England’s skills and technical education problem has been debated since the Victorian era. When 2016’s Sainsbury Review (led by David Sainsbury) was published, it found the post-16 sector to be a bloated system with over 13,000 qualifications. Despite this, there was a serious dearth of pipelines for young people to join the technical workforce. The Review deemed this not fit-for-purpose for the 21st century. The system was failing young people, employers, and adult learners with a national productivity lag. The Government accepted the Panel’s recommendations in full – the topline of which called for two new distinct paths of post-16 learning, denoted ‘academic’ and ‘technical’ – and the Sainsbury Review became the blueprint for almost a decade’s worth of reform to the nation’s technical education system.
Since the report was published, the Gatsby Education team has worked closely with the Department for Education on all aspects of development and roll-out of the reformed system. Gatsby’s financial support and expertise has been instrumental in delivering the reform needed. This includes the mapping of technical qualifications and apprenticeships to the same occupational standards, and the creation of Institutes of Technology – a national network of experienced education providers and leading industry employers, delivering world-class technical education and training to young people.
Gatsby also supported the delivery and awareness- raising of T-levels (a two-year technical qualification studied by 16-18-years-olds) and Higher Technical Qualifications, which are an added level of training sitting between A-level/T-level and a degree.
Gatsby’s T-level Parents campaign on adverts around the country
Investment in the further education sector in this country has always been lower than other areas of education and one of the most tangible outcomes of the Sainsbury Review has been to leverage significant increases in financial investment in technical education. Positive reform in education is rarely a short-term undertaking. From 2016’s Review publication, multi- million-pound institutes have been established across the country – and thousands of young people are already in work or university, having completed qualifications which did not even exist five years ago. These achievements are a testament to the determination, commitment and tenacity of all involved – from which generations of expertly trained young technicians will benefit.
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