ECA welcomes vocational education

The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) has warmly welcomed the government’s updated recognition of the need to increase the emphasis on vocational training. In a speech given on Tuesday, 21st January to the Conference of the Association of Colleges, the National Association of Headmasters and the Secondary Heads’ Association, David Miliband MP, minister of state for school standards, called for an end to the second class status given to vocational studies.

Mr Miliband used the conference as an opportunity to publish the government’s response to last February’s Green Paper –

14-19: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards – which outlined extensive reforms to the UK’s skills based education.

Highlighting the need for an increased emphasis on the importance and status of vocational education, Mr Miliband said, ‘In England we have allowed vocational studies to have second class status. This has to change. We need to develop confidence in our society that vocational learning can and does lead to good, skilled and well paid jobs.’

His comments were welcomed by the ECA, which has long campaigned for the importance of vocational training to be recognised.

David Pollock, director of the ECA, commented, ‘At last there is real recognition of the importance of apprenticeships and vocational training. For too long there has been an imbalance between academic and vocation education to the detriment of the range of skills necessary for the country’s economic well being.’ He continued, ‘The reforms announced by Mr Miliband are welcomed. They outline some practical measures to address the UK’s skills shortages.’

Responding to Mr Miliband’s call for business and industry to help the government raise the status of vocation training, Pollock said, ‘The electrical contracting sector has a much better record at training and maintaining apprentices than most other industry sectors. We currently recruit some 4,000 apprentices a year. This is the reason why we are pleased to play a role in SummitSkills, the new sector skills council.’

SummitSkills is an initiative of the whole building services industry. It is being developed by employers and the five trade associations active in the sector – The ECA, SELECT – ECA Scotland, the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA), the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC), the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers Federation (SNIPEF) – together with AMICUS, the trade union for the sector. SummitSkills meets the training need for this sector comprising over 51,000 businesses with an annual turnover of £19.3 billion and employing over 558,000 individuals.

It has resulted from government proposals to rationalise and change some 75 national training organisation into as many as 30 Sector Skills Councils. These councils will oversee the development of training and career structures for their particular sector and address issues of skills shortages. A special feature of the councils will be even greater employer involvement and support for training.

Pollock concluded, ‘Initiatives such as SummitSkills prove that the industry is addressing the issue of vocational education and training in a practical manner. We hope that the government’s words will similarly translate into practical action.’

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