Can Burnham s vision for Manchester schools work nationally?
Ninoda.com – Can Burnham s vision for Manchester schools become a blueprint for England? Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently visited a train manufacturing site in Derby while outlining his ambitious plans for technical education reform. Two years ago, I stood at the back of a conference room in Manchester Hall, sipping coffee and watching Burnham unveil his transformative vision for Greater Manchester’s technical education system. He had announced the Manchester Baccalaureate, or MBacc, the previous year, and was now presenting its details to education and business leaders.
Understanding the MBacc framework
The details remain somewhat unclear at this stage. We know the plan involves giving pupils more vocational course options and work experience opportunities from Year 10, but practical implementation is still being refined. What is certain is that the thinking behind it mirrors the MBacc’s core ambition: providing teenagers with a clear, step-by-step pathway into technical and practical careers.
The MBacc itself can be challenging to understand if you’re unfamiliar with it. Importantly, it’s not another qualification like the T-levels and V-levels announced in England recently. Instead, it’s a comprehensive framework designed to give teenagers a “clear line of sight to good jobs” in vocational and technical sectors.
The best way to visualize it is as a flow chart that teenagers can follow from school into any technical career. This runs parallel to the more established academic route. During the July 2024 conference event, Burnham and other speakers clarified that students seeking desk jobs can follow the traditional path of GCSEs, A-levels, and university degrees.
For those pursuing practical careers, however, the landscape is considerably more complex. The MBacc aims to simplify this by spelling out which courses teenagers should study and ensuring they gain hands-on work experience. It outlines routes to seven career categories: Construction and the green economy, Creative culture and sport, Digital and technology, Education and early years, Financial business and professional services, Health and social care, and Manufacturing and engineering.
Measuring the MBacc’s success remains difficult since it’s still in its early stages. The framework seeks to guarantee every young person a clear path to good jobs by 2030. By 2035, the goal is for every young person to complete 45 days of work experience by age 19. Currently, the MBacc has been implemented across 101 secondary schools and colleges in Greater Manchester, representing approximately 40% of the total.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority reports that 1,405 young people accessed workplace experiences during its second year alone.
Time will reveal how transformative this approach proves as teenagers transition from school to work. Recent reports highlight shrinking opportunities for too many young people, with one student noting they’ve applied for more than 400 roles. The question remains: what works in Greater Manchester may not work everywhere else.
Burnham has explicitly stated his desire to expand this approach across England. “I created the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate or MBacc… to bridge the gap between our schools and our employers,” he wrote in the Times. “Now we’re taking that idea national.”
The model may well be scalable. The seven MBacc “gateways” – though designed around Greater Manchester’s “fastest-growing industries” – are actually quite broad-ranging and mirror areas already targeted by national technical education efforts. T-levels exist in construction, education, and early years, for example.
Challenges lie ahead, however. The prime minister is clear that technical and vocational education must be tied to local economies. He plans to collaborate with local leaders, employers, and schools to “identify the industries driving growth in local areas and make sure that local kids have a clear route into them.” If this is to succeed, teenagers in all parts of England – including areas without thriving industries – must not fall through the gaps.
