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Technical education: More to do on funding and curriculum breadth

Despite the government’s rhetoric on technical education, funding is still lagging far behind that of academic education.

Furthermore, the technical education curriculum in England is one of the narrowest in the developed world, while the courses themselves are much shorter than international norms.

An analysis published last week by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) concludes that the introduction of T levels in September will improve things, but that the government needs to go further if it is to match high-performing countries such as Germany – the country that education secretary Gavin Williamson has said he wants to overtake in the next 10 years.

And there is some way to go, according to the EPI study, which finds that upper secondary technical education across the UK is being funded at a rate that is 23 per cent less per student than academic routes.

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