Mince, Vince
According to the wizened seer that is Vince Cable, the problem with teachers is that ‘they know absolutely nothing about the world of work.’ I have always suspected that for all his PhD in economic integration and industrialisation, Dr Cable is actually a very skilfully disguised idiot, and I am grateful to him for proving it.
As a man who finally became an MP at the fifth attempt, aged fifty-three, he should know that if there is a profession worthy of such criticism above all others, that is politics. From the Prime Minister upwards, the Front Benches on both sides of the House are populated by people who moved seamlessly from long-term education into Party back offices and through them into safe Westminster seats, with not the faintest idea of what is happening outside their cosy little world. Second in the insularity stakes is journalism, with public relations coming third. I say all of this with authority, having worked in two of those sectors, and observed the third closely over many years.
The truth is Vince, that teachers make an invaluable contribution to our ever-evolving society, which politicians are most famous for besmirching.
Quintin Jardine's blog 
Interestingly the newspaper industry is, I see, about to embark on a ‘trailblazing’ path to recruitment – apprenticeships. On the job training combined with day release courses, then later block releases courses, were set up 50 years ago. I took on a number of youngsters straight from school and from a variety of backgrounds. They may not have known what it was like to work in industry, but they knew more about life than some of the graduates of the day. Those who stayed the course are now in top jobs on daily and weekly newspapers,magazines and PR and far more in touch with reality than some of those who spent a few years in the rarified environs of universties. None that I know of have gone into politics!!