Emphasising vocational skills achieves widened participation

21 Feb 2007

A Guardian article edited by Harriet Swain released on 20 February 2007, reports findings from the Guardian's recent higher education summit. Summit delegates heard that widening participation and involving under-represented groups are most likely to be achieved by emphasising vocational skills.

Foundation degrees 

Derek Longhurst, chief executive of Foundation Degree Forward (FDF), which promotes foundation degrees, said these qualifications were already showing the way by getting employers more involved in supporting their employees' education. FDF is campaigning to get foundation degrees better understood by both employers and students, aiming for a target of 100,000 students studying for them by 2010. Many of these will already be in work. "They are looked at as a primary way of higher education delivering Leitch," said Longhurst. 

Vocational diplomas

Bill Rammell, secretary of state for higher education, urged summit delegates to support the government's new specialised vocational diplomas for 14- to 19-year-olds, part of a change in delivery of qualifications that he called the most radical for a generation. "I think it is critically important that universities get involved in the development of diplomas so they can genuinely see them as proper entry qualifications to higher education," he said. "And when I say all universities, I mean all universities."