The words we use matter. The phrases we absentmindedly trot out often contain misleading assumptions and connotations. It is for this reason that one of the first decisions I made when I was appointed FE editor of TES last year was to ban “the Cinderella sector” - a hackneyed phrase that fails to convey that FE serves students of all ages and circumstances.
As Jessica Russell points out, the caricature of FE as “the place of the second chance” has become embedded in the collective psyche of the sector - it has been regarded as the “last chance saloon” for those who struggled with their earlier education. Too often, she explains, students arrive from school with “the fixed mindset that they are failures”.
Needless to say, this is nonsense. FE is the only part of education that takes on the challenge of transforming the lives of those who have been chewed up and spat out by the school system.
‘Ladder of opportunity’
But, slowly, the language being used is changing. Russell points out that the number of internet search results for “further education social mobility” has increased more than sixfold in the past few months. Credit must go to apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon for using more positive language than some of his predecessors. Last week, it was announced that the theme for National Apprenticeship Week 2017 would be the “ladder of opportunity”.
While there’s no disputing the fact that FE does offer a second chance to many, its reach extends much further. As Matt Hamnett explains, North Hertfordshire College has created a separate business with a discrete identity to take control of its bid to capitalise on the apprenticeship levy, and to keep this commercial venture separate from the bread-and-butter work it does in its own backyard.
The most succinct reminder that lazy simplifications and stereotypes about the sector just don’t wash is made by Tom Starkey, who points out that there’s a 61-year gap between the oldest and youngest students he has ever taught.
As Agatha Christie once wrote: “Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.” That’s why, in these pages, the C-word remains strictly off limits.
@stephenexley
