Vocational Education – The Skills Show in Birmingham gets over 75,000 visits

In Birmingham last week, an enormous event took place. The Skills Show. Over 75,000 children, parents and teachers piled into Birmingham’s NEC to try out the widest range of skills available countrywide.

The Skills Show is not just a giant exhibition – although it might look like one, with its pop-up restaurants, manicure benches and an opportunity to bag a free pen or two. Students from colleges across the country competed in subject-specific heats to prove their mettle: some in overalls, laying decking, others flower-arranging, or some feeling the heat in the kitchen.

But best, and most topical of all, unlike anywhere else, The Skills Show proves that apprenticeships are not limited to manual labour-intensive vocations. Think of ‘apprentice’, and you might imagine a brick layer, or a plumber. It’s a stereotype, sure, but it’s one many unwittingly endorse.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Apprenticeships: ‘parents, your time has come’ – Telegraph.