The political rhetoric of parity of esteem

Abstract

The vocational and academic routes that make up the English education system have different purposes, for different stakeholders, with different outcomes; they can be complementary routes but are not analogous. Consequently, calls for parity of esteem belie the fundamental intention and importance of each. While these calls have persisted for over 70 years, parity between the two routes has not been achieved. This paper questions whether the term parity of esteem is useful or simply political rhetoric. It argues that parity of esteem is unachievable when one of the routes is regarded without much esteem at all, and that political rhetoric focussing on social mobility through education, specifically higher education as a means to achieving it, actively undermines the vocational route, making parity of the routes a political pipe dream.

Getting in, getting on, going further: Exploring the role of employers in the degree apprentice to graduate transition

“…The development of DAs has led some to claim that ‘the academic/vocational divide is dead’ (Bravenboer, 2019, p. 82) in the United Kingdom, but others argue that achieving parity of esteem between academic and vocational education is being undermined by political rhetoric that favours achieving social mobility through mass higher education and not vocational routes (James Relly, 2021). In a recent study of stakeholder perceptions of DAs, Mulkeen et al (2019) argue that achieving parity of esteem between DAs and traditional academic qualifications requires educating employers about what DAs are (i.e.…”