Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on the bolstering of trades, axing of Fees Free in Budget 2026

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Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on the bolstering of trades, axing of Fees Free in Budget 2026 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the budget good news for high schoolers and yesterday's budget,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: but only if they don't plan to go to university
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: because the government is taking the funds from scrapping the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: third year fees free and they're putting it towards doubling
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the amount of trade training opportunities. So they'll now be
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: twenty thousand placements over the next four years. So joining
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  Speaker 1: me now is the principal of Darfield High School, Andy England.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Andy. Iow, so more trade students,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: twenty thousand placements sounds good?
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  Speaker 2: It does. Yes, there'll be some students this morning kill
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  Speaker 2: me for saying this because they are going to miss
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: out on the university thing, as you said. But I've
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: been looking forward for this for a long time. There
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: was a recent paper by Michael Johnson which advocated for
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: just scrapping the cap on places because really every student,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: we want every student to be able to access what's
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: right for them. But trade academies are a fantastic model
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and I am really excited to see this.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Is it worth it when you consider that the cuts
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to fees free, that the university is now a little
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  Speaker 1: less attractive than trades.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we'll have their data, common sense, and a
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: lot of the students I've spoken to would say that
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: some students who've been sitting on the fence of going
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to university are actually really hit by that. And we
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: obviously do need students going through university. But I've been
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: one of the people who's looked at our system and thought,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: you know, for many years we've been gearing school towards
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: those people going to university, and I've often advocated for
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: rebalancing the way that we invest in students. And I
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: have to say, I think this is going to really
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  Speaker 2: fit for a lot of students trades academies as they
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: work so well in that senior school when you've got
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: young people wanting to try out polytechnics or trades training
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  Speaker 2: and still stay in school because they're still young, and
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  Speaker 2: it just really fits that model.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, the first thing I saw, the first criticism I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: saw of it was on the Telly last night, and
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  Speaker 1: there was somebody saying there is an absence of politics
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and rural areas. If you poly takes sixty miles away,
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  Speaker 1: you know who's going to train you, So obviously they
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: see it. There'll be a need for local tradees to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: take on early trade education and rural areas, and do
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: you think those tradees need to be upskilled to learn
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  Speaker 1: how to teach the kids who have come straight from
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  Speaker 1: high school.
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  Speaker 2: That would be my dream. We're in a rural area too,
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  Speaker 2: not quite sixty ks from polytechnics. And one of the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: great things with trades academy systems is that the transport
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  Speaker 2: to the provider is paid for as part of the system,
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  Speaker 2: so it makes it a lot more accessible. It also
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: means that providers can come to the students who need
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the training. But yes, my dream would be that we
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: actually invest in the trades who are doing the providing
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: as well. But don't get me wrong, this is a
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: great way forward, great step forward. To be honest, I'd
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: love to see universities also in captured invest but that's
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: an entirely different conversation. But as a start, this is great.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: The extra places for students who are going to have
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: left school with nothing, that's also a big advantage. There's
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a growing number of those students around the country, so
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: to see some folks I'm getting those students into some
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: form of training is excellent.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Andy Englen, thank you so much for time this morning.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Andy is the Darfield High School principal. For more from
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