An ill-defined skills agenda is a high-risk sleepwalk into the future

We can all agree with that, however, the FE/HE sector has still not managed to overcome fundamental structural barriers for individuals to achieve this: flexible credit accumulation and module recognition from other institutions; something I have advocated all those years. It would be good if the University of Hull with its local/regional partnership network could take the lead.

The problem is a fundamental mismatch between FE and HE plus the fantasy that all institutions have equal standards. There is no point in having a credit transfer system when those transferring would not cope with the demands of the receiving institution. Moreover, STEM subjects build over the years and so must be studied in the correct order. There is also the issue of advances in technology that would make a degree of less use if it extends over too great a period. It is true that the fundamentals and many principles remain the same but it is essential to have knowledge of the state of the art and direction of travel.

Thank you Professor Lea for such a powerful argument for the transformative power of education. In such a rapidly changing world we must encourage life- long learning and explain why it does not always have to be a linear, highly stratified experience. To achieve the economic goals of our leaders, the aspirations of fairness and equity of our people and to safeguard our mental well-being we need to become a learning society.

“help the country to invent new industries and contribute to humanity’s great challenges.” Could the humanities break science's grip on a major avenue of wisdom--what it means that we evolved--and bring entire new industries into existence? More at evolutionforthehumanities.com, "New Meaning..." Pie in the sky? Or a major once-in-a-century challenge?