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Monday, 5th November 2007
At this Fabian Education lecture, launching the Progressive Manifesto series, Schools Secretary Ed Balls set out how his department planned to raise the educational participation age to eighteen in order to improve the life chances of young people in this country.
In his speech he laid out the government plans to move towards a day when there were very few teenagers who were not in education, employment of training (NEET). Under these plans, announced in the Queen's Speech, teenagers will be expected to continue with full-time education, work-based learning or part-time education or training if they are employed, until they are 18.
Balls argued that this historic measure would improve both life chances and Britain's economic future. He said: "Our education is held back by two tier expectations and what is too often seen as a first and second class distinction between academic and vocational learning."
Educational opportunity for all until 18 was still not yet a reality in modern Britain, he said.
"I look forward to a time when no young person will be long-term Neet," said Balls, arguing that there was a "clear moral and economic imperative" for an historic move, fulfilling an ambition first set out in the Education Act of 1918.
It is "a radical reform based squarely in the Fabian progressive tradition, achieved, at last, through Fabian dogged persistence, and delivered in this generation by a Labour government," said Balls.
Balls set out plans to raise the participation age to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015, saying that the government would use the next six years to put four key building blocks in place "to prepare for a reform that, if we get it right, will transform the British economy and society for the next sixty years and beyond".
curriculum and qualifications that provide the right learning opportunity for every young person
advice and guidance that helps all young people make the right choices;
financial support so that no one is excluded because of cost;
employer engagement and the right training and apprenticeships; including creating 90,000 new apprenticeships by 2013
Ed Balls also praised the Fabian Society for "setting the agenda for the decade ahead" during the year of Labour's transition, noting that the government had taken up key recommendations of the Fabian Life Chances Commission report, including on child benefit in pregnancy and a new strategic objective to narrow the gap in educational achievement.
The lecture kicks off a new Fabian Society series on the theme "Progressive Manifesto: The Fabian debates" which, over the next 18 months, will address the key themes for life chances and progressive politics, seeking to shape the agenda ahead of the next election
Full text of speech
Event report
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