Like England’s “Bazball” cricket team, the new government is setting off at a cracking pace, with almost daily announcements coming out of Downing Street.
Skills England is one of their biggest opening shots so far, because it links to three of the most high-profile elements of the Starmerite agenda, not only skills policy, but also the return of a national Industrial Strategy and the challenge of getting immigration under control. Educationally, economically and politically, the stakes are high. No wonder Sir Keir decided to launch this personally.
From a lifelong learning perspective, what does this mean? First of all, the explicit objective of a “post-16 skills system aligned to the Government’s Industrial Strategy” is very welcome - it’s something we’ve called for in several of our recent reports. In a context where public money is desperately tight, it will be vital to establish priority sectors for investment in skills. The LEI has put forward the idea that Lifelong Learning Pathways, from basic to postgraduate levels, should be the vehicle for delivering clear and accessible opportunities for learners within key sectors.
Secondly, we fully support the opening up of the Apprenticeship Levy, although there are questions about how far the money will stretch to cover all the needs. The fact that Skills England will act as gatekeeper, with “responsibility for maintaining a list of levy-eligible training” – provides some assurance that decisions will be evidence based and carefully calibrated. And although we support apprenticeships as a highly effective method of workplace training, we have long advocated that other, more flexible models, built around microcredentials and enabling learners to build up skills in “bite size” chunks, are an essential way of widening access, particularly for working adults.
But the suggestion that the functions of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education will transfer to Skills England is on the face of it an odd one. The remit given to the new body is that of strategic oversight and forward intelligence of skills needs, while IfATE is primarily a curriculum development and regulatory agency. We very much welcome the idea of a body that provides a national skills “brain” rather than becoming another operational workhorse, and Skills England should in our view not get bogged down in the mechanics of delivery.
Thirdly, the continued silence on the future of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement is odd. The role of the higher education sector isn’t mentioned at all in relation to skills, yet on the ground some of the most effective work is being done by an HE sector much more engaged in place-based vocational training than ever before, increasingly working in partnership with FE colleges. Our imminent report in partnership with Newcastle University – “Mapping the course: Regional Educational Partnerships for continuous skills development” - explores this trend in detail. It could be that a move towards a much more integrated Tertiary Education sector will be a core part of the “comprehensive strategy for post-16 education” which appears to be envisaged as a separate strand of the overall plan. The LEI – which brings together a unique mix of FE Colleges, universities and others – has consistently promoted the benefits of closer partnership between FE and HE, so in our view the sooner this issue is addressed the better.
There’s no doubt that the Labour government’s first innings for a long time has got off to a flying start, with an impressive array of attacking shots, not least in the education field. But those of us with long memories of the revolving door of previous quangos – FEFC, HEFCE, LSC, YPLA – know that there is an art to setting up new government agencies that avoid the pitfall of turning into bureaucratic bunkers. If it is to have a real impact, Skills England will need to be agile and responsive; to be an active listener to the voices of learners, employers and training providers, and to quickly establish a reputation for being impartial and authoritative.
We will watch with keen interest as the new kid at the crease settles in, hopefully for a game-changing innings.
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