The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has
challenged the Opposition spokesman, Stephen Twigg, to "state which
recommendations from the Wolf review you believe we have not
implemented".
The Edge Foundation broadly welcomed the Wolf Report. We agreed
that the quality and status of vocational qualifications needed to
be improved. We agreed that young people should be encouraged to
take those vocational qualifications which best support achievement
and progression.
At the same time, we had reservations about certain aspects of Prof
Wolf's analysis and recommendations. For example, we believe she
was wrong to dismiss evidence from teachers that vocational courses
can boost some young people's motivation, achievement and
progression to further learning. We also pointed out flaws in her
analysis of work-related learning in Key Stage 4.
The Government stated publicly that it accepted all the
recommendations in Prof Wolf's report. Edge suspected that in
reality, some recommendations would be implemented only in part -
and that some would not be implemented at all.
Given the Secretary of State's challenge to Stephen Twigg, this
seems a good moment to take stock of the 27 recommendations set out
in the Wolf Report. In the a new report, we give our assessment of
whether the recommendations have been implemented, and add comments
on a number of them.
Our conclusion is that while the Government has made
considerable progress, it cannot claim to have implemented the Wolf
Report in full.
Download the report