Education minister would make her children ‘leave it a year’ before taking new T-level qualifications
3 min read
An education minister has admitted she would advise her own children to delay taking one of the Government's newly-proposed qualifications.
Anne Milton told MPs on the Commons Education Select Committee that she would not allow her children to immediately start studying for a T-level – a policy she is responsible for rolling out.
Responding to a question from Labour MP Lucy Powell about the uptake of the new courses, the apprenticeships and skills minister said: “The job of persuading parents to do any new qualification is always quite tough and we know that not huge numbers will do it in the first instance.
"I mean, I’m a parent of four children. If someone said to me, ‘Your children could do this new qualification,’ I’d say, ‘Leave it a year’."
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Damian Hinds was forced to block senior civil servants within his own department from putting a one-year delay on the policy after they said the proposed rollout would be "very challenging".
Critics of the new qualification, which comes in from 2020, were quick to jump on the minister’s embarrassing remarks, with University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt saying that it proved the Government should not rush to push out the policy.
She said: “When the minister in charge of T-levels has said she wouldn’t want her own children taking one up in their first year, and the department’s Permanent Secretary publicly called for their delay, it is probably time for the Government to take stock.”
In an embarrassing climbdown, Ms Milton was forced to admit later in the session that it was “probably a mistake” to make the remarks.
"The point about T-levels is that we’re introducing them, designed by employers – they are very rigorous”, she said.
"I know that take up will be low in the first years. It probably was a mistake to use my own personal experiences, but I do know we need to do a very good job of making sure that parents and the providers will be a part of this, and understand that these are a qualification like no other.”
Gordon Marsden, Labour’s shadow higher education minister, said the comments proved that Ms Milton did not have confidence in her Government’s policy.
"It is not acceptable for there to be one rule for the Government, and another for everyone else," he said.
"The Department of Education’s Permanent Secretary has already said that T-Levels cannot feasibly be implemented on time without a serious risk to taxpayer’s money.
"Rather than rushing through reforms, Labour will give technical education the funding it needs to deliver T-Levels across the whole further education sector."
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