来源：《卫报》
刊登日期：2021年2月2日
The UK is bad at vocational education for teenagers and adults. We have long taken pride in our world-famous universities. By contrast, we undervalue technical qualifications of all sorts, and treat the training offered to the half of the population that doesn’t go to university as an afterthought – when we remember to think of it at all. If proof is needed, it is provided by figures showing that over the past decade, college budgets have been cut harder than any other area of education.
英国在青少年和成人职业教育方面做得很差。长久以来，我们一直以我们世界闻名的大学为荣。相比之下，我们低估了各种各样的技术资格，把提供给一半没有上大学的人口的培训当作事后考虑——当我们还记得这一点的时候。如果需要证明的话，有数据显示，在过去的十年里，技校预算被削减的幅度比其他任何教育领域都要大。
This problem has been recognised for years. Compared with many other countries, notably Germany, the various arms of the British state have been poor at working with employers to invest in the skills and training that are required to build a productive economy in the long-term national interest. Marketisation of the sector, which removed colleges from the control of councils, served to weaken the kinds of structures that are responsible for regional economic planning.
意识到这个问题已经很多年了。与许多其他国家(尤其是德国)相比，英国政府的各个部门在与雇主合作投资技能和培训方面表现得很差，而这些技能和培训是建立一个符合国家长期利益的生产性经济所必需的。职业教育的市场化使技校脱离了地方政府的控制，削弱了负责区域经济规划的体系。
A recent white paper and interim response to the review carried out by Philip Augar offers a remedy. For Boris Johnson’s government, improving the life chances of millions of people in less affluent areas, where fewer 18-year-olds progress to university and job prospects are less good for those who do, is politically crucial.
最近的一份白皮书和对奥格尔报告的临时回应提供了一种解决办法。对约翰逊政府来说，改善不太富裕地区数百万人的人生机遇在政治上至关重要。在这些地区，进入大学的18岁以上年轻人更少，而进入大学的人就业前景也不太好。
The strongest new pledges, taken from the Augar report, include £1.5bn in capital funding to upgrade colleges and a new loan entitlement, which means everyone – not just university students – will be able to borrow to train or study. The point is to give all adults the chance to undertake four years of post-18 education.
奥格尔报告中最有力的新承诺包括提供15亿英镑资金来升级技校，以及一项新的贷款资格，这意味着每个人——不仅仅是大学生——都将能够贷款培训或学习。目的是让所有成年人都有机会接受四年的18岁后教育。
However, these steps in the right direction are undermined by the leisurely pace at which they are to be taken. The Augar review is almost two years old. Now, new loans are deferred until 2025. Given the scale of the unemployment crisis that is unfolding, with the number of jobless people predicted to rise from 1.8 million to 4 million, and younger workers particularly hard-hit, a far greater sense of urgency is needed.
然而，这些朝着正确方向迈出的步骤，却被执行的悠闲步伐所削弱。奥格尔报告已经有差不多两年了。现在，新的贷款被推迟到2025年。鉴于目前失业危机的规模，预计失业人数将从180万上升到400万，而年轻雇员受到的打击尤其严重，需要有更强烈的紧迫感。
Even more concerning is the undemocratic structure proposed for the future. If we are serious, as a nation, about building a workforce to enable our transition to a green economy, and equip our health, care and digital sectors for the decades ahead, private and public bodies must work together. But the white paper skims over key questions of accountability, saying nothing about the role of councils. Instead, it says central government should step in where there are problems, while employer leadership of the new local skills improvement plans, described in the white paper, should be statutory.
更令人担忧的是为未来提出的非民主结构。如果我们作为一个国家认真地建设一支劳动力队伍，使我们能够向绿色经济转型，并在未来几十年能够胜任健康、护理和数字等领域的工作，私营和公共部门必须携手合作。但白皮书略过了问责制的关键问题，对地方政府的作用只字未提。相反，白皮书指出，中央政府应该在存在问题的地方进行干预，而根据白皮书的描述，新地方技能提升计划由雇主领导应该是法定的。
In short, the government looks like it is seeking to outsource responsibility for education to businesses. While any attempt to rebalance our education system towards less privileged young people must be welcomed, there are many aspects of these reforms about which ministers should think again.
简而言之，政府似乎正在寻求将教育责任外包给企业。尽管我们一定欢迎任何将教育体系重新平衡、向弱势年轻人倾斜的尝试，但这些改革的许多方面需要内阁高官们重新考虑。