Professor Alison Wolf
Alison Wolf is Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London, where she directs the MSc in Public Services Policy and Management. In March 2011 she completed an official review of vocational education for England’s Secretary of State for Education, whose recommendations were accepted in full; and she is currently advising the government on implementation. Alison Wolf is a visiting professor at the Institute of Education, London, and an academic member of King’s College Council. She won the Work Foundation’s feature of the year award in 2006 for her article on “Working Girls”, and the Sam Aaronovitch memorial prize in 2008. Publications include Does Education Matter? Myths about education and economic growth. (Penguin 2002); and An Adult Approach to Further Education (IEA 2009).
The Wolf Report: - implications for UK qualifications - Professor Alison Wolf
In March 2011, Alison presented the Secretary of State for Education (England) with a review of vocational education for 14-19 year olds. She had been invited to prepare this report in September 2010, with a remit as follows:
To consider how we can improve vocational education for 14 – 19 year olds and thereby promote successful progression into the labour market and into higher level education and training routes.
The report made 27 recommendations, which have been accepted by the UK government either in full or, in a couple of cases, in principle.
One of the points made in the report was that education and training policy had, over the previous decades, concentrated excessively on qualifications and qualification reform; and that this was a mistake. Nonetheless, qualifications are, of course, at the centre of education for 14-19 year olds, who are making transitions within education, and into the labour market. A number of the recommendations therefore deal with qualifications directly, while other do so indirectly. And while the review dealt only with England, the unified nature of UK higher education and labour markets makes it of relevance beyond England’s borders.