"Let me begin by saying this," says @TomBewick, "There is absolutely nothing 'German-style' about what the education secretary @GavinWilliamson proposes for the future of #FE, #Apprenticeships and #Skills policy in England  You’ll have to read right up until the end of this essay to fully understand why. To really appreciate what lies at the heart of this new mantra about the future direction of the country’s technical education system, it is critically important to understand the strategic contours of England’s over three decades’ old skills policy debates.

@TomBewick argues that in a post-COVID world, financial resources for #reskilling should be put in the hands of individuals, not institutions  It is rare these days for governments to get much credit for anything. But the urgency and efficiency in which the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was first devised and then rolled out to millions of businesses and the self-employed was an amazing feat of both imagination and inspired delivery. (The same perhaps can’t be said about other aspects of the government’s handling of coronavirus but that is not for this article).

In the back streets of Hatton Garden in London there once existed a little known music college. Owned by the big clubbing DJ, Graeme Lloyd, Subbass Academy helps aspiring music producers and DJs hone their skills to play at a professional level. It still exists, now located in the Waterloo area of the capital.

#Coronavirus represents the biggest threat to our way of life since the dark days of 1940. Eighty years ago, Britain stood alone against a tyranny of humankind.

#SkillsMismatch - 20% of the Workforce Under-Skilled for Their Jobs by 2030  Andy Haldane knows a thing or two about the UK’s skills and productivity puzzle. As the long-standing chief economist at the Bank of England, he’s had a ringside seat on developments in the British economy – both pre- and post the 2008 financial crisis. The historic weaknesses in the country’s vocational skills base is what he calls: “the collapsed left lung of the UK’s education system.”