Wednesday’s Budget will see the Chancellor announce the most ambitious education reforms since A-Levels were launched 70 years ago. There will be new investment of £500m a year for technical education, increasing the amount of training for 16 to 19-year-olds by 50 per cent, to 900 hours a year. 13,000 existing qualifications will be simplified into 15 “routes” linked to the needs of employers, helping to build genuine parity of esteem between academic and technical education while bolstering the UK’s productivity.