Contrary to popular belief, the main role of education is to equip young people with the skills and abilities that they need to function and develop well within society. So rather than it just being a case of putting students through the mill and spitting them out the other side with the required qualifications, education is all encompassing and should always include other aspects of learning outside of the traditional GCSE and A-Levels.
In years gone by, studying A-Levels always came with the assumption that the next step was going to be University and a Degree, but these days, that’s not the case. Many students will study up to A-Levels and then go out into the real world and start their career journey in various sectors. However, with the qualifications under their belt, should they decide in a few years time they would like to go to University, that option is still open to them.
The truly great thing about education now is that there is no right or wrong way to progress your learning, if the traditional qualifications aren’t for you, then you have the options of more vocational studies in the form of Diplomas, which give you a wider topic choice but with a more manageable study practice. So, instead of working up to exams at the end of the course, you can instead spread your learning and achievements into bite sized chunks at the end of each unit of study meaning you can boost your confidence in your ability as you go along. Even if you left school, college or even University years ago, you can still freely return to education to achieve further qualifications and expand your knowledge base.
As you can see from above, the main role of education may have changed in years gone by, but its importance for people to have and hold certainly hasn’t changed and probably won’t change for many more years to come, which makes the phrase ‘never stop learning’ so very true for all.