to the information, advice and guidance that they need
to make the best decision for them. Now that may be through the
Connexions personal adviser or very much through the staff and
teachers within the school but, at the moment, the feedback that
we are receiving suggests that there is a concern that not all
people believe they are getting that impartial advice—and
that is not being critical of any particular body. We have a really
passionate commitment to meet the needs of every single young
person, which might sound aspirational but I will repeat that
it should be 100% for 100%, so if there is a group of young people
and their parents who feel they are not getting the advice they
need then we feel we want to work with others to look into that
and put it right as quickly as we can.
Q121 Mr Pollard: And valuing the
vocational equally with the academic?
Ms Neville: Absolutely.
Q122 Mr Pollard: We cannot over-emphasise
that, can we?
Ms Neville: No. You are preaching
to the converted.
Mr Pollard: If a toilet blocks you want
a plumber, not an astrophysicist!
Q123 Chairman: Thank you. One point
we have not touched on in any detail today is what is coming out
of Tomlinson. This Committee has just come back from the United
States and what we found in California is that one of the real
tremendous problems was the poor state of their high school system,
which really is in dreadful trouble. Now whether interesting things
and exciting things happen in community colleges there is no doubt
there are some real problems and some of us got the impression
that if we were going to go, instead of GCSEs and A-levels—recognisable
qualifications that stretch young peoples' minds and talents—to
some overall qualification that everyone aspires to at 18 which
has no particular standard to it then we would be very concerned,
because it seemed to us that a lot of young people were getting
high school certificates just by being there. Are you concerned
about that?
Mr Haysom: We would probably have
to go to California to find out!
Q124 Chairman: Without going to California,
what does your team think?
Ms Neville: Clearly standards
need to be understood by all who are involved in delivery of diplomas
and recognisable qualifications need to be included within that
diploma. It is extremely important that employers and parents
as well as the young people themselves understand what it is they
are getting, the validity and currency of that qualification.
We know from experience that moving to new and radical systems
is difficult and will not be achieved overnight. This will require
an enormous amount of work on behalf of everybody that is involved,
not least of all within schools and colleges where we need to
ensure that that support is there. There will be those who would
resist change, but we believe that a coherent framework is the
way to go. There will also be resource implications and we would
want that recorded as well.
Chairman: It seems to us that there a
lot of the questions still to be asked, and I am minded to ask
you to come back again, Mark, with your Chair before he retires
because, with his experience over these four years, it will be
very good to listen to what he has to say and reflect on his experience
just before or just after he moves on, so we look forward to having
you back again. An hour and fifteen minutes is really not long
enough because you are really at the heart of our skills inquiry
and we have not even touched on the role of the private sector,
which is a growing sector in skills provision, so we look forward
to the next innings. Thank you.
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