The Telegraph’s brilliant exposure of the behaviour of some exam boards should not be dismissed with a couple of sacrificial sackings. It revealed profound flaws, not just in our school system, but also in the way our democracy is currently functioning. The attitudes behind the scandal are closely allied to the self-serving atmosphere in Parliament that led some MPs to fiddle their expenses. Deception of the people had became the norm, whether it was creative use of second homes, or manipulating exam results. The rot always starts at the top, and getting rid of the hapless examiners who got caught will make little difference unless we go much further.

Read the rest at the Telegraph

It is a question seldom asked when discussing the country’s economic woes, but is Britain producing the right graduates to increase manufacturing output?

Read the rest of the comment piece in the Yorkshire Post here

British universities are adding fewer STEM subject graduates to the labour market than total student figures suggest, according to a new Civitas report. The STEM subject push by Stephen L. Clarke finds that the number of overseas students attending British universities to study engineering increased by 12,308 from 1997 to 2007, but that the number of British engineering students declined by 5,769. [p. 3] As a result, the British economy will struggle to find the skills necessary to drive a production-led recovery.

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The recent media interest in the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London Stock Exchange movements has certainly been mixed. From sympathy to contempt to exasperation on the part of St Paul’s cathedral staff at least, the protests and people’s reactions to them are proving difficult to pin down.

Besides the recent accusation that protestors are at best “part-timers” (based on thermal imaging evidence that is somewhat disputed), there is also an accusation that the protestors are not putting forward any concrete, viable demands. The diverse reports about the protests and the many generalisations that seem to be made about those engaging in them, is perhaps indicative however of a deeper problem: the inability of society to engage successfully with government on the major issues of the day. Rather than dismissing the protest movement as utopian or aimless therefore, perhaps it is time that the government not only introduced more ways to inform the wider population about the banking reforms under discussion, but also gave them the incentive to learn by opening up avenues through which people could make their suggestions for improvement heard.

Although the media makes a valiant effort to explain developments in the financial system, it is little wonder that large swathes of the public either don’t understand or don’t trust the recommendations housed within the 3000 pages of the Dodd-Frank Bill and the 300 pages produced by the Independent Commission on Banking. Not only are the reforms set for completion in a distant future, but there is little faith that the Dodd-Frank Act in particular will improve financial stability given the influence the banking sector itself had on its creation. The government might be wise therefore to attempt to include a wider spectrum of people in the drawing up of future reforms and in the implementation of ICB recommendations.

During the 18^th century, if a controversial issue was raised in Parliament, it was not unusual for the British government to specifically request that petitions and further information be sent by constituents to their MPs. This meant that groups likely to be affected by the particular issue would be encouraged to come together in order to write to their MP explaining how the proposed legislation would affect them, either for better or worse. In this way, government could put together a clearer picture of “public opinion” on the matter at hand before debating it fully. Although the definition of “the public” may have changed since then, the spirit is still laudable and perhaps it is time that this spirit of public involvement was revived. The recent e-petition scheme is a step in the right direction but there is still a considerable level of scepticism amongst MPs that the petitions it might generate will be worthwhile – this attitude must change to prevent total disenchantment with the democratic process. The wider population deserves to be given more opportunities to make their voice heard without being branded as inconvenient, ill-informed, insincere or necessarily anti-capitalist. After all there is a great difference between being against capitalism and being against a banking system that favours banks considered “too big to fail”.

It is true that protestors need to spend more time defining their demands and finding like-minded people, even if this means splitting into smaller groups. The risk otherwise is that they will all be classed under the same umbrella and be judged as too disparate a group to possibly talk with a coherent and valuable voice. However, the government can also improve the situation by spending more time informing a woefully uneducated public on the complexities of the financial system and showing greater willingness to listen to them. They might achieve this by encouraging petitions or by encouraging MPs to hold information-gathering exercises within their local constituencies, which local businesses or members of the community could attend in order to put forward their opinions on the banking crisis. The process might not be perfect but it could at least signal a step towards a more successful engagement between a public who knows what it wants and a government that is prepared to hear what they have to say.

According to recent figures from the Office of National Statistics UK unemployment now stands at 2.57 million or 8.1%. Perhaps even more worrying is the news that the number of 16-24 year olds out of work has crept ever closer to 1 million, currently sitting at a record high of 991 000 or 21.3%. The Government and the public are naturally eager to bring down these figures, many hoping that it will simultaneously reduce the levels of youth disaffection that they saw as particularly apparent over the summer. However, rather than focussing on job creation alone it is perhaps important to take note of bodies such as the Skills Commission which has recently pointed out in their report “Technicians and Progress” that part of the problem is not lack of jobs but lack of skills with which to perform them.

Evidence from the report drawn up by the Skills Commission shows that the Energy and Utility sector of British industry alone will require upwards of 90,000 new recruits over the next 5 years. Other surveys of employment statistics have also picked this up, showing engineering and manufacturing more generally to be areas where job vacancies are on the rise compared to many other sectors.

Some efforts are already being made to address the skills gap that prevents take up of these job opportunities. The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers Scheme, for example, which provides financial incentive to smaller employers to take on unemployed 16-17 year olds as apprentices, was well received by the Federation for Small Businesses. Furthermore there were recent announcements about the creation of several new University Technical Colleges. These colleges will be aimed at those predominantly younger than university age but will be sponsored by a university and backed by companies such as Rolls Royce, Toshiba and Boeing in order to give potential technicians an early start to their vocational training.

The return to something akin to the old Polytechnics should be welcomed for the work it will do in in giving people a fighting chance to fill the job vacancies that are available by giving them the requisite knowledge and skills. More work is still needed however and not just in the physical realm of funding for equipment and premises. For example, one challenge that may have to be tackled is a perceived or actual divide between rich and poor whereby those who cannot afford to go to university are forced into taking the “lesser” route of technical training. Efforts should be made to ensure that a stark dichotomy between “academic” and “practical” routes does not arise and that some of the assumptions behind Tony Blair’s drive for higher university attendance are erased.

Given the relative lack of publicity for Britain’s success in the recent WorldSkills event, hosted in London, there is still some way to go before Britain truly celebrates the achievements and potential of a technically skilled younger generation.

Research indicates that abuse in intimate relationships between teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds may be higher than previously thought. The issue was examined, for the first time, by the University of Bristol in collaboration with the NSPCC.

Worryingly, many of the study’s subjects appeared to consider violence as an unavoidable evil of relationships.  Christine Barter, lead author and Senior Research Fellow at Bristol University’s School for Policy Studies, expressed concern over the findings.  She stressed the reality that many girls were reluctant to realise the harmful consequences of such relationships; together with not fully acknowledging the violent nature of their partner.

In line with this acceptance, many deprived young women did not report instances of violence to their assigned social workers.  Worryingly, this was because welfare professionals were perceived as not being interested in such information. This strongly signals the need for a re-visiting of working methods when addressing issues faced by disadvantaged youths.  This is particularly so seeing as young mothers may choose to remain in such relationships in a bid to avoid the risk of being stigmatised.

Andrew Flanagan, Chief Executive of the NSPCC, has stressed that young people need to be better educated on violence and violent relationships. A move which he feels will empower affected individuals to seek help.

Certainly education is one part of the jigsaw.  However, establishing a good relationship between youngsters and social workers is equally crucial.  Failure to do so means that issues of this sort will continue to surface only through studies.  A scenario which would continue to leave many affected individuals in dangerous situations.