YOUNG people in Redditch have been urged to get themselves into an apprenticeship to ensure a bright future.
The plea came from county councillor Ken Pollock who also launched a stinging attack on secondary school leaders.
“It’s really quite disturbing how our education system directs young people into higher education,” Coun Pollock (Con, Tenbury) the county’s cabinet member with responsibility for economy, skills and infrastructure, told borough business leaders at a forum organised by local MP Karen Lumley.
“The worry about this academic obsession of schools is that a university education is seen as the gold standard and young people who don’t make it are going to be thinking that they are a failure.
“I sometimes have this thought that, if there were no more brain surgeons, yes, a few people would die, but if there were no more lorry drivers, within three weeks everyone would die.”
And Coun Pollock called for a re-balancing of educational aspiration more towards the non-academic side.
“What is it? Fifty per cent go to university and they come out thinking how important they are but they are not because there are a lot other people out there who have taken a different route and who perform jobs that are just as vital,” he added. His message struck a note with business leaders who had earlier complained of being caught between rising labour costs due to skill shortages and the difficulty of recruiting suitable youngsters and the value of contracts being continually driven down.
Mrs Lumley told the forum she had left school at 16 and had worked her way up without feeling the need to get a university degree.
The county runs a number of schemes through Worcestershire Apprenticeships. They include placements in Redditch with Heartbeat UK in Arthur Street, (http://www.heartbeatuk.com) and Midland Group Training Services at The Brook Building in Arrow Road http://(www.mgts.co.uk).
