ANDY Burnham says secondary schools will offer technical subjects including AI to pupils from age 14 in a “long overdue” move – but an AI expert claims the plans are “political garnish, not an employment strategy”.
Secondary school pupils in England could soon be offered technical subjects such as manufacturing alongside traditional academic studies under education reforms announced by new Prime Minister Burnham.
The proposals would allow pupils to begin studying these career-focused courses from Year 10, with lessons tailored to the industries that dominate their local area and aimed at creating clearer routes into employment.
The plans come as figures published earlier this year revealed that more than one million young people across the UK are not in education, employment or training – the highest total recorded in more than 12 years.
Ministers have described the overhaul as a major shift in how England’s education system prepares young people for work, although many of the practical details have yet to be set out.
Writing in The Times, Burnham said: “In the age of AI, practical and technical skills haven’t become less valuable – they’ve become more valuable than ever. Britain will need brilliant engineers, electricians and cybersecurity experts more than ever before.
“For the first time, technical education will be at the heart of our curriculum, not bolted onto the sides.”
Long overdue
Lukas Kaminskis, CEO of EdTech platform Turing College, which provides online AI and data science courses, welcomed the news.
He added: “Putting technical education at the heart of the curriculum, rather than treating it as an optional extra, is long overdue. Allowing young people to study AI and other technical subjects alongside the core curriculum from the age of 14 is a positive move. With AI, automation and digital technology reshaping the workplace, earlier exposure to these skills makes clear sense.
“However, this cannot simply be about adding a few new subjects to the timetable or teaching pupils how to use the latest AI tools. Students will need strong foundations in critical thinking, problem-solving and data literacy, as well as an understanding of the limitations and risks of the technology. These are skills that will be valuable across almost every profession, not only in explicitly technical jobs.”
Scott Gallacher, Director at Leicester-based Rowley Turton, said the government needs to back these words with real investment.
He added: “It’s encouraging to see technical education being given greater prominence. Not every young person is best served by a purely academic route, and the UK desperately needs more people with practical and technical skills. The challenge is making sure this is real technical education, not simply academic subjects with practical-sounding titles.
“I hope this doesn’t become the educational equivalent of replacing music with music technology – where the name changes but students end up with less hands-on experience. AI and advanced manufacturing are important, but so are engineering, construction, electrical, plumbing and other practical skills that employers are crying out for.
“We have tried to elevate technical education before, but too often it lacked the funding, facilities and prestige of the academic route. If this is genuinely going to transform opportunities for young people, the Government will need to back its ambition with serious, sustained investment.”
Positive reform
Nouran Moustafa, Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth, said the move is positive.
She added: “From my perspective, this is one of the very few genuinely positive reforms proposed by a Labour government. It is a very welcome and much-needed change. The education system absolutely needs revamping, and this is the right direction.
“We need to move away from pushing every pupil towards A-levels, university and expectations the job market may not meet. Schools should prepare young people for the modern economy, especially as AI replaces some roles while demand grows for engineers, electricians and cybersecurity specialists. The key benefit is that more young people could enter skilled work, earn sooner, pay tax and rely less on student loans or state support.
“However, this will only work if there is a clear route from school into apprenticeships and employment. Businesses must be encouraged to offer those opportunities, which means reviewing employment costs and regulation. Without that pathway, we risk giving young people skills but no realistic route into work.”
Kate Underwood, Founder at Southampton-based Kate Underwood HR and Training, said we need to start preparing young people to succeed in life.
She added: “I like the direction of travel, but success will come down to how it’s delivered. For years we’ve measured success by exam results and university places, while practical skills have often been seen as second best. The reality is employers need both. AI is changing the workplace, not replacing it.
“Young people will need technical skills, but they’ll also need to communicate, solve problems, work in teams and adapt. Those are the skills that build careers. The key is making sure this isn’t just another qualification. It needs genuine links with local employers, hands-on experience and teaching that reflects the real world. We’ve spent years preparing children to pass exams. It’s time we started preparing them to succeed in life.”
Political garnish
Colette Mason, AI Ethics Consultant at London-based Clever Clogs AI, said the plans are “political garnish, not an employment strategy”.
She added: “Teaching 14-year-olds about AI before AI has proved it can consistently deliver value beyond old-school logic-based automation is an odd priority for a government trying to fix a million young people being NEET. The infrastructure and cybersecurity announcements have teeth.
“The UK has a 3,800-a-year shortfall in cyber professionals, 44% of businesses lack basic cyber skills, and nearly half of organisations hit by attacks in the past year took weeks to recover. Training young people for those roles makes immediate, measurable sense.
“But ‘AI’ as a curriculum subject in 2026 is a political garnish, not an employment strategy. The technology is shifting faster than any school syllabus can keep pace with, and what counts as an AI skill today may be irrelevant by the time these students sit their first job interview. Further, Britain has a well-documented brain drain in exactly these technical fields. We invest, and they take the skills to NY, Frankfurt, or Singapore for better wages.”
Harvey Dhillon, Founder & CEO at Zmartly, said GCSEs were designed in the 1980s.
He added: “UK graduate vacancies fell 42% in a year, to 8,398 in May, the steepest annual drop on record. So the university route is not being downgraded by this government. It is being downgraded by AI, and Burnham is catching up rather than leading. I see it inside my own profession. Trainee accountants used to learn the job on ledgers, data entry and reconciliations, and software now does all three.
“The World Economic Forum ranks bookkeeping and payroll clerks among the fastest-declining jobs on earth. We have spent 40 years building an education system that produces exactly the workers AI replaces first. The GCSE was designed in 1986, for an economy that needed careful processors of information. The machines do that now. What is left is judgement, and the work a machine cannot physically do. Backing technical routes is right.”
