How wonderfully well your graphics for “Vocational education” (By the numbers, 16 August) demonstrated the need for more vocational learning and real-world practical experience to be taught in our schools and further education institutions. How long would some poor trainee or student spend trying to use the spanner to tighten or loosen those perfect circles? Is it a lack of knowledge of how spanners work or the inability to draw a hexagon that is the problem here?

Graham Crerar, Former teacher of both vocational and non-vocational subjects and educational consultant for Civica.