Highlights of the week ending 8 October
The Conservative Party conference has dominated much of this week’s news. Monday saw new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi give his first speech in which he announced a schools White Paper in 2022.
On Wednesday it was Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s turn and the only policy announcement he made was of a levelling up premium for teachers. This will see extra pay for teachers who move to schools in need of certain subject expertise. This week also saw another significant policy announcement, ahead the return of the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, as the government announced the outlawing of so-called “essay mills”.
In Scotland we saw the announcement of the government’s education recovery plan, which includes a focus on digital and technology. And in Wales, the government there unveiled plans to support 16-18 year olds in to work, tackling the issue of NEETs.
The Lifelong Education Commission, chaired by former Universities Minister Chris Skidmore MP, published its first report this week. Recommendations included a funding system that supports maintenance grants for learners and access to the LLE, regardless of prior attainment. These echo similar points made in Pearson’s Spotlight on Workforce Skills, published last week. We’ve also seen an IFS report on how Gender differences in subject choice leads to gender pay gap immediately after graduation.