3 Mind the Gap

The Brightside Trust has always pursued programs and activities aimed at increasing participation in higher education by underrepresented groups. One of our longest running programs, Brightjournals, was featured in a recent Guardian article http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1929265,00.html . While the government has invested large sums of money in widening participation since 1997, it remains an area of widespread concern and evaluation. This recent article, also from the Guardian, http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2016646,00.html discusses the advantages of concentrating on the vocational as a way to reach the harder to recruit groups. At the end of the article, the Minister of State, Bill Rammell, is said to have argued that the ‘battle over vocational qualifications would only be won once aspirant middle-class parents began to accept their worth, although he acknowledged that they were not quite there yet’. In my opinion this is a major understatement; in particular, if the new 14-19 diplomas are to be a success, then much more needs to be done now to boost their credibility and perceived utility, or they will be seen as simply second-rate GCSEs.