Education and Skills Act 2008

The Education and Skills Act 2008 (c 25) is an Act of the Parliament for England which added additional requirements for those post school leaving age (16), to be in either full-time (or part-time) work, or further education (ie. college) when aged 16-17. The Act does not apply in Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales, in those nations the school-leaving age remains around 16, without additional requirements (depending on the person's birthday).

Education and Skills Act 2008^[1]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about education and training; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2008 c 25
Introduced by	Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Commons) Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools and Learners (Lords)
Territorial extent	England
Dates
Royal assent	26 November 2008
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

This part of the Act has been described as "exhum[ing] fundamental questions about the purposes of statutory state education".^[2] There was some criticism, based on the theory that the government wanted to decrease unemployment figures by removing this group of young people from those looking for work.^[3] It was certainly intended to bring down the NEET figures.^[4]

The Act also introduced a number of other changes including the right of choice and appeal for young people regarding their sixth form college, and placing duties on the Learning and Skills Council regarding payment and finance of courses for both children and adults.^[5]