Letter: Britain needs more apprentices

Letter: Higher education via university is without doubt the key to the UK's prosperity.

It would seem to me that university places in the sciences and engineering etc, should be free to anyone with the academic qualification which would indicate a potential to finish a course.

Other courses which may attract overseas students etc, should be available to anyone wishing to enrol, assuming they can pay the full fee. The UK should not subsidise any courses for foreign nationals if that fee could be used for an indigenous member of society.

I am, at 63 years old, able to look back over my own lifetime and see the changes.

One of the major effects on this country was the selective employment tax in the 1960s which meant apprentices were taxed at the same rate as productive qualified engineers.

Apprentices were suddenly unaffordable.

We need to reinvent the apprentice. Someone who will qualify and achieve a level of competence and skill to ensure that British engineering will reach the pinnacle it held 100 years ago.

Whilst we are no longer a "Great" Britain or a world power there is no reason why we cannot be a centre of excellence and innovation and we can only do so with government sponsorship for industry in all areas be it chemistry, bio-engineering, mechanical engineering, computer programming or whatever.

Bottom line for me, as someone who could never envisage going to university, is that university places for those UK residents who merit it should be free.

Our country's future success depends on the people we educate to take us forward into that future.

Ignore them and consign the future to mediocrity.

Michael Wilkinson

Ketley