Monday, 16 April 2007

3 Vital Statistics

Social Trends is an unrivalled source of UK social facts. It is produced every year by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) but the analytical focus of the publication is altered for each edition. This year’s study is especially relevant to The Brightside Trust, as its focus is ‘The changing lives of today’s children’. In what I regard as a genuine example of democratic, open government, the report can be viewed and/or downloaded from the ONS website for free. Hardcopy versions are available at £45; it must have been tempting to charge for the electronic version as well. For a quick summary see the press release http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/st0407.pdf

What seemed to catch news agencies attention was the increase in the numbers of young people, especially men, living at home with their parents for longer http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/12/do1203.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_12042007 . There are rumours of an extreme form of this phenomena emerging in the Berkhamstead area. The publication of Social Trends is also a time to reflect on known, but significant, medium term developments, such as in this article from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6542031.stm

Something that caught my attention was public attitudes to vocational education

Table 3.17 page 36

Attitudes to vocational qualifications,1 2005

Great Britain

Percentages

Agree2

Neither agree

nor disagree

Disagree3

Only people who can’t do

academic qualifications

should do vocational ones

20

17

63

Vocational qualifications are easier than academic qualifications

29

24

47

Most people don’t understand what vocational qualifications are

60

21

20

Employers don’t respect

vocational qualifications

enough

54

24

21

Schools should do more to

encourage young people to do vocational qualifications

74

19

7

Taking these attitudes to vocational qualifications together, it would appear that the British people are very positive about vocational education and qualifications. It seems to me, that this popular mood could be fertile ground for the new diploma courses if they are rigorously promoted.

Overall, Social Trends is a dense catalogue of 225 glorious pages of facts about UK society.

There are too many headings to do it justice here, why not take a look at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/Social_Trends37/Social_Trends_37.pdf . If ever you need a social fact about the UK, visit this document first. I am placing a copy in the library; it deserves a box of its own.

2 comments:

Nance said...

Wow! That is surprising and encouraging. I love the ONS website. It must have been a nightmare getting info like that in the olden days.

Erica said...

That's very surprising i thought vocational diplomas were still held in a suspicious light by much of the British public so it's good to see that's not necessarily the case.

Interestingly, one thing that hasn't changed much is the perception of employers not fully appreciating the diplomas. So long as this is the case i think it may be a big deterrent to getting people to value the courses if they think employers will overlook them because of it.