Education is not a Conveyor Belt

On Wednesday (26^th of March) the former Education Secretary, Lord Baker, gave a speech encouraging schools – especially primary schools – to develop closer links with local employers so that from an early age children will be able to get a better idea of jobs available to them.

I have to admit I like this idea, because if it works it will not only help young people gain a better idea of the variety of jobs out there (and like Lord Baker I must stress that I am not suggesting that children should know what they want to do with their life by the time they are eleven. I’m twenty two, and I am only just working out what I want to do), but it will help stop what I consider the conveyor belt nature of education.

At the risk of sounding like someone’s grandparent – again I am only twenty two - education is not what is used to be. It used to be about unlocking people’s potential. Helping them find their strengths and weaknesses and identify what career or industry would suit them best. At least that’s what we were told. Now it’s about “teaching to test”. We are stuck on the conveyor belt at an early age, and taught exactly what we need to know to pass our exams, no more, no less. We are ferried from school to sixth form and then onto university. We are taught that going on to university gives us the best opportunities in the world, despite the fact that an oversaturation of graduates has actually diluted the market. Those who do find jobs outside the conveyor belt tend to have found them on their own.

Education needs to broaden its parameters, and show children and young people that it takes all sorts to make a world. Just as we need writers and teachers and bank executives, we also need plumbers and chefs and police officers. There are plenty of jobs that don’t in fact require a degree and many of them, including the ones mentioned above, are important in keeping the world ticking over. But if people don’t know about them – and there are plenty of important but unrecognised jobs – then they aren’t going to look into them, and possibly find themselves with a fulfilling and interesting career.

While I accept the irony of this coming from a hopefully soon to be Bachelor of Arts, those in charge of education need to accept that having a degree and letters after your name is not all that matters. Not having a degree does not mean that you are stupid and those without one should not be looked down upon.  Education is about helping people to realise what their passions are and helping them come to a place where they can figure out what it is they really want to do with their life, even if it wasn’t what they imagined doing when they were ten. And if Lord Baker’s suggestions can make that happen, then I for one can be counted in favour.