Farmers of the Future

This article sets out the process by which all those of us who have spent many years promoting parity of esteem between vocational and academic quotations will have been confirmed to be wasting our time.

It explains

Ministers are proposing that qualifications should count only if they have been taught for at least two years and have good levels of take-up among students. Pupils must also be offered “good progression” into post-16 courses rather than a limited number of occupational areas. The qualifications must also have a substantial proportion of external assessment.

More than 4,800 qualifications currently count towards school results whether or not they include external assessment. Only two non-GCSEs will be allowed to count towards the existing five A* to C GCSE benchmark of success, the government says.

The number of “equivalent” qualifications taken in schools up to 16 has boomed in recent years from 15,000 in 2004 to 575,000 in 2010. The proposed changes follow a review of vocational education carried out by Professor Alison Wolf, a public policy expert. She argues that pupils need to acquire “broad skills” to enable them to thrive over a lifetime of change.

Jessica and I have substantive proof of why this is misguided. We began the evaluation of Farmers of the Future this week a unique vocational training programme supported by LANTRA and developed by Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services. It placed 9 young people from school with 2 farm placements each. It delivered a ceritificated curriculum providing a package of requisite skills required to become a farmer and agricultural contractor, some of which were provided flexibly to suit their own specific skills interests as they progressed through the course. Its legacy is 8 new entrants to the farming profession, a professional network of mutual support amongst those individuals and the addressing of a whopping labour supply gap in an Upland Farming area.

If you would like the opportunity to hear about how this might be done in your area, helping to give the lie to the fact that long term academic courses are the solutions to everyone’s problems, please get in touch. Oh and by the way do you know the address of a good rural plumber or electrician?