Party conference season: five messages AELP is taking to politicians

This morning, I’m heading to Birmingham for the Reform UK Conference, which kicks off several weeks of party conference activity for AELP. Over the coming weeks, we’ll also have AELP representation at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton, Labour Conference in Liverpool, the Conservative Party Conference back in Birmingham and the Green Party Conference in Brighton.

We’re going to all five because, ensuring that our members who include independent training providers, colleges, universities, public bodies, charities and specialist providers deliver 56% of apprenticeships across England alongside a huge range of other skills and employment programmes. It is important that the voice and needs of our members is heard by politicians across the political spectrum

It also feels particularly important at the moment. British politics is changing rapidly and none of us knows exactly what the political landscape will look like in three or four years’ time, or who will ultimately be making the decisions affecting our sector. Voters are less tribal, and therefore more volatile than ever before. That means whoever leads the polls today, we cannot be sure who will run the country after the next General Election which we expect to take place in Spring 2029.

Talking to all parties doesn’t mean agreeing with every policy they put forward. It means making sure that politicians understand how the skills system works in practice, hear about the experience of providers and employers on the ground and, importantly, understand the potential consequences of the decisions they make.

So, as we head into conference season, there are five main messages that we’ll be taking with us.

1. Put the whole levy into apprenticeships and employer-led training

There is no shortage of political ambition when it comes to apprenticeships. Politicians from across the spectrum regularly talk about wanting more young people to take them up and more employers to offer them, but delivering that ambition requires the funding to match.

That is why our first ask is to invest the full Growth and Skills Levy in apprenticeships and employer-led training. There remains a gap between the amount employers pay through the levy and the apprenticeship budget available to the sector, what we call the ‘Treasury top-slice’ and we think that needs to end.

If we want to increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities available, particularly for young people, we need to make sure the resources are there to pay for them. We estimate the top-slice to be around £600m next year, and believe that this should be reinvested in apprenticeships and employer-led skills provision rather than retained by the Treasury.

2. Keep apprenticeships national and employer-led

Devolution is going to be one of the big political conversations over the next few years and it will undoubtedly feature heavily during conference season. AELP supports the principle of devolution and we can see significant benefits from giving local leaders greater flexibility to respond to the particular needs of their economies.

But that doesn’t mean everything should be devolved, and we think there is a strong case for apprenticeships remaining a national, employer-led programme.

Employers, rather than government, ultimately create apprenticeship opportunities, and many operate across several different parts of the country. An employer with sites in Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol shouldn’t have to navigate three different apprenticeship systems depending on where an employee happens to work.

Our approach is therefore about capturing the benefits that greater local flexibility can bring while retaining the parts of the system that work best nationally. Apprenticeships are firmly in that latter category.

3. Make sure funding reflects what training actually costs

This probably won’t be the issue generating the biggest headlines from party conferences, but for providers it is absolutely fundamental.

The cost of delivering high-quality training doesn’t stand still. Wages rise, inflation increases other costs and providers are rightly expected to invest in their staff, technology, specialist provision, learner support and employer engagement. Yet funding rates have too often failed to keep pace with those pressures. We’re therefore calling for transparent annual increases in apprenticeship, adult and 16–19 funding rates which properly reflect the costs providers face.

There is an obvious contradiction in expecting the skills system to continually improve quality and outcomes while allowing the real value of the funding available to deliver that training to erode. A sustainable skills system needs a sustainable provider base, and funding rates are central to that.

4. Give Skills England a bigger role

We also want politicians to think about how the different parts of an increasingly devolved skills system fit together.

Our proposal is to build on the creation of Skills England by developing it into a stronger, independent UK-wide body, helping to coordinate occupational standards and work-based skills across national, devolved and local systems.

We also think employer engagement needs to be a much more prominent part of its role, particularly when it comes to SMEs. There is a tendency in skills policy to talk about increasing apprenticeship numbers as though government can simply decide how many apprenticeships there will be. In reality, an apprenticeship opportunity only exists when an employer decides to create one, recruit somebody or put an existing employee onto a programme.

Government can’t force employers to do that, but it can make the system simpler, more attractive and easier to navigate. If we want apprenticeship numbers to grow, engaging and energising employers has to be a much bigger priority.

5. Let the best providers compete

Our final ask is based on a principle which should be relatively straightforward: when government or devolved authorities procure skills provision, eligible providers should have a fair opportunity to compete for it.

We want procurement to be open, transparent and provider-neutral, with organisations judged on the quality of their provision, the outcomes they achieve and the value they offer to learners, employers and taxpayers.

The skills sector is deliberately diverse. It includes independent training providers, colleges, universities, charities, local authorities and other specialist organisations, and that diversity is one of its strengths. Decisions about who delivers provision should therefore be based on who is best placed to deliver it, rather than the legal status or ownership model of the organisation involved.

Taking the same message to everyone

Over the next few weeks there will undoubtedly be announcements from the different parties that we welcome, alongside proposals that we’ll want to challenge. That’s part of the reason we’re there.

Our role at party conferences isn’t to tell politicians what they want to hear. It’s to explain what our members are seeing on the ground, what is working, where the problems are and what we think needs to change.

Whether that conversation is taking place in Birmingham this week, Brighton, Liverpool or back in Birmingham later this autumn, the underlying message will be the same. If politicians are serious about improving productivity, growing the economy and creating better opportunities for people, then skills policy has to be a central part of that conversation.

That means having employers who are engaged and willing to invest, learners who can access high-quality opportunities and a strong, sustainable and diverse provider network capable of delivering them.

There are obviously many more issues facing the skills system than can fit onto a party conference pledge card, but these five asks would make a significant difference and they’re the messages we’ll be making to politicians over the weeks ahead.

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, Head of External Communications, AELP, on 07920 161685 or [email protected]