Clause 1
Education and Skills Bill
9:45 am
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
No doubt we will be able to have that debate when we reach clause 4. I am mildly encouraged by what the Minister says, but I am not quite sure whether his concept of “or otherwise” in the clause is as wide as I would like it to be. Education and training of any kind might be impossible for some young people because they have acute medical problems, while others might be able to engage personally with education and training, but be completely unable to do so at the moment because of their personal circumstances—for example, they might recently have had a child. I want to explore how serious the Government are about making that “or otherwise” flexible. The more flexible and pragmatic they are willing to be, the more they will deal with our particular concern about compulsion, notwithstanding our general dislike of it.
I have a second big practical concern about the effects of compulsion under the Bill— although I am coming to the end of my comments, in case you are feeling nervous and less tolerant, Mr. Bercow. Quite a lot of the evidence that we heard from various bodies—we shall return to it later—points to the sometimes low value of the qualifications on offer to young people in employment. It also highlights the fact that if we compel young people in employment to go into education and training, there is a significant risk that some employers will not embrace education and training, but will dump young people and take on migrant workers or workers over the age of 18.
The evidence from Alison Wolf and others is that employment can be an enormous release for some young people because their educational experience has often not been very good. Equally important, however, employment can often impart skills in terms of attendance and ways of working that are far more valuable than some piece of paper that meets a Government target but which might not be the best thing for the young person involved.
Our practical concern about compulsion is that there is a group of very vulnerable young people for whom it will be completely inappropriate and we are not sure that the Bill is flexible enough for them. We are also concerned that compulsion could deny some 16 and 17-year-olds an employment opportunity that is far more valuable to their future, and a far better education and period of training than anything the Government could offer through the available vocational qualifications, many of which, as we know from much of the academic research, have not been notably successful over a long time, predating the present Government, at giving people marketable skills.
We hope that at some stage in the debate we will persuade the Minister to experience a conversion—to see the light—on compulsion. Even if we do not, we will press him to ensure that he is more pragmatic, so that the elements of compulsion do not, in addition to offending against our liberal principles, make circumstances less favourable for the young people whom we are seeking to help.