经济学人:英国的继续教育 技术升级(1)

 　　Britain 英国

　　Further Education: Technical upgrade 继续教育：技术升级

　　The government turns its attention to the dire¹ state of vocational training. 英国政府开始关注职业教育行业的糟糕现状投入更多金钱。

　　Budget cuts are never pleasant. 削减预算从来都不使人满意。

　　Yet the past few years have been particularly hard, says Gerry McDonald, the chief executive of New City College in east London. 东伦敦的新城市大学总裁Gerry McDonald称过去的几年非常难熬。

　　His institution is the result of a merger² of three local colleges that have pooled resources in the past year partly to cut costs. 他的教育机构来自于三家当地大学的合并，一部分是为了削减成本而集中资源。

　　From April, it will serve around 4,000 16- to 18-year-olds (mainly studying full-time) and 15,000 adults (mainly part-time) . 自四月份起，在该学校接受教育的大概有四千名十六至十八岁的学生(主要为全日制)与一万五千名成人学生(主要为半日制)。

　　Annual rounds of redundancies have “become a way of life”, Mr McDonald sighs. McDonald 叹气道，每年一次的裁员 “已经成为一种生活方式了”。

　　Since 1990, funding for primary and secondary schools has soared. 从1990年开始，对中小学的资金支持飞涨。

　　Universities have been given the right to raise their incomes by levying³ tuition fees on students. 大学也已可以向学生收取学费以增加收入。

　　But there has been no such increase in cash for further education, the mostly vocational courses for over-16s. 但是对于继续教育机构来说，并没有类似的收入增长，其中大多数为十六岁以上人群提供职业课程培训。

　　On March 8th Philip Hammond, the chancellor⁴, turned his attention to the sector⁵. 3月8日，总理Philip Hammond 把他的注意力放在了这个行业。

　　After announcing funding to pave the way for new selective grammar schools, a controversial objective of the prime minister,  他宣布逐步推进支持步伐，一位备受争议的首相，在宣布为促进新的选择性文法类学校的发展提供资金支持后，

　　he promised a big injection of cash for further education and confirmed a shake-up of the chaotic⁶ way in which it is organised. 他承诺将继续为教育投入大笔资金并坚称会平息组织中存在的混乱现象。

　　By 2022 colleges will get an additional ￡500m ($600m) a year, a 19% increase in the 16- to 19-year-old vocational-education budget. 在2022年之前，大学机构每年将额外获得五亿英镑(约六亿美元)，给16至19岁群体职业培训课程的预算增加了19%。

　　Britain has historically put little emphasis on further education. 英国人有不重视继续教育的历史传统。

　　In 2012 it placed 16th out of 20 member countries of the OECD in a ranking of the proportion of 20- to 45-year-olds who finished education with a vocational qualification. 在2012年经合组织20个会员国的20至45岁人群完成职业资质认证比例排名里，英国位列十六。

　　That may help explain why productivity growth has stalled, and why British youngsters are less literate⁷ and numerate⁸ than their peers in other rich countries. 这或许有助于解释为何英国生产率增长停滞，为何英国年轻人相对于其他富裕国家的同龄人而言文化与数学素养更低。

1 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

2 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

3 levying   

征（兵）( levy的现在分词 )； 索取； 发动（战争）； 征税

参考例句：

• The high tax will be given levying to the foreign country car. 对外国汽车要予以征收高税。
• Levying estate income tax are considered to be goods tax. 遗产税是在财产所有者死亡后所征收的税。

4 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

7 literate   

n.学者；adj.精通文学的，受过教育的

参考例句：

• Only a few of the nation's peasants are literate.这个国家的农民中只有少数人能识字。
• A literate person can get knowledge through reading many books.一个受过教育的人可以通过读书而获得知识。

8 numerate   

adj. 数学基础好的；v.数，列举

参考例句：

• Your children should be literate and numerate.你的孩子应该会识字算数。
• Business graduates must also be numerate,because most degrees will have courses in quantitative methods and statistics.商科专业大学毕业生也必须具备良好的数学能力，因为大部分学位涉及定量研究法和统计学领域课程。