Department for Children, Schools and Families : Publications : 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper

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Foreword by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

I am proud that my first White Paper as Secretary of State should be on the issue of education for our 14 to 19 year-olds.

The reforms I set out here are of vital importance. They are vital to our economy - equipping young people with the skills employers need and the ability to go on learning throughout their lives. They are vital for social justice - giving us the chance to break forever the historic link between social background, educational achievement and life chances that have dogged us as a nation. And most of all they are vital to each and every individual young person, whatever their needs and whatever their aspirations.

Today's teenagers are tomorrow's parents, entrepreneurs, public servants and community leaders. So the stakes could not be higher. I believe that every child and every teenager has equal worth. We owe it to them to give them the chance to show what they can do, to make the most of their talents, to reach their potential. And the key to doing that is to design a system around them - based on high standards, on choice and on meeting individuals' needs and aspirations.

To deliver that system will take determination. It will take commitment. It will take the hard work of teachers, lecturers, other education professionals, employers, parents and all who work in or with our schools and colleges. It will require breaking down the artificial barriers between academic and vocational education. It will mean building on all that is good in our system and reforming what is not working.

The White Paper sets out the detail of our reform programme, building from the excellent work of Sir Mike Tomlinson and his Working Group on 14-19 Reform and from the work of the successful school and college partnerships we are already seeing in local communities. It charts a 10-year reform programme and the milestones needed to achieve it. But more than those details and those milestones, it sets out a vision of what we want for children and teenagers - what we want them to learn, the skills we want them to acquire, but above all the values we want them to have.

The purpose of the education system is to help each and every individual reach their potential. This White Paper sets out how we will build a system of 14 to 19 education that will do just that. A system that we can be proud of. And one that gives every young person the opportunities they need and deserve.

RT HON Ruth Kelly MP - signature