Generation of children left without vital skills
Lord Baker, the former Conservative education secretary, says that large numbers of children are being forced to leave school lacking the vital skills needed to find a job

The Government is “letting down a generation” of children by failing to equip them with the skills needed to secure a good job, a former Conservative education secretary has warned.

In a strongly worded intervention, Lord Baker insisted that every level of the education system was “dysfunctional” and struggled to meet the needs of modern business.

The peer – architect of the national curriculum under Margaret Thatcher in the Eighties – said that schools, colleges and universities were unable to produce enough young people with vital technical skills.

Lord Baker also criticised a rapid expansion of universities over the past 20 years, saying too many teenagers had been pushed into taking degrees in the arts, humanities, media studies and social science – leaving them struggling to find a job when they graduate.

Figures published as part of a report by the Edge Foundation showed that 29 per cent of fine art students and 27 per cent of those studying media studies are in retail, catering or bar work six months after leaving university.

England has the second highest number of “overqualified” adults in the developed world after Japan, it emerged.

In last week’s Budget George Osborne pledged to create “a Britain that makes things again”, with plans for 100,000 more apprenticeships and incentives to boost manufacturing jobs.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Baker insisted general education standards were on the rise under the Coalition, but he warned that “radical changes” were needed to give more school leavers the skills needed for the workplace.

He said all pupils should be given the option of pursuing technical or practical qualifications at the age of 14 alongside GCSEs.

They could be accommodated with a surge in specialist University Technical Colleges (UTC) for 14 to18-year-olds – state schools specialising in decent vocational qualifications, he said.

Numbers should expand from around 50 open or planned at the moment to at least 300, he said.

“The point I am making is that the total education system – by which I mean schools, further education colleges and universities – is dysfunctional as regards generating a skilled workforce,” he said.

Lord Baker, the chairman of Edge, which campaigns for more practical and technical education, spelt out his concerns as part of a new report – The Skills Mismatch. It will also be the subject of a lecture he gives to the City and Guilds Annual Fellowship on Wednesday.

His report said 830,000 people with degree-level skills in science and engineering – along with 450,000 technicians – would be needed by 2020 to feed the needs of business.

It added: “People believe any degree is a passport to success, while technical and vocational education is for the other 50 per cent. It is high time we turned this on its head. A degree no longer guarantees success, while looming skills shortages mean there are great prospects for people with technical and vocational skills.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We have stripped low-quality vocational qualifications out of the GCSE so that only the gold-standard courses proven to help young people get on in life remain.

“We will also deliver at least 250,000 more apprenticeships over the spending review period than the previous government had planned.”

UNIVERSITY GRADUATES `FORCED TO MAKE DO WITH BAR JOBS`

Large numbers of university leavers are being forced to find relatively low-skilled jobs after failing to secure graduate employment.

In all, Britain has more "under-employed" people than any other developed country after Japan, it is claimed.

Lord Baker`s report says that students taking arts and humanities courses are most likely to fall into this category.

It includes a list of graduates who found work in retail, catering, waiting and bar jobs six months after graduating from British universities in 2012. It is broken down by degree subject studied:

Fine arts 29%

Media studies 26.7%

Performing arts 23.5%

Design 23.1%

Sociology 22.7%

Physical and geographical sciences 22.1%

History 21.1%

English 21.4%

Biology 20.8%

Law 19.8%

Psychology 18.9%

Geography 18.8%

Sports science 17.4%

Marketing 15.9%

Politics 15.4%

Languages 15.2%

All employed graduates 13.7%

Business and management studies 13.7%

Chemistry 13.1%

Finance and accountancy 11.3%

Computer science and IT 10.5%

Maths 9.3%

Physics 9%

Electrical and electronic engineering 8.8%

Economics 7.9%

Architecture and building 7.9%

Mechanical engineering 5.6%

Civil engineering 4.7%