16/04/08
The UK government's ambition to get as many school leavers into university as possible is admirable. However it comes at a cost - young people increasingly get the impression that university is the only way to go if they have ambition; equally those who don't have the academic skills may feel inadequate, that they have failed before they have even begun.
In our drive to make the UK a service driven economy we seem to have forgotten that there is still a need for people who make something - the huge influx of workers from Central and Eastern Europe makes it only too clear that these opportunities exist, and schools need to remember that when they're preparing our children for the future.
We all have an obligation to make sure that our children achieve all that they can. We need to remember, however, that this doesn't necessarily mean that university is the only way. The UK economy still requires motivated individuals in primary and secondary industries - we cannot allow these industries to become the exclusive domain of the "no-hopers", because in doing so we will accelerate their demise.
