Wolf Review into Vocational Education is Published

Professor Alison Wolf analyses how millions of children have been failed over the past twenty years and sets out a blueprint for a very different system in which almost all young people have the chance of further education or a good job. Professor Wolf recommends a radical change of direction.

There are four main principles for reform:

• The system must stop ‘tracking’ 14 to 16 year olds into ‘dead-end’ courses.
• The system must be made honest so young people are not pushed into damaging decisions.
• The system must be dramatically simplified to remove perverse incentives.
• We should learn best practice from countries doing things better than us, such as Denmark, France and Germany.

Mr Gove said Prof Wolf’s report was "brilliant and ground-breaking”. He immediately accepted four recommendations:

• To allow qualified further education lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified school teachers.
• To clarify the rules on allowing industry professionals to teach in schools.
• To allow any vocational qualification offered by a regulated awarding body to be taken by 14-to19-year-olds.
• To allow established high-quality vocational qualifications that have not been accredited to be offered in schools and colleges in September 2011.

Michael Gove said he would now consider how best to implement Professor Wolf’s remaining recommendations.

You can download the full report below.

Download Files

Back to News »