Well, I never; but then, I did!

The name Kenneth Baker will not register with those who think that history was yesterday and the day before was, like, boooooring. However, his connection to everyday life through the creation of Baker days, those days of the year when School teachers are removed from the classroom to learn about how to record the fact that the kids have missed a days school time without making the school fail its Ofsted inspection, will perhaps bring about a sign of recognition. It was Kenneth Baker, whose time in Government was made possible by him being given a succession of safe Tory seats, who, as Home Secretary, introduced the Dangerous Dogs Act and sat through a period of prison riots and unrest, but it was during his three years as Education Secretary, when he introduced the National Curriculum , for which he should apologise the most. The fact that he was made a life Peer and chose the name Lord Baker of Dorking was apt but I fear that in his 76th year, the dork is back, with new plans that will, in his words, revolutionise education.

Speaking at the Careers Academies UK Conference recently, Lord Baker, announced the plans he has been working on to revitalise education. The answer, according to Baker, is the creation of University Technical Colleges, UTCs, which would provide less of an academic education and more of a technical one. UTCs would have 6-800 students, aged 14 to 19, who will be taught how to do things and will mix time in the real world at work with time in the classroom. If you do a degree, says Baker, you don't do bricklaying, you study bricks, whereas industry wants people with skills. The plans for UTCs have cross party support and JCB will open the first in the Autumn, focusing on Engineering and Business training.

UTCs seem to be such a bloody good idea that I am amazed that no one thought of them sooner, but then my aged grey cells reminded me that I studied at two Colleges of Technology in the late 60s and 70s, before they were allowed to join the rush to call themselves Universities. There seems to be only one flaw in Baker's new idea. the colleges will be mainly sponsored by Government and will involve industry in devising the curriculum and proving placements, but the universities will also be involved, as monitors. Let's hope that letting the universities have a seat round the table won't mean that the courses will be dumbed down and overpriced. We can do with a few more bricklayers and a few less graduate surfers.