Teachers 'lack skills awareness'

[bamalli]

Teachers 'lack skills awareness' 

The government wants more teenagers to take apprenticeships
A majority of teachers would rate their knowledge of apprenticeships as "poor" or "very poor", a survey suggests.

A quarter considered apprenticeships a good alternative to A-levels - but among parents the figure was 43%.

The Edge foundation, which promotes vocational learning, surveyed 1,199 teachers and 1,130 parents in England. It said schools had an academic "bias".

The government recently announced £140m to fund 35,000 new apprenticeships, to upgrade the country's skills.

One in five teachers rated their knowledge of apprenticeships as "very poor", but just 8% said they knew little about undergraduate degrees.

Edge's chief executive, Andy Powell, said there was a "deep-seated bias" towards academic qualifications within the education system.

Teachers needed to know more about other forms of learning as they were the main source of careers advice, he said.

'Survive and thrive'

Edge - which aims to raise the status of vocational and practical learning - said teachers needed to be more aware of the value that many parents placed on this form of learning.

"We strongly believe that apprentices will play an integral role in helping the UK survive and thrive in the current economic climate," Mr Powell said.

"More than 100,000 apprenticeships are completed each year, but this figure could be much higher if teachers really understood the value and benefits of apprenticeships."

Labour MP Barry Sheerman, co-chair of the Skills Commission, said teachers must receive continuing training in the area of apprenticeships.

He said the National Apprenticeship Service and the Training and Development Agency for Schools ought to be more involved in promoting their value.

"The opportunities apprenticeships offer to learners, and the skills required by employers of apprentices, should be communicated to all teachers as part of an ongoing campaign," he said.

The Skills Commission is currently writing a report into the success of apprenticeships, to be published shortly.

Apprenticeships are available in different levels. A standard apprenticeship leads to an NVQ level 2, the equivalent of five good GCSEs.

The survey suggests that parents have better knowledge of apprenticeships - with two thirds saying their knowledge was either "good" or "neither good nor poor".

The government recently announced it would fund a further 35,000 apprenticeships to equip young people with the skills the country needs to weather the recession.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wanted one in five young people to be taking apprenticeships in 10 years.

[Haladu]

Bamalli,

Come nearer home here. The following was reported by Nigerian Tribune on 07.10.2008:

IT was not a day of cheerful news for Northern Nigeria as it was declared on Monday to be the region with the highest number of children not attending school in the world.

It was at the occasion of the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit which kicked off in Abuja and the statistics was quoted from World Bank figures.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who quoted the statistics while addressing the gathering of eminent Northerners at the summit, said the level of education of a people had direct correlation with their living standards.

He contended that going by the statistics, the North was far behind all of humanity when it comes to child education. "About two months ago, the Ministry of Finance organized a review session with our development partner like the World Bank and the bank's representative gave a list of statistics that should shock all of us into action.

"Northern Nigeria remains, and represents the only place in the world that has the highest number of children that are not going to school," he stated.

Usman, who blamed the problem on lack of commitment and efforts on the part of Northern leaders, charged experienced and educated retired Northerners to take up political leadership of their various states since, according to him, politics had been hijacked by hoodlums who have turned it to total warfare.

President Umaru Yar'Adua, in his speech read by the Minister of Commerce, Chief Charles Ugwu, noted that there was a worrisome and embarrassing level of poverty in most parts of Northern Nigeria.

THIS IS A PRODUCT OF POOR TEACHING. POOR TEACHERS TEACH POORLY.