AELP warmly welcomes focus on skills at State Opening of Parliament

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has welcomed the incoming Labour government’s focus on skills announced through the King’s Speech at today’s State Opening of Parliament.

Skills took a prominent place in The King’s Speech which contained a commitment by ministers to reform the Apprenticeship Levy and create a Skills England body tasked with ensuring the country’s skills needs are met. Skills England will also take on functions currently carried out by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). AELP had previously argued for IfATE’s scope to be narrowed, as IfATE has suffered from mission creep due to the size and scope of its current responsibilities.

AELP has heralded the government’s agenda as an ambitious set of plans that offer an avenue towards growth. The organisation argues that skills will be central to the government’s growth missions with many of the proposed bills requiring a highly trained workforce. This includes plans announced today to get Britain building, the creation of Great British Energy, 6,500 new teachers and getting people back into work following the pandemic. Proposals for further devolution throughout England, with promises of a standardised devolution framework, will also offer an avenue for further investment in the skills needs at a local level.

Ben Rowland, AELP Chief Executive, said:

“It is positive to see that skills policy is rightly a priority for the incoming Labour Government with Skills England and reform of the Apprenticeship Levy pencilled in for the first parliamentary session. The Government has a golden opportunity to refresh how the key mechanisms within the skills system work – it must not just move the functions from IfATE to Skills England if they are going to stay exactly the same.

Growth is the overriding mission for the Labour government, and that will need a skills system which works for employers, and learners first and foremost, with providers enabled to serve them. With so many of today’s plans needing a highly trained workforce, AELP urges government to work closely with the provider community who currently deliver skills in the workplace to ensure it can deliver its ambitious agenda for growth.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) is a national membership body, proudly representing organisations operating in the skills sector. AELP members deliver a range of training and vocational learning – including the majority of apprenticeships as well as Skills Bootcamps, 16-19 Study Programme, Adult Education Budget and more.

For further information or interviews please contact Matt Strong, Communications Manager, AELP, on 07920 161685 or [email protected]