Jeremy Corbyn is right about adult education, wrong about a National Education Service

Joe Wright, 19 August 2015

Joseph Schumpeter is more relevant today than ever before; it seems no industry is safe from digitalisation, automation and globalisation. Telemarketers, accountants and doctors are among a number of prime targets for a dose of creative disruption according to The Economist. Uber may seem like an existential threat to black cab drivers, but it is nothing compared to the threat of driverless cars.

Dealing with the inevitable upset of these problems is one of Britain’s biggest questions. On the one hand, young people better understand the demise of traditional careers – working your way up in a company. Helped by innovative job websites like LinkedIn, generation Y are more adaptable and happier to flit between industries and try new careers; they take a trial-and-error approach to work. But this is not enough. Older generations are still outpaced by the rate of change, and inevitably, generation Y will find their skills obsolete unless they endeavour to learn new ones. On top of the need for reskilling, many industries are already plagued by skills shortages and the unpopularity of vocational education.

Adult education – reskilling ─ will only become more important in the future, as Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign rightly points out. He wants a National Education Service to make education at all levels ‘every bit as vital and as free at the point of use as our NHS’ – a service that runs ‘from cradle to grave’. This magnitude of thinking is required, especially when considering recent policy: the Adult Skills Budget has been cut by 40% since 2010. It is due to be reduced further next year. As Helen Thomas points out in The New Statesman, the justification for these cuts – that the money has gone into apprenticeship schemes – misses the point entirely as apprenticeships are aimed at young people only.

But before even commenting on funding ─ a 2% rise in corporation tax surely cannot cover the cost of a national institution – his proposals completely overshoot the mark. As wonderful as a National Education Service might sound, it is a very costly sledge hammer to crack a walnut and seems more of a catch-all for education ailments. Tuition fees, as proved to be the case in 2010, are a very politically ripe issue, but they should be treated as separate from reskilling. Rather than a grand ambition to change education into a national institution on the scale of the NHS, Labour would be better served by looking specifically at funding for adults to reskill, at how people can retrain.

Corbyn has captured the attention of young people with his candidness, but I doubt there is real appetite for central management of education outside his support base. The last British Social Attitudes survey pointed out that young people increasingly cherish personal autonomy and choice; this trajectory doesn’t really chime with Corbyn’s claim that ‘Education is not about personal advancement but is a collective good that benefits our society and our economy’. The truth is, it is both. Localism and responsive public services are what people demand.

That is not to say his contribution hasn’t been helpful. He may well help to nudge the debate toward real state support for adult education.

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