Just want to gauge general opinion on this.
I am an engineer. We are seeing more and more post-16 and post-18 come into apprenticeships with no practical skills and we are struggling to recruit.
I'm noticing from my own DC, they are doing nothing practical in school compared to what myself and DH did. Its frankly quite appalling the lack of practical skills and creative subjects my DC are doing, and how little curriculum time those subjects are given. They are just not valued, DT, electronics, engineering, Art, music and drama, reduced to 2 periods a week on rotation. Technology workshops don't exist in the schools any more - no woodwork, metalwork or electronics labs.
I’ve been asking a lot of questions of the apprentices, of many other people in the industry and not in the industry and the consensus is, the decline in practical skills and recruiting is because DT, Engineering, Electronics, Art (as well as other creative subjects) are all no longer seen as subjects which people should take at GCSE, and in any case, they haven’t got the time to take them. This is either because of the EBacc or because schools have stopped offering them (because of EBacc). In some cases, I know of some apprentices who are very good but were never given the chance to do the more practical subjects, they report having to have extra lessons of French or English or something academic because otherwise they wouldn’t pass them. I have heard of some potential apprentices not being able to join the company because the school pulled them off the DT or creative course they were on to focus on passing the EBacc subjects, therefore, they didn't get the all important DT/Engineering GCSE which would have meant they would be on the apprenticeship. THIS IS MENTAL!
I approach this from an engineering point of view, I know there are other subjects which are also suffering, but I’ve been thinking, what if I could set a petition up which asks for the government to add creative subjects to the EBacc? (Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the EBacc, but if we have to have it, can we actually make it broad and balanced like it was meant to be?)
By creative I mean:
• DT*
• Engineering
• Electronics
• Art
• Music
• Drama
• Other things which fit in this general category which I haven’t mentioned
*In the long term I would like to see this split out again into the different GCSEs it once was such as resistant materials, systems and control, textiles and others. From my point of view this worked better with more knowledge about an area rather than a very limited knowledge about everything.
I would see the final performance measure being something like:
• English Language^
• Maths
• Combined Science
• Language
• Humanity
• Creative subject (STEAM subject?)
STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths
^Yes, just language. Most of the young people I know have no interest in literature and a lot of them failed it or it was their worst grade. It was a waste of their time. Literature should be an option.
That’s 7, its balanced, 3 essay-based subjects, 3 STEM based subjects and 1 which crosses both.
This leaves room for 1-3 option subjects, of which triple science should be an option rather than 'You're in set 1 so you have to take it even though you're not interested but someone in set 2 is but they can't'.
These options can include some of the EBacc subjects like literature, another humanity or another creative subject or something completely different.
By including creative subjects this will stop the long term decline of uptake. The government is calling out for STEM qualified people, but they created the mess we are in by devaluing creative subjects. Introducing creative subjects (STEAM) to the EBacc has the benefit of bringing more skills to the workplace (which are desperately needed) which helps the economy and reverses the devaluing of the subjects the government started. There is some evidence that creative subjects can enhance learning as it helps people to think outside of the box therefore improving grades in the academic subjects. The government keeps going on about a broad and balanced curriculum, but don't value creative subjects. Gove wanted all schools to offer an education like the private section, which, just happens to really value creative subjects.
So, I've had my little rant and said what I think should happen. I know if I'm going to petition the government I need to do some real research and provide evidence but would really like to gauge public opinion.
So the question: What are others opinions on this?
[Title edited by MNHQ at poster's request]