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Apprenticeship or University? The Well-being Choice for the Next Generation

RSA Shipley Lecture
Dr Ian Johnston CB FRSA

Wednesday 27 October 2010
Newton building, NTU City site

Lecture synopsis

This lecture was held in partnership with the RSA East Midlands which has mounted an annual lecture for a number of years with a leading speaker on an issue of key importance. In 2004, to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the RSA, the lecture was named in memory of William Shipley, one of the leading initiators of the coffee house discussions in the precincts of St Paul's Cathedral.

In his lecture, Dr Johnston discussed the following points:

• The Labour administration had a vision for 2020 – probably unachievable – that 20% of school leavers would do an apprenticeship and 50% would go to university.
• The present Government is set on scrapping these targets, and on raising tuition fees.
• What route to employability would you choose or recommend to your children or grandchildren? What effect will that choice have on their well-being?

Speaker biography

Dr Ian Johnston CB, DL(rtd), FRSA, CCIM, FCIPD is currently enjoying third age rest and relaxation interspersed with being a part-time consultant helping the Young Foundation with a pathfinder project on the apprenticeship entitlement.

His main jobs have been:

• Vice-Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University 1998-2006
• Transition Chief Executive at the University for Industry / LearnDirect 1998
• Vice-Principal Sheffield Hallam University 1995-1998
• Director General Training Education and Enterprise at the Department for Education and Employment / Manpower Services Commission (MSC).

Before that he was a director of ACAS and also worked on industrial relations legislation. His PhD is on the atomic structure of metals.

He has served as a non-exec on many education-related charities and think tanks, and is particularly proud that his teams at the MSC invented NVQs, Investors in People and modern apprenticeships.