New Pictures Education Secretary warns more school leavers should get jobs and work their way up

More school leavers should join companies and work their way up from the shop floor instead of taking a degree, the Education Secretary says.

Damian Hinds believes three years’ experience at entry level can be just as valuable as university, as it fosters a deep ‘understanding of the craft’.

He wants more youngsters aiming for white collar roles to go straight into work through the Government’s new ‘high-quality’ apprenticeships.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds believes three years’ experience at entry level can be just as valuable as university, as it fosters a deep ‘understanding of the craft’

Workers can earn while they learn rather than being saddled with up to £50,000 of debt at university.

Mr Hinds’s father started out as an apprentice pharmacist aged 17 and worked his way up to a senior role at what is now Glaxosmithkline.

Apprenticeships fell out of favour over the past few decades, but under radical reforms they are now being brought back in a ‘renaissance’ for traditional white collar roles.

School leavers can now become apprentice accountants, actuaries and teachers, with more roles in the pipeline. These jobs previously would have required degrees.

‘There is a real value in actual work as well as study,’ Mr Hinds said. ‘An apprenticeship is one way of doing that.

‘When I talk to chief executives, they will tell you there is no more compelling story than being able to identify somebody in a senior or board level position who has worked their way up that company from the shop floor.

Mr Hinds wants more youngsters aiming for white collar roles to go straight into work through the Government’s new ‘high-quality’ apprenticeships. Stock picture of a bricklaying apprentice

‘The Americans talk about the American Dream. We don’t have a phrase to encapsulate that but I think people feel it. You should be able to go as far as your talents can take you.

Girl founded a £1m business ... aged just 16 

Most pupils with a string of top marks would be expected to go to university, but not Liv Conlon.

Aged 16, she left school to start a business – which now makes £1million a year.

The straight-A pupil launched The Property Stagers, which furnishes empty homes. With no financial backing, she has had to work 18-hour days, seven days a week. 

But her hard work paid off – the business made £30,000 in its first year and turned over £1million in its second.

Liv Conlon is pictured with her mother Ali

Now 20, Miss Conlon, from Glasgow, furnishes more than 300 properties a year, and has hired a team of ten, including her mother Ali, 52, and her brother Jack, 22.

‘When I was at school I always wanted to leave. I just wanted to be in charge of my own life,’ she said. 

‘It was a pretty scary thing to do. When I told the school that I wanted to leave, they called me into the careers office, sat me down and said, “Are you crazy?” 

‘With a good high-quality apprenticeship to get you on your way, that opens up that possibility to far more people.’

Mr Hinds yesterday launched a campaign to make sixth formers and their parents aware of the opportunities his new apprenticeships afford.

The firms involved usually recruit graduates. They include Siemens, Capgemini, Ernst & Young, Lloyds Bank, Glaxosmithkline, Coca-Cola, PwC, IBM and Nestle.

Mr Hinds’s father, Frank, spent his Saturdays and Wednesday evenings studying while working as an apprentice pharmacist in Belfast, before moving to England to work in a shop and eventually joining the Wellcome Foundation.

‘Experience in entry-level work – for many of us we would say later on in our careers that we really benefited from having had a chance to do that,’ Mr Hinds said.

‘It was always something I was brought up with – understanding work and understanding all the things that go to make up that operation. In the case of my father, being a pharmacist, you start by learning about all the different jars in the pharmacy, and then how you mix up medicines and eventually, when you are a qualified pharmacist, then you can prescribe.

‘The most basic level things are important to understanding the craft and the profession.’

Mr Hinds said many pupils still thought university was the only route, which he called a ‘one-track thought’. He added: ‘We have to change perceptions. In the past few years there really has been this renaissance in apprenticeships.’

Apprenticeships are partly funded via a levy on firms.

Official figures confirm record number of students are getting first class degrees, as 28% walk out with top grades and universities are accused of 'dumbing down' qualifications 

Critics warned last night that first-class degrees were being dumbed down after it emerged that a record proportion of students received them.

Some 28 per cent were awarded the top mark last summer, up from 26 per cent the previous year, figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show.

The proportion has more than doubled in a decade – only 13 per cent were awarded the highest grade in 2008, and in 1995 it was just 7 per cent. 

Universities are under pressure to deliver increasing numbers of firsts to attract students. But employers complain they can no longer identify truly exceptional graduates because so many get the top grade.

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign For Real Education, warned of ‘dumbing down’ and added: ‘Universities are competing to pull in the punters. It is rotten and corrupt.’

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office For Students – a regulator with the power to fine or even close universities – said: ‘Universities must take swift and decisive action on this issue. If they do not, we will use our powers to intervene.’

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News Photo Education Secretary warns more school leavers should get jobs and work their way up
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