Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden has called in Parliament for new structures and ideas to encourage teenagers to remain in education until 18, as the Government introduced the Education and Skills Bill to raise the leaving-age to 18 for all by 2017.  Speaking in the debate on the Bill in the Commons, Mr. Marsden said that it should not be about ‘dragooning them to stay on in education regardless’ but urged new experiments for ‘bright young people who feel isolated from the education process.’  

He backed more work-based and on-site learning as well as the proposed ‘studio school’ model for concentrating students on vocational skills and diploma, one pilot for which is being considered for Blackpool as part of its secondary school makeover under the Government’s multi-million pound Building Schools for the Future programme. 

Mr. Marsden and fellow Blackpool MP Joan Humble joined Blackpool Council’s Education chief David Lund and Education Cabinet member Councillor Don Clapham at a Building Schools for the Future reception in London last night, where Schools Minister Jim Knight said that consulting pupils and teachers on design and layout needed to be at the heart of the BSF programme in Blackpool and elsewhere.    I

n his Commons speech, Mr. Marsden also praised the vocational and tourism courses at Blackpool at the Fylde College which were helping to raise the skills levels and stay-on rate in Blackpool education post-16. 

He also called for the Government target of 500,000 apprenticeships by 2010 to have new types of structure – ‘they must be flexible and modular, particularly in the context of small and medium-sized businesses in Blackpool – and work for women who are re-skilling and who may need time out for caring, family and other responsibilities – I welcome the £90 million amount to encourage such business to take up apprenticeships and expand training.’