At least 40 per cent of pupils should take high-quality vocational training that leads directly to a job to cut the youth unemployment rate and boost economic competitiveness, according to Tim Oates, director of research at the Cambridge Assessment exam board.

The thinking behind this is that economies more efficient than the British do have a more vocational option incorporated with their education and they are doing much better. I can easily find another reason why more youngsters should be encouraged to get training for a job; we need more plumbers, farriers and carpenters than we do brain surgeons or Nobel laureates. A young man and an apprentice to my farrier said to me: "Why do I have to muddle through college first before I can start a 5 year long training to become a farrier when I could have started much earlier? I never enjoyed analysing Shakespeare in English anyway." I cannot but agree.