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Education and Skills Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for answering the concerns in our amendments on criminality. He mentioned Canada and Australia as countries that had a form of criminal sanctions. How do the other countries manage to enforce their compulsory age? Perhaps he could write to us on that. One of the most important points in the debate was that raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Yardley, about the difference when teaching those who want to be in a classroom. I trained as a teacher and did my teacher’s training in Salford, and one of the years I took was the final year for those about to leave at 16. They did not even take their coats off. They were ready to be out the door as soon as they could. A most articulate young lady from the youth council spoke at the All-Party Group on Children and asked about the disruption that some of those young people would cause just because they did not know what they wanted to do. I still do not know what I want to do, and I hope that I am not disruptive. Jim Knight, however, answered her in exactly the same way as the Minister has answered the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, saying that this is not all about being in classrooms or education, this is about training. Is it not true that an awful lot of the training will be classroom-based? That is a real turn-off to some young people. Perhaps I may also press the Minister on the effects of the problem of having something on your record, a point that was touched on by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. All of us who took part in the Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill heard the moving story of the noble Lord, Lord James of Blackheath, and how having something on his record—not, I hasten to add, anything criminal but something to do with his learning abilities—had blighted his earlier career opportunities. It is an important point, and I would like the Minister to address it.