Cable Forum - View Single Post - Cut school leaving age to 14, says Sir Chris Woodhead

**Chris** · 03-10-2011, 15:33

Not really - he's not advocating 14 year olds should be cut loose entirely. He's saying that there's no point forcing someone to remain in an academic setting when it's obviously going to do them no good.

The current situation is certainly no better - we force teenagers to stay in school until they're past 16, and are now doing our damnedest to keep them in 'college' until they are 18 or 19, and for what? So they hit the streets with a worthless piece of paper and precious little experience that might help them earn a wage and very little sense that sooner or later they're going to need to work for a living.

We have made the crafts and trades unattractive by creating an educational system that screams 'anything but that!' and now have to rely on mass-migration from Poland in order to get a plumbing job done to a good standard in under three months.

Here I am, out in the wild Highlands and expecting a plumber to come and size up a job for me this afternoon. The big Glasgow company never even returned my enquiry. The local man - who is from Poland - phoned me back within an hour and arranged to visit before the end of the day.

03-10-2011, 15:33	#2
Chris Trollsplatter Cable Forum Team Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: North of Watford Services: Humane elimination of all common Internet pests Posts: 38,583	Re: Cut school leaving age to 14, says Sir Chris Woodhead Not really - he's not advocating 14 year olds should be cut loose entirely. He's saying that there's no point forcing someone to remain in an academic setting when it's obviously going to do them no good. The current situation is certainly no better - we force teenagers to stay in school until they're past 16, and are now doing our damnedest to keep them in 'college' until they are 18 or 19, and for what? So they hit the streets with a worthless piece of paper and precious little experience that might help them earn a wage and very little sense that sooner or later they're going to need to work for a living. We have made the crafts and trades unattractive by creating an educational system that screams 'anything but that!' and now have to rely on mass-migration from Poland in order to get a plumbing job done to a good standard in under three months. Here I am, out in the wild Highlands and expecting a plumber to come and size up a job for me this afternoon. The big Glasgow company never even returned my enquiry. The local man - who is from Poland - phoned me back within an hour and arranged to visit before the end of the day.