Squeaky and a bright idea

I like a lot of people blame the Labour Party and the last Labour Government for the mess this country is in at the moment but I also blame David Cameron/Nick Clegg for not doing enough to get us out of this mess. Yet after listening to the Labour Party conference most of which was pure waffle there was one item from Squeaky Ed Milliband, which I totally agreed with and which this terrible coalition government ought to take on board, which was a practical Baccalaureate.

For years I have been saying that we spend too much time on convincing Young people that the only way forward is to get a Degree anything else is a failure and of course the ones who benefited from this was kids from middle class families, not all I agree but the majority. So the 50% of kids left were classified as no hopers. Apprenticeships practically stopped, as did other training schemes like YTS, which in many occasion was very successful. To compensate for the increase in Youth Unemployment the Government (Labour) increase the School leaving age to 18. With each Government trying to convince us their education policy was working they dumbed down exam and brought in left wing systems where no body failed just got lower grades. Sorry Kids but sometimes in life you fail at something LIVE with it and gain strength from it.

In my blog of September 18^th I once again stated that we should be offering kids who have to stay on at School till they are 18 and do not have the academic ability or just do want to go to University, the right to alternative qualifications I suggested City & Guilds, more BTech or even forms of apprenticeship. When someone like me suggest ideas like this I am ignored and laughed at as some sort of Right Wing nutcase. Yet here we have a leading politician, all be it a Labour one, agreeing with me. He has come up with the name Baccalaureate but that is just a name. I know schools like Sittingbourne Community College are already moving in this direction and I hope many more follow. My one great hope this does not become a political boxing match sometimes an opponent comes with a good idea and if it is good use it. An adage I have used in 40 years of Coaching Judo, Sombo, and Jiu Jitsu.

For years Employers have used the excuse we do not have enough skilled workman to do the jobs that is why we employ cheap foreign Labour? Well now we can stop all that as we now have the chance to eradicate Youth Unemployment

Martin Clarke

Sittingbourne