“I have a grandson who got 13 As in his GCSEs,” says Lord Baker, eyes twinkling. “You’d expect that, wouldn’t you?”

But his next statement serves as a reminder that this is not a typical proud grandfather. “Not a technical one among them, I might say. Furious, I am. Furious. He’s destined for a life of irregular employment, I suspect.”

The tone is mischievous, but the message behind it is deadly serious. Lord Baker may have just turned 82, but he still prides himself on keeping abreast of the latest employment trends and technological developments.

This should come as no surprise. While he is best known for the three years under the Thatcher government during which he served as education secretary, prior to that, Lord Baker was the first - and last - minister for information technology.

The birth of school computing

Lord Baker played a key role in computers being introduced into schools in the early 1980s. He also has clear ideas about the next big technological development that pupils should be exposed to.

“Every school in the country should have 3D printers,” he says. “I would like to see a rank of 3D printers in every comprehensive and some in primary schools. Because 3D printers are going to change everything. Everything.”

He pauses to emphasise the point. “There’s a 3D printer in Holland that is building a footbridge across a canal,” he notes. “It’s got huge robotic arms and lasers at the end of them, melting the powder as this construction slowly grows. So you’ll have a footbridge with no concrete, no metal and no human hand.”

For Lord Baker, this is only the start of the next great technological shift, which will also involve the spread of driverless cars that are already being trialled in Pittsburgh, US.

“It’s going to happen,” he continues. “When it comes to lorries in America, there are 3 million truckers. On top of that, 8 million [people working in] sandwich bars, restaurants, stopovers - they won’t be needed when you get driverless trucks going along long roads in America. Education has got to respond to this. Youngsters today are going to need a whole variety of different skills.”

This belief in the need for a fundamental shift in the nature of education has led to Lord Baker carving out a unique role for himself, steadfastly outside government, but all the while wielding a significant influence over Cabinet ministers. “I’m busier now than when I was a minister,” he says.

One-man crusade

Three decades after leaving Whitehall, Lord Baker’s impact on education policy shows no sign of waning. He founded the university technical college (UTC) movement of 14-19 schools, specialising in technical education. Today, there are 48, educating more than 11,000 students. Not that the UTC scheme has gone entirely smoothly.

He also pioneered the model of career colleges - 14-19 institutions but housed within existing FE colleges - each with a particular industry specialism. Twelve of them have opened so far.

The EBacc will severely limit learning of the creative subjects we need in a digital age

This one-man crusade for technical education has not been universally welcomed. While Lord Baker regards the former prime minister and chancellor, David Cameron and George Osborne, as his “strongest supporters”, former education secretary Michael Gove was less keen, he concedes.

“Osborne, after his first budget, totally unsolicited by me, doubled [the number of UTCs],” he recalls. “So Gove had to have them. Gove didn’t like them - he didn’t want to set up a team in his department to promote them, like he did with free schools.”

Undeterred, Lord Baker took matters into his own hands, using the Baker Dearing Educational Trust - the charity he had founded with the late Lord Dearing - as a vehicle to promote the UTC mission outside government.

“I employ 23 people now,” he explains. “Over a million and a half a year I raise for [the trust]. The government should be doing it.”

He quickly corrects himself: “I don’t mind doing it. We’re doing it better than them - quicker than the government. But it’s a very unusual practice. I’ve been allowed to do that, and got away with it.

“I’ve survived a Labour government, a coalition government and a Conservative government, and we’re still expanding.”

While Mr Gove may have been lukewarm about the UTC model, the current education secretary is more enthusiastic. Last week, Justine Greening told TES UTCs could provide a suitable route to education success for young people who did not attend grammars.

If Lord Baker is grateful for ministerial support, that’s not to say he unequivocally backs government policy, least of all the English Baccalaureate performance measure. In a report by the Edge Foundation - another charity chaired by Lord Baker - published in September, he argues that the EBacc’s “narrow academic curriculum is regressive and will severely limit learning of the technical and creative subjects we desperately need in our new digital age”.

More crucial than a core academic grounding, he tells TES, is the need to develop skills such as teamwork and problem-solving.

“It’s more important for young people to understand a computer language than to have a smattering of French or German or Spanish. If you follow this mad policy - it’s the last bit of Gove - of having academic subjects, you’re not going to have any apprentices in 16-18.”

With the government already committed to creating 3 million apprenticeship starts by the time of the next general election, this is a message ministers can ill afford to ignore.

Some 27 years after he vacated his office at the Department for Education, Lord Baker clearly still knows how to make his voice heard in the corridors of power.

“I’ve been swimming against the tide,” he says, grinning broadly. “But if you do that, you become a stronger swimmer.”

@stephenexley