Kenneth Baker must take on snobs

Lord Baker of Dorking, who as Margaret Thatcher's education secretary introduced the national curriculum, is back making schools policy for the Tories once again.

His plan for University Technical Colleges is a radical approach to an flaw in the system — the snobbery that sees practical learning as inferior to academic study. This is peculiarly British: in Germany vocational education is prized. It has become an industrial powerhouse as a result, Lord Baker says.

But in Britain, if you don't get decent A-levels and go to the right university, you are likely to be seen as too stupid for a worthwhile job — or worse, pitied and patronised. It's almost impossible to find a good plumber, and one in four workers on the Olympic site are foreign.

But while Lord Baker has identified the problem, there are concerns over his answer. Teachers are right to worry about pupils being forced onto vocational routes too young. And it will take more than a few new schools to overcome the real chip on a chippie's shoulder — the sneering attitude of his middle-class masters.