1st December 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Government figures released this week reveal that more than one in four of England’s population is now in education or training. Including nursery, school, vocational training and university, 14.5 million people are currently in education or training. This trend has been linked to the tough jobs market as apprentices minister Iain Wright said “for the first time in our history, a recession is seeing a rise in skill levels and education participation”.
When examined at a social and economic level, this expansion represents a significant change. According to the BBC, in just a couple of generations the number of years spent in education has almost doubled, given that until the early 1970s for many young people education was confined to between the ages of five and fifteen. Further, this trend is only going to increase, as both Labour and Conservative parties support the principle of more places in university.
One of the concerns raised is how the country is to pay for such unprecedented numbers. Ian Brinkley of the Work Foundation Think Tank commented that “we’re at a crunch point in terms of who pays for such training and education. If it’s not the taxpayer, it will mean either firms paying or individuals paying for themselves”. However, the OECD’s head of analysis for education, Andreas Schleicher, said that cutting training opportunities was not the way to save money. He suggested that governments should take the long view and recognise the fact that for all OECD countries higher-educated people generate more public economic benefits than their education costs.