The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

132

The enduring English attitude to work-based education

Since the time when the Victorian middle classes chose a classically-based education for
their children despite their prospects of a life in trade, Huddleston and Unwin’s research
indicates that similar attitudes survive:

...We find that qualifications for both education and work are judged within an
education paradigm and thus arguments about parity of esteem and the
academic∕vocational divide are based on the premise that vocational qualifications
must prove themselves against an academic yardstick rather than being properly
valued in their own right.

(Huddleston and Unwin 1997: 146)

They also question the increasing involvement of employers in the planning of work-
based training via the Technical Education Councils (TECs), their successors the
Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) and presumably the Skills Sector Councils (SSCs)
referred to in the White Paper OfFebruary 2005. Despite paying lip-service to improving
vocational training, employers’ practice confirms that they “...reveal in their recruitment
and human resource management behaviour that they value academic qualifications as
highly, and in some cases more highly than vocational ones'” (Huddleston 1997: 146).

A similar continuing bias toward academic attainment is identified in Peter Robinson’s
evidence from the labour market. His research [See Figure 3.6] indicates that:

Overall... the evidence is quite clear. There is no parity of esteem between academic
and vocational qualifications in the labour market, which is almost certainly why
we do not observe parity of esteem in the education system. Young people choose
the route that brings a clear advantage.

(Robinson 1997: 197)

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