'Courses for jobs' incentive plan

By Fran Abrams
Analysis, BBC Radio 4

Few further education college leavers go on to get a job

Young people in England may get financial incentives to take college courses likely to lead to jobs.

Further Education Minister Kevin Brennan told the BBC details of the plan would be published in a White Paper on skills later this autumn.

Youth unemployment is likely to hit one million this year.

The government is under pressure to make vocational qualifications more relevant to the workplace. The Tories say youngsters are being misled.

Colleges have faced criticism over the high numbers of students on "soft" vocational courses, such as performing arts and hairdressing.

On some courses, the numbers of places far exceeds the jobs available for those who complete them.

Dead-end courses

Mr Brennan admitted too few college leavers were finding jobs, and said he wanted to work with both employers and colleges to gear the system more closely to the labour market.

"What we're looking at in reviewing the skills system for our new strategy paper is to clearly look at where we place resources, and what sort of incentives we can put in place for people, to opt into areas which the economy is going to need in the future," he told BBC Radio 4's Analysis.

The minister was speaking as figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed further education college leavers were actually more likely to be unemployed than they were to get a job.

The survey of the destinations of more than 40,000 16 to 18-year-olds who completed courses in 2007 showed most went on to study for further qualifications - many at the same level as the ones they had already taken.

Nine per cent of the respondents were unemployed, but only eight per cent had found a job after completing their courses.

"We have to make it more relevant, and get up the numbers of people who can actually get into work out of further education," Mr Brennan said.

"I've been meeting with employers to discuss that, and we have been making it easier for employers to get involved with colleges, and actually design the qualifications that people take."

'Selling illusions'

Further education colleges take on a large proportion of the approximately 250,000 school leavers who fail to achieve the benchmark five good GCSEs each year.

They have been criticised for offering attractive courses which sometimes give students unrealistic hopes of stardom.

FIND OUT MORE... Analysis: Educating Cinderella is on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 5 October at 2030 BST, and Sunday 11 October at 2130 BST Or hear it later on the iPlayer Or download the podcast

For instance, there are more students on courses in performing arts and media than there are jobs in the entire entertainment industry - including cinema usherettes and lap dancers.

There are around 150,000 students on hair and beauty courses, which is similar to the number of hairdressers in the UK.

And while there are a total of 140,000 on college-based construction courses, there are 330,000 doing performing arts and media.

Mr Brennan said the government was also considering better incentives for employers to take on apprentices.

He admitted he had sometimes had difficulty persuading even government departments to take on young trainees.

"I think there has been a cultural change about employment around the age of 16," he said.

"One of the things I'm trying to do is to get the government itself to take on more young apprentices, and the view sometimes comes forward: 'Isn't 16 a bit young to be working in the Department of Work and Pensions?'

"But you'll often find some of the senior managers started at 16 in the old Department of Social Security.

"We're looking at ways we can make it easier for employers to take on younger workers."

Mariane Cavalli, principal of Croydon College and a spokeswoman on skills for the Association of Colleges, said she did not accept the figures suggesting only eight per cent of college leavers got jobs, because it was based on a sample of about 50% of the total.

"We are geared very much towards further study and higher education, " she said.

"And we look to ensure that the young people that leave here don't just get jobs, but go into sustainable employment.

"They do need vocational skills, but that in itself is not going to get them a job and its not going to keep them in a job."

'Cruel trick'

The government has already announced its plans to raise the education leaving age, so that by 2013 all under-18s in England should be in education or training.

David Willetts, the shadow universities and skills secretary, said some of the courses currently on offer had such a poor reputation that students who had completed them were actually less likely to get a job than those without qualifications.

The way forward was for employers to accredit more courses, he said.

"That is a very cruel trick to play on young people," he said, adding that students should also be told which courses would be likely to lead to jobs.

"The scandal is the very limited information that's available to young people about the returns to different courses, their likelihood of getting a job from them, and the shocking erosion of careers advice in our schools.

"We are letting them down by not giving them that information," he said.

Analysis: Educating Cinderella is on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 5 October at 2030 BST, and Sunday 11 October at 2130 BST. You can also hear it later on the iPlayer or download the podcast .