Post

John Burn-Murdoch
@jburnmurdoch.ft.com

New from me: Britain’s graduate earnings premium is falling, cue “too many go to university!” But non-university outcomes are also bad, cue “we must reform vocational routes!” Both miss the point: people used to think education drove economic outcomes, but the economy drives educational outcomes.

John Burn-Murdoch
@jburnmurdoch.ft.com

So we end up with a situation where UK outperforms most of its peers on education, but rather than that making everyone happy it makes everyone angry that they put in the work, acquire the skills, and end up with crap outcomes, often worse than their parents. Full piece: www.ft.com/content/1c4a...

ft.comTo fix education, fix the economy firstWeak educational outcomes often owe more to economic performance than education policy

41 reposts220 likes

illandancient.bsky.social
@illandancient.bsky.social

Can you have a look into the data to find what sort of things lead to better outcomes? If its not education in general, is it specific industries? Specific regions? Specific ethnicities? If I were a fifteen year old, what should I be doing to get a better outcome than my parents?

arcite.bsky.social
@arcite.bsky.social

This is grotesque. Decades of Tory austerity and butchering of social programs is the main culprit, not 'too much education'. The USA is a cautionary tale for all other countries.

maonu
@vem.bsky.social

he's not saying "too much education," he's disputing that thesis—read the subtitle and the second paragraph "Weak educational outcomes often owe more to economic performance than education policy"

Mel Bartley
@zetkin.bsky.social

Great article,thank you. But the technical quals in Germany do NOT have "parity of esteem" in the sense of status (as opposed to earnings) Ask any German professional family if they would be happy for their child not get into the Gymnasium 😱

tkleiser.bsky.social
@tkleiser.bsky.social

There no so such thing as a general aversion to manual (or intelectual) work in any society. People simply tend to (dis-)respect certain work and qualifications based on how much they resemble their own work and qualification. The rest is just objective incentives.