Stefan Colley responds to the Government’s announcement on new vocational pathways for students aged 14+, highlighting university outreach and widening participation teams as one of the country’s greatest untapped assets in helping young people navigate decisions about their futures.
The Prime Minister is right to say that we should value the hard hat as much as the graduation cap. The challenge now is building an education system that values every route into learning and work. A system that promotes equity, reduces disadvantage, and increases opportunity.
Young people deserve an education system that celebrates every pathway to success, whether that leads to an apprenticeship, a technical qualification, a university degree or, increasingly, all three across a lifetime.
The future is not about choosing between technical and higher education; it is about enabling movement between them throughout life. The Lifelong Learning Entitlement could fundamentally reshape how we think about learning. Someone might begin with an apprenticeship, progress to a Level 4 or 5 qualification (equivalent to the first year of university study) later earn a degree and continue developing new skills throughout their career. That is what a genuinely lifelong education system should enable.
The Prime Minister makes a valid point that “what’s holding young people back isn’t ambition, but the skills and experience to make the most of it.” In classrooms, I meet ambitious young people every week. Their aspirations are not lacking. Too often what is missing is confidence, clear pathways, meaningful opportunities and the right support at the right moment. As I wrote recently, our task is not to raise aspirations, but to enable them, and that means creating an education system that supports every learner, whatever pathway they choose.
Universities have an important role to play in making that vision a reality. As a civic university, grounded within our local community, our responsibility is not simply to recruit students, but to work with partners to create opportunity, strengthen communities and support economic growth across our region. For more than 25 years, Canterbury Christ Church University’s widening participation and outreach teams have worked with our local schools, colleges and communities to enable aspirations, improve attainment and help young people discover the pathway that is right for them. That collaborative approach continues today through the Kent and Medway Progression Federation, bringing together schools, colleges and universities to widen opportunity across the region.
The Government’s ambition to create stronger place-based outcomes is one that universities should wholeheartedly embrace. But in order to build a technical education revolution, address the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and achieve their potential, ministers should recognise one of the country’s greatest untapped assets: university outreach and widening participation teams. For decades, these teams have built trusted relationships with schools, colleges, and communities, helping hundreds of thousands of young people navigate complex decisions about their futures. For more than 60 years, we’ve met the teaching and healthcare needs of the region, expanding to support our developing tech, engineering and creative industries. By working with schools and colleges we can help to address regional skills shortages.
We have a vast evidence base of “what works” with programmes designed to engage young people. Our local place-based expertise should no longer be confined to promoting university. It should be mobilised in a national effort to support every high-quality route into learning, skills and employment.
Our ambition should be an education system that values both hard hats and graduation caps, celebrates every route into success and gives young people the confidence to keep learning throughout their lives. As we await the Department for Education’s Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group findings in January 2027, the Office for Students should give university outreach and widening participation teams a new broader remit, to widen opportunity across every high-quality education and skills pathway. Technical and academic and lifelong. Because opportunity and education should never be a single choice made once. It should be a lifetime of possibilities.
Stefan Colley is Director of Outreach and Recruitment at Canterbury Christ Church University.