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1.5m learners beat their skills gremlins

2007-02-20 00:00:00

Over 1.5 million people have gained crucial basic skills qualifications through the Government's Skills for Life strategy, hitting a key target set back in 2001, Skills Minister Phil Hope announced today.

Skills for Life provides free literacy, language and numeracy tuition for adults in England who have skills below Level 2 (broadly equivalent to a GCSE at grades A* - C.) Since the launch of the strategy in 2001, 4.7 million adults have taken up 10.5 million Skills for Life learning opportunities with 1,619 000 learners achieving their first Skills for Life qualification in literacy, language or numeracy. This figure includes achievements by over 138,000 offenders.

The Government has a public service agreement (PSA) target to improve the skills of 2.25 million adults by 2010, with an interim target of 1.5 million by 2007, measured by the number of learners achieving their first national Skills for Life qualification in literacy, language or numeracy.

Minister for Skills, Phil Hope, said:

"Meeting one of our major skills targets is fantastic news and I would like to congratulate all the learners and staff across the country whose hard work has made this possible. Over 1.6 million adults have improved their skills and transformed their lives, taking vital steps towards better employability and social inclusion.

"The recent Leitch Report on skills highlighted how good literacy and numeracy skills are essential for life and work. Improving your skills can help you earn more and will enable you to progress to further learning, as well as making you more confident and more able at home. Any adults wanting to improve their skills should call our free helpline on 0800 66 0800 and find out about free courses in their local area."

"Our Skills for Life strategy has been a huge success since it was launched in 2001. We introduced the first ever national learning infrastructure for adult skills, including national curricula and standards for literacy, language and numeracy.

"Our Get On campaign - featuring the well-known Gremlin characters - is one of the most well-known Government campaigns ever produced. It has raised awareness of the basic skills issue, tackled the stigma around admitting problems in literacy and numeracy and encouraged thousands of adults to improve their skills. We continue to work with our partners in the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK), and the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) to ensure that Skills for Life provision is accessible, of high quality and delivered by a fully professional workforce."

Skills for Life courses are funded by the Learning and Skills Council. Chief Executive of the LSC, Mark Haysom, said:

"This is a significant milestone for the Government, the LSC and all our partners, and a credit to all 1.6 million learners. We should all be rightly proud that our collective efforts to meet this initial target milestone have paid dividends. It is now vital that this momentum continues so we stay on track to achieve the 2010 target.

"This is really good news for all those adults who now have the skills to do their job better and the real chance to progress and improve their lives and their career chances."

'My pipe dream has now come true'

2008-02-07 00:00:00

When Fiona Campbell contacted the employment project Working Links, she had been out of work for a year and was claiming incapacity benefit.
A year later the 36-year-old mother from Paisley runs a successful childcare business.

As a report highlighted the problems of social deprivation in the Glasgow area, she spoke to the BBC News Website about how she turned