Children are being encouraged to stay at school or go to university when neither is the right place for them. There is an unspoken conspiracy in our education system that means pupils are not being given the high quality career guidance they need if they are to raise their aspirations and choose their most appropriate next step.

The mad scramble to maximise funding and bolster positions in league tables has created a situation whereby institutions covet the brightest and best while simultaneously edging out of the door those young people less likely to cover themselves in academic glory.

The introduction of the Baker Clause was supposed to level up the playing field and force schools to engage properly with FE. It came into effect a year ago but still faces such significant resistance that the DfE is having to intervene directly to make some schools comply. The skills minister Anne Milton has even called for colleges to “grass up” directly to her those which do not obey the law. In response there has been an explosion of schools offering vocational courses as a means of keeping hold of some of their pupils, even when they have neither the facilities nor the industry expertise to teach them. 

Read more: Schools failing to publicise A-level alternatives

In depth: Schools must publish information on how FE providers can speak to their pupils

Background: Anne Milton to challenge schools that shut their doors to FE providers

Something is not right

Here at Milton Keynes College we know that more than 40 new vocational courses have been put on in this way this year and a further 14 have already been advertised for 2019-20. We have no problem with anybody teaching young people what they need to know, but when one hears of highly vocational subjects taught from PowerPoint without the appropriate level of specialist resource (for example, engineering workshops or catering kitchens), something is not right.

At Milton Keynes College we have been directly accused of back-classing students, putting them on level 1 courses while the schools suggest they could be on a level 2 or 3 programme if only they would stay. The fact is ignored that this applies specifically to disciplines not undertaken in schools pre-16 (again, like catering, motor vehicle or engineering), making level 1 the appropriate place to start. 

We are fortunate to have a facsimile hospital ward where our care students can train. Is anybody in schools saying, “You’d probably be better off going to college because they have specialist facilities?” If they are, they’re saying it very, very quietly.

‘No point going elsewhere’

We have also heard of the practice of pupils starting their A-level work before the end of Year 11, helping to keep them in the school’s sixth form. When the decision to go or stay is made they then say to the pupils: “Oh, you’ve started your courses here now so there’s no point in going anywhere else, is there?”

One area the Baker Clause does nothing to improve is in university recruitment. Five years ago around 3,000 unconditional offers went to sixth formers; last year that figure hit 117,000. This “pile ‘em high and get their cash” model is nothing short of immoral and ill serves so many of the young people who are gulled into studying for degrees which are either wrong for them or worse, not worth the scroll on which they’re written. 

Universities are banking a staggering 64 per cent more money per student than colleges receive, even if teaching for the same qualification. Many spend as much as £1,000 per student per year on marketing. Regardless of merit how can FE possibly compete? And there’s the point; the system shouldn’t be about competition for bums on seats but rather finding the right course in the right place for every individual.  Instead, the age old dictum of “follow the money” rings loud and hollow.

Why should they?

So why should schools and universities point out the alternative forms of provision to potential students (or should that be customers)? Perhaps because nowhere else will they find the close relationship with business which ensures the skills they learn are applicable to the real world.  Nowhere else will they find the opportunities for solid, relevant, informed work experience. Nowhere else will they enjoy the facilities and culture as relevant for learning with a purpose, with specific work opportunities in mind.

The things FE is good at are by no means secret and it’s time the rest of education stopped wishing they were. Until places of learning put individual need before institutional advantage the system will continue to fail the economy and the thousands of young people doing the wrong courses in the wrong places.    

Chris McLean is deputy principal at Milton Keynes College