Skills Sector update
Each month I’ll be giving a quick update from the Skills Sector. Here’s a quick note of what’s front of mind this month:
Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper was recently published and has provoked serious discussion on how to reshape England’s skills system. However it also leaves some significant gaps.
It confirms many directions already signalled – more focus on NEETs, flexibility, and specialisation – while introducing one major new concept in “V Levels”. However, the absence of clear detail on the Growth & Skills Levy, Foundation Apprenticeships and Apprenticeship Units is striking, and will need addressing in the forthcoming Budget.
There’s also too little on employer engagement and the central role of Independent Training Providers in making reform work on the ground. Above all, success will depend on co-creation: the Government’s ambitions can only be achieved with the active input and partnership of those delivering skills every day.
Keep Britain Working report
How much would you spend to save £1m?
Especially if you also enabled someone to earn £1m more over their lifetime? And what would you spend it on?
Those are the questions for DWP in effect posed by Sir Charlie Mayfield's Keep Britain Working report, published earlier this month.
According to the paper, the cost to the State of someone who becomes NEET at the age of 22 costs £1m - and that person will, in addition, miss out on £1m of earnings. Not everyone who becomes NEET stays NEET, and not every intervention will stop someone being NEET.
But if the Chancellor and her team is umming and err-ing about how much to put into funding 16-19 study programmes, Foundation Apprenticeships and incentives for employers to give a young person their first chance - this is the figure that should concentrate minds.
One of the best ways to reduce NEET numbers is Level 2 and 3 apprenticeships, that create the vital up flow through the labour market, drawing in others from below by freeing up the entry level jobs that others can then use.
The Autumn Budget
Ahead of the Autumn Budget we are making the case for skills investment to be at the heart of economic growth and fiscal stability.
Apprenticeships and adult learning deliver rapid returns in productivity, tax receipts and social mobility – which is why our “Baker’s Dozen” of recommendations sets out practical fixes. This includes raising the apprenticeship programme budget in line with the levy paid by employers, providing incentive payments for apprenticeship starts with SMEs, establishing clear accounting mechanisms to accurately measure returns on skills investment and more.
In short: the Chancellor must act decisively if skills are to become the engine of economic renewal. You can read our full submission here.
Ben Rowland, AELP Chief Executive Officer
