Employer-led career colleges launched in Birmingham

FORMER education secretary Lord Baker has launched two career colleges at Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) to deliver employer-led education in the city.

The two colleges will provide specialist vocational education for 16-19 year olds in the professional services and the digital and creative sectors with employers in the region driving the curriculum.

Lord Baker, who introduced the National Curriculum when he was Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary in the late 1980s, launched the concept of career colleges in 2013 with the mission to equip students with both academic and practical skills provided by businesses, for businesses.

He said: “This is much more than just visiting the factory on a Friday afternoon. It’s remarkable that so many local companies are willing to pitch in and the fashion the curriculum.

“The local businesses have said what qualifications students should be working towards – not what the further education colleges say they want, but what local businesses want.

“A lot of local companies can’t recruit the youngsters they want from Birmingham schools so these colleges will be very targeted.”

The principal of BMet, Andrew Cleaves, said the UK’s second largest city was chosen to receive two career colleges due to its large population of young people. Both colleges will be based at the Matthew Boulton Campus.

He said: “It will have a huge effect on the local community as it will involve our business partners right in the heart of the education we provide.”

Problem solving, working within a team and being able to present ideas are just a few of the skills that will be taught at the career colleges.

Lord Baker said once the colleges are up and running, they will start recruiting from the age of 14 as this is the age “youngsters know where their interests lie”.

He added: “The nature of work is changing. We’re at the early stages of a digital revolution and it’s going to change everything in society.

“It’s going to be more profound than the earlier industrial revolution or the computer revolution of the 1960s and 70s. The digital revolution is going to affect every company and every activity in the country, not just one industry.

“I think unless you have youngsters who are skilled, there will be a lot more joining the ranks of the unemployed. I think the digital revolution has the capacity to destroy more jobs than it creates. So you’ve got to equip youngsters today with a range of skills – some academic but some practical.”