With rapidly declining education participation rates among British adults and skills shortages, a high-level commission on lifelong education called this week for a “truly flexible” modular skills system that enables people to accumulate and transfer credits easily over time.

Former Conservative ministers and trade union bosses have both called for retraining rules to be relaxed

The Commission's vision is to create a world where all citizens, young people and adults, can access the skills training they need, through life.

Chris Skidmore recalls the slip-ups and opportunities that make a Conservative Party conference