【经济学人】投入更多金钱只是一个开始丨2017.03.09丨总第838期

BUDGET cuts are never pleasant. Yet the past few years have been particularly hard, says Gerry McDonald, the chief executive of New City College in east London. His institution is the result of a merger of three local colleges that have pooled resources in the past year partly to cut costs. From April, it will serve around 4,000 16- to 18-year-olds (mainly studying full-time) and 15,000 adults (mainly part-time). Annual rounds of redundancies have “become a way of life”, Mr McDonald sighs.

削减预算从来都不使人满意。东伦敦的新城市大学总裁Gerry McDonald称过去的几年非常难熬。他的教育机构来自于三家当地大学的合并，一部分是为了削减成本而集中资源。自四月份起，在该学校接受教育的大概有四千名十六至十八岁的学生（主要为全日制）与一万五千名成人学生（主要为半日制）。McDonald 叹气道，每年一次的裁员 “已经成为一种生活方式了”。

• redundancy :n.      裁员; 过多，过剩; 冗长; （机器的） 多余度;

Since 1990, funding for primary and secondary schools has soared. Universities have been given the right to raise their incomes by levying tuition fees on students. But there has been no such increase in cash for further education, the mostly vocational courses for over-16s (see chart).

从1990年开始，对中小学的资金支持飞涨。大学也已可以向学生收取学费以增加收入。但是对于继续教育机构来说，并没有类似的收入增长，其中大多数为十六岁以上人群提供职业课程培训。

On March 8th Philip Hammond, the chancellor, turned his attention to the sector. After announcing funding to pave the way for new selective grammar schools, a controversial objective of the prime minister, he promised a big injection of cash for further education and confirmed a shake-up of the chaotic way in which it is organised.(读者试译句)By 2022 colleges will get an additional £500m ($600m) a year, a 19% increase in the 16- to 19-year-old vocational-education budget.

3月8日，总理Philip Hammond 把他的注意力放在了这个行业。他宣布逐步推进支持步伐，“期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析。”在2022年之前，大学机构每年将额外获得五亿英镑（约六亿美元），给16至19岁群体职业培训课程的预算增加了19%。

Britain has historically put little emphasis on further education. In 2012 it placed 16th out of 20 member countries of the OECD in a ranking of the proportion of 20- to 45-year-olds who finished education with a vocational qualification. That may help explain why productivity growth has stalled, and why British youngsters are less literate and numerate than their peers in other rich countries. Employers moan that skilled workers are scarce, especially in industries like engineering and IT. Tougher immigration restrictions, likely to be introduced when Britain leaves the EU, will exacerbate skills shortages.

英国人有不重视继续教育的历史传统。在2012年经合组织20个会员国的20至45岁人群完成职业资质认证比例排名里，英国位列十六。这或许有助于解释为何英国生产率增长停滞，为何英国年轻人相对于其他富裕国家的同龄人而言文化与数学素养更低。雇主们抱怨道技术熟练工数量不足，尤其是工程设计与信息技术等行业。当英国脱离欧盟后可能会采取更加严格的移民限制，到时候技术工人缺乏的问题将会加重。

The sector has struggled with shoddy qualifications. The six in ten 18-year-olds who do not take A-levels, academic school-leaving qualifications, are poorly served by a hotch-potch of some 13,000 courses of varying quality. In 2015 the government commissioned Lord Sainsbury, a Labour peer, to examine the state of technical education in England. His report, published last year, despaired that a wannabe plumber had to choose between 33 qualifications, offered at three different levels, by five awarding organisations. Many of the courses are too basic to be much use.

继续教育行业已经在与假冒伪劣的资质认证作斗争。没有拿到等级A（毕业的学历证书）的18岁学生里有十分之六的人得到的是某些质量参差不齐的一万三千门课程里大杂烩，并没有得到很好的教学服务。2015年英国政府委任Sainsbury勋爵视察英格兰的技术教育现状。在他去年发布的报告中，绝望地称一个合格的水管工必须从来自五家授予机构的三个不同等级的三十三个职业证书中做出选择。其中许多课程太过于基础以至于没多大用处。

Mr Hammond now aims to clear up this muddle. Following Lord Sainsbury’s recommendations, the government will introduce 15 subject areas, grouping together topics such as social care or transport and logistics. Students will work towards “T-levels” (for “technical”), developed with firms. Organisations will compete for the right to award the qualification. The extra funding will provide more work placements. And those who go on to take degree-equivalent qualifications will have access to loans to cover the cost of living.

Hammond现在目的是清理这些混乱的局面。英国政府采纳了Sainsbury勋爵的建议，将引入十五个学科领域，将例如社会护理或运输物流等主题组合在一起。学生们将由企业培养，朝向“T等级”工作（T表示“技术”）。各个机构将通过竞争来获得授予资质的权力。额外的资金将提供更多的工作实习。并且那些继续获取同等学历将能获得贷款来应付生活成本。

Some would rather the reforms offered a broader education to those going down a vocational path, with more of a focus on ensuring competency in maths and English. But most agree that the first task is simply to resuscitate the sector.

一些人宁愿改革为那些在求职之路上失败的人提供更多的教育机会，更多关注数学和英语能力的培养。但是，大多数人认为，首要任务就是要去复兴继续教育这个领域。

翻译 ▍Neo,下罗小柜员，陌上

审核 ▍白夜叉

编辑 ▍张哼哼