Best Schools - Wealthy individuals will continue to send their children to be educated in the UK regardless of Brex

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Wealthy individuals will continue to send their children to be educated in the UK regardless of Brexit a new report on British education shows.

The report ‘World Class Education’, which was released on Wednesday by Keystone Tutors and Wild Search, a tutoring and executive search firm respectively, surveyed 150 education specialists and teachers.

Will Orr-Ewing, the founder and director of Keystone Tutors said: “It is a positive portrait – with over 65% of respondents saying that the spectre of Brexit has had no impact on the attractiveness of the UK and only 16% saying that the appetite for international families to choose the UK has decreased in the past year.”

The vast majority of respondents (66%) identify “no impact” when considering how Brexit affects the attractiveness of the UK for education.

Chinese HNWIs are one of the largest demographics to send their children to British schools and universities. Writing in the report, Felix Hamilton an independent education consultant based in Shenzhen, says, “British news is not that big in China, especially compared with what people see from the US with terrorism within schools – so there aren’t many concerns about the UK from a Chinese perspective.”

The Hurun Report, a researcher of Chinese wealth, found that 80% of Chinese HNWIs plan to educate their child outside of China. Education was also the biggest reason for HNWIs in China considering emigrating abroad.

Of the 400 advisors Knight Frank interviewed for its 2018 Wealth Report, 80% said their clients are more likely to send their children to a different country to be educated.

Parents should not let their outdated stereotypes influence their child's career, leading headmistress says

Gwen Byrom, who is president of Girls School Association, urged parents to resist the temptation to intervene even if they think their children’s career ambitions are "mad".

“The big challenge for parents - speaking as a parent of teenagers myself - is that you want to send your children out into the world to be successful and happy in their career,” she said.

“But work is changing rapidly, sometimes it is hard to understand as a parent what a career might be. If you ask a parent about engineering, the stereotype is that it is dirty and involves big machines.

"Actually, it covers everything from mechanical and electrical engineering, to biological engineering - it could be building prosthetic limbs.”

Mrs Byrom, who is head of Loughborough High School said it is “quite hard” for parents to understand all of this. She told how there are now a growing number of jobs in the digital and technology industries which parents may not be au fait with.

“It is that understanding that work has changed. Young people are much more comfortable with change and the idea they will have lots of careers in their life,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“For my generation you worked out what you want to do and it defined you. Young people are much less defined by their job.”

Mrs Byrom said that a growing number of girls at the country’s leading schools are now choosing to apply for an apprenticeship after they leave schools.

The GSA asked its members whether they have seen increased interest in apprenticeships in recent years.

Around a third (30 per cent) said they had a rise in enquiries, while just over a fifth (22 per cent) said they had noticed a rise in applications.

“University still remains the aspiration of the vast majority of our students – and most certainly their parents,” she said.

Parents have a lot of influence over their child’s career choice, and should not put “undue pressure or influence” on them.

“One of the things that can be quite hard ad unnerving is to step back and let your child explore everything that might be of interest,” she said.