OT. The futures Bright, the Futures Brexit!!!

[Ram59]

It was Blair at the 1999 Labour conference, who proclaimed that his intention was to get over 50% of pupils into further education, although this figure was only reached a couple of years ago.

I feel that this target, together with the continuing need for improvement of exam grades, has done nothing to improve the preparations of our children for real life.

Both Conservative and Labour governments have been guilty of following this line over the years, resulting in non academic pupils being left to feel inadequate.

I speak from the experience of my sons from both ends of the academic grades. With no school encouragement, but guidance from his parents, my eldest son took on a trade and hasn't looked back since. Out of the 3, he is the one who is in by far the best financial state, in spite of the other 2 gaining good masters degrees in engineering, although he still feels inferior to his siblings, because of his lack of academic qualifications, 16 years ago.

Grade inflation is meaningless, its just there for successive governments to pat themselves on the back. I had an offer for a place at Birmingham University for mechanical engineering in 1977 with a C and a D in maths and physics. Now, I would need probably 3 Bs or more. Are today's pupils that much more intelligent than me, my Mensa IQ score of 138 would suggest not.

[ramAnag]

I know of two friends who, in the dim and distant past, both worked as estate agents. Both had about a month of on the job training, nothing formal. They used historical prices and current rises/drops in valuations to value properties. They always advised buyers to get a structural engineer or surveyor to survey the building and give a full report on any and all deficiencies.

One went on to work in a bookies, driving jobs, dodgy sales jobs and eventually on the Toyota production line. He has 8 O levels and is recently retired.

The other has a ruck of O's and 2 As. Did part time what is now known as HR qualifications and she is HR Director of a large local (to the Derby area) company.

Many roads lead to Rome. It's what you do when you one to the end of the road that determines where you will end up.

With regard to plumbers and heating engineers, I know that you need rather more than a cracking "sharp intake of breath" to be successful. All power to their elbows.

Ah yes, MA...but the estate agents probably have letters after their names. The Head I took over from, who was one of the few I got on with very well, suggested - when DCC provided a new sign - that he put the letters he was entitled to after his name. The CDT teacher and I told him that if he did we’d add four little letters (including two ‘T’s). Strangely he stuck with just his name.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Spot on, mista. In fact I’d go so far as to say a lot more than just a ‘generation’.
There is a real problem in this country - and elsewhere - with the ‘status’ given to different forms of knowledge.
For far too long, imo, ‘academic’ knowledge has received a level of kudos seldom offered to more ‘practical’ forms of learning/knowledge which continue to be looked down on.
It’s nonsense imo but, as long as government remains so dominated by an ‘old school tie’ Oxbridge educated elite, things will never change.

You almost had me there, agreeing with all of the above, but then of course it was all the governments fault comes rolling out!

[Trickytreesreds]

You almost had me there, agreeing with all of the above, but then of course it was all the governments fault comes rolling out!

[swaledale]

You almost had me there, agreeing with all of the above, but then of course it was all the governments fault comes rolling out!

So government policy and actions have no effect then? Can't see why we have them?

[ramAnag]

You almost had me there, agreeing with all of the above, but then of course it was all the governments fault comes rolling out!

Lol. Government with a small ‘g’, GP...as in successive governments not particularly this one.

If you ‘agreed with all the above’ you really shouldn’t allow yourself to be put off because I was daring to be critical of an establishment you suddenly seem to hold so dear.

There’s plenty to be critical of this government for and it’s almost impossible to not be critical of the ****wit in charge (anyone seen him?), but on this occasion I was referring to years and years of misplaced policy.

[Andy_Faber]

Meanwhile, apparently unnoticed by the media the opposition and those on this forum who use criticism of the govt in lieu of a full stop, the Covid daily case numbers, so highly criticised when ‘worlds worst’, have sort of stabilised while almost all around us are rocketing upwards

[mistaram]

One of the best paid jobs in the country is one where you need no degree or experience .You don't have to work your way up the ladder ,you have no responsibility , You don't need ask it answer any questions if you don't wish to Its yours for five years at least and you get paid £83,000 plus expenses Guaranteed rises every year whether you want them or not ,Can you guess what it is .I will give you a clue out states with M and ends with P

[swaledale]

Meanwhile, apparently unnoticed by the media the opposition and those on this forum who use criticism of the govt in lieu of a full stop, the Covid daily case numbers, so highly criticised when ‘worlds worst’, have sort of stabilised while almost all around us are rocketing upwards

Not sure you can attribute that to the governments actions!

