| By :
Martin Hofschroer
Government ministers are in favour of plans to encourage youngsters to study practical lessons and train for careers as tradesmen. The London Evening Standard has reported that a programme drawn up by Lord Baker, which proposes that young student's learn about vocational skills instead of entering mainstream education, has received substantial backing. Under the scheme, students aged 12 and 13 will be presented with the opportunity to leave the conventional school system and learn practical skills such as plumbing, joinery and bricklaying at new university-sponsored colleges. Pupils in these institutions will study plumbing courses, electrical courses and bricklaying courses in the morning and learn traditional subjects such as English, maths and science in the afternoons. Lord Baker told the Standard that it was important for Britain to train youngsters through practical courses as there are a number of national projects which may suffer from a skills shortage in the future. He told the paper: "We are massively short of technicians. If we are going to build nuclear power stations, high-speed rail links, Crossrail and wind farms, we need technicians." Lord Baker said that Britain should follow Germany's example and invest more in technical colleges in order to appeal to students who are disillusioned with academic subjects and want a more practical-based approach to education. Skills Minister John Hayes told the newspaper that it was important for Britain to offer a student route into vocational careers which receives the same support as the path into university. "I am very interested in what Kenneth Baker has said. We have a very clear academic pathway which we respect. We need a vocational pathway which is just as rigorous," he told the Standard The newspaper reported how star student Natasha McDonald chose to enrol in plumbing courses despite achieving high grades at school. Ms McDonald got A-grades at GCSE but became plumber and recently won the Edge charity's vocational student of the year award. She told the publication that even though she was academically talented she felt that she was more suited to more practical lessons outside the conventional school environment. "I didn't like sitting in class the whole day. I had to do something hands-on," Ms McDonald told the newspaper. Ms McDonald has used the skills she learned on plumbing courses to renovated social housing for Homes for Haringey. Lord Baker, who was Margaret Thatcher's education secretary, plans to create up to 100 University Technical Colleges, each with 600 pupils.
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