Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by John Hayes (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 27 April 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

World Skills Championship

Question: We welcome the bid to stage the world skills championship. However, the Minister knows that, as the leaked report has shown, Britain faces a skills crisis, particularly a language skills crisis. A Secondary Heads Association survey reveals that the number of post-14 pupils studying languages is plummeting and only a fifth of 15-year-olds now study a foreign language. A Government-sponsored report shows that Britain is bottom of the class in Europe for language skills; 28th out of 28 countries. In Olympic terms, the Minister is the Eddie the Eagle of language skills. Given that failure, in what specific ways did the Government take account of language skills when designing the new vocational diplomas?

Answer: The Education and Inspections Bill, which the hon. Gentleman and I are currently discussing as we take it through Parliament, will give us the opportunity to discuss the future of the national curriculum, including the importance that the Government place on encouraging young people to take up language opportunities, not least in primary schools as well as secondary schools, and to make modern foreign languages attractive and interesting for young people across the piece. I want to emphasise that if we succeed in our bid to host the world skills championship, which will attract representatives from 45 countries from across the world to London, young people from Newham will act as volunteers, teaming up with each country's team of young people to provide them with a tailor-made service, including being able to speak to them and support them in the languages of their nations. That is because we have such a rich cultural diversity of young people and nations in our capital city of London.

Secondary information