For our two sons, we concentrated on the aim of jobs at 16. Through work experience week in Year 10, vocational night school courses in Year 11 and unpaid holiday work they both had apprenticeships and vocational qualifications by the time it came to take GCSE exams.

Both boys then gained GCSE grades spanning the BC-level in just about every subject, but entering the world of work right away was paramount. Perhaps getting out of the Great British Education System is another less politically correct way of putting it.

Now, my younger son is in his third year as a plumbing apprentice with a good company, and all the indications are that he will soon be earning a substantial income without having seen a UCAS form. If, while young, he wants to travel, he can do it with a skilled trade as a ticket; a popular move I would think with the antipodean work permit people.

The ingrained British social and political aversion towards getting one’s hands dirty to earn a living manifested itself in vast amounts of “key skills” curriculum time in my son’s plumbing day release course. This was wasteful for a lad with a clutch of good GCSEs, but perhaps the Government thinks only academically bereft types choose to do such a thing as plumbing.

Current post-16 provision for most youngsters seems to revolve around a swamp of college courses or A-levels after, in many cases, mediocre performances at GCSE. This is encouraged by the bums on seats philosophy in schools and colleges and a misapprehension on some parents’ part about their son’s or daughter’s actual academic ability.

Jobs are there to be had if you are young and want to work - all you have to overcome is the snobbery. An able, part-qualified and working 18-year-old care home assistant is worth 20 older graduates with a BA in indefinite studies to whom fresher’s week is a way of life.

Obviously, for the academically able, the traditional A-level plus university route is there if you want to be a doctor, vet, scientist, lawyer or engineer. But wasn’t that always the case?

Colleagues in schools invariably made the assumption that any offspring of mine would naturally have been at college or university full-time, on a gap year, or backpacking before starting yet another course. But then, staffrooms are full of people pontificating about the cost of their children’s extended sojourn in the education system while complaining that they can’t get anybody to come and mend the guttering.

In our elder son’s case, after four years with an excellent company in the construction industry with day release to gain an HNC in civil engineering, he has just left to start a university course in construction management. He has been a taxpayer, so there are no tuition fees.

Choosing a course within travelling distance from home means he doesn’t have to rush off into expensive accommodation. Having been employed full-time, he has saved up a considerable sum of money, and he has his own car, so he is largely self-supporting. Because he has a good, relevant HNC, he can start in the second year of the four-year course. And if funds run low, well-paid work is available to him on a casual basis within the industry.

As long as it’s under these circumstances, perhaps I can just about come to terms with having a full-time higher education student in the house.

Phil Harley is a part-time supply teacher in primary schools