Thread by @jonpayates

Governments of all colours have talked the talk of sorting out technical education. Here's how to walk the walk.

1. Fund technical education properly: Despite the noise, we fund schools at the same level as other rich countries. But not our colleges. We need enough £ for every students to get 30 hours of learning a week not 15 and every teacher to be paid as much as a school teacher.

2. Give students enough time: Two years is not long enough for many of our students to become skilled at a craft. Countries with great systems allow three. The result? More young people get skilled jobs, better wages and live in a richer, more equal society. This requires ...

3. Better metrics: We judge colleges on students completing any course in two years. The result? They do easier ones than they should. Focus instead on how many get to A level equivalence in three years. And let that first year to be very flexible for those who need more help.

4. Aim higher: No other country in Europe trains young people in technical skills to such a low level. We spend two years training people to gcse equivalent technical skills. Europe aims for A level over their three years. We have to be more ambitious.

PS You might be surprised by the amount of opposition to this ambition. One set of employers lobbied the department against training students to a higher skill level as they would need to be paid more (!). Pretty sure higher pay is what the public want.

5. Great Courses only: Technical education means being trained to be competent at a job. If a course isn't designed (by employers) to do this, we should stop funding them. The government is reviewing this as we speak. To quote Humphrey Appleby, they should to "be brave."

6. Technical colleges: The government has underfunded colleges and expected them to do everything. The most effective organisations focus (including big companies!). Make funding conditional on colleges focusing much more on technical courses delivered over 2-3 years.

This means supporting Local Authorities and local charities to do more lower level learning and leave degrees to universities.

7. Great Leadership: There are only around 250 colleges in England. That's 250 chairs of governors and 250 head of audit committees. Let them be paid positions. DfE should support the recruiting and retaining the very best people a top priority.

8. Bring back Polys: Blair's aim of 50% of kids going to university was meant to include the type of technical mini degrees that polytechnics used to offer. Time to bring them back. This government calls them 'Institutes of Technology'. We should have one in each city.

9. Collaboration not competition: Require local groups of colleges (led by Mayors where they exist) to set a plan of what courses are needed by the local economy. DfE should be tough agreeing these but release significant capital (taken back from LEPs) to back them.

10. More Apprenticeships delivered by colleges:
The public think apprenticeships are done by young people. Not true. Only 5% of 16 year olds and 6% of 18 year olds do Apprenticeships. Colleges have the young people. Provide a fund to get colleges delivering more Apprenticeships.

That's ten steps to improve technical education in England. I'd like to see politicians take this as seriously as Brexit. (Personally, I think it will matter more).