The government’s £10bn contact-tracing programme failed to reach almost half the contacts named by infected patients in “non-complex” cases — including people living under the same roof.

The outsourcing giants Serco and Sitel are being paid £192m to provide 18,500 call handlers who are responsible for tracing non-complex contacts referred to them.

“Non-complex” cases, such as when the infected person came into contact with a friend, are dealt with by the two firms, while “complex” ones involving a potential outbreak in a school or workplace are referred to experienced Public Health England teams.

Heath Secretary Matt Hancock abandoned plans to roll-out an NHS contact tracing app nationwide last week, after it emerged the software was not compatible will all smartphones. Today in the House of Lords, Health Minister Lord Bethell revealed the cost of the failed project has so far cost a staggering £11.8m of public funds.

Thanks goodness we still have effective local health officials who can actually take effective action!

[Ram59]

Meanwhile, apparently unnoticed by the media the opposition and those on this forum who use criticism of the govt in lieu of a full stop, the Covid daily case numbers, so highly criticised when ‘worlds worst’, have sort of stabilised while almost all around us are rocketing upwards

I think it's a bit early to start counting our chickens AF, we're a little bit behind the timeline of other countries.

I think the important figures will be the new hospital admissions over the next few weeks..

However, the government were widely criticised when relaxing the lockdown 7 weeks ago and if you'd believed the critics, we should have been inundated with new hospital admissions by now. The government were also widely criticised for their quarantine measures against visitors to Spain, measures that have since been copied by every other country. Could you imagine the fuss, if we'd been one of the last countries to act, instead of the first?

I wonder if the German media are demanding to know why it took their government so long after the UK, to take action?

[Geoff Parkstone]

One of the best paid jobs in the country is one where you need no degree or experience .You don't have to work your way up the ladder ,you have no responsibility , You don't need ask it answer any questions if you don't wish to Its yours for five years at least and you get paid £83,000 plus expenses Guaranteed rises every year whether you want them or not ,Can you guess what it is .I will give you a clue out states with M and ends with P

A Military Policeman?

[Geoff Parkstone]

I think it's a bit early to start counting our chickens AF, we're a little bit behind the timeline of other countries.

I think the important figures will be the new hospital admissions over the next few weeks..

However, the government were widely criticised when relaxing the lockdown 7 weeks ago and if you'd believed the critics, we should have been inundated with new hospital admissions by now. The government were also widely criticised for their quarantine measures against visitors to Spain, measures that have since been copied by every other country. Could you imagine the fuss, if we'd been one of the last countries to act, instead of the first?

I wonder if the German media are demanding to know why it took their government so long after the UK, to take action?

Somewhere in Berlin a German language teacher named AuspfalhenAnag is berating Angela Merkel and demanding to know why she wasn't a patch on that English Johnson fellow

[mistaram]

Meanwhile, apparently unnoticed by the media the opposition and those on this forum who use criticism of the govt in lieu of a full stop, the Covid daily case numbers, so highly criticised when ‘worlds worst’, have sort of stabilised while almost all around us are rocketing upwards

Would that be the same government who has altered the way deaths are recorded for the third time and at the same time decided to knock 5,000 of the total Still over a 1000 positives everyday , nothing to get complacent about

[AdiSalisbury]

Somewhere in Berlin a German language teacher named AuspfalhenAnag is berating Angela Merkel and demanding to know why she wasn't a patch on that English Johnson fellow

I hear the Spanish think their government are a farce and should've followed the lead of the British instead of doing their own thing

[Andy_Faber]

I hear the Spanish think their government are a farce and should've followed the lead of the British instead of doing their own thing

There’s some of that in the English language papers, more their own incompetence, focus on manipulating the numbers and inability to control youth than comparison with U.K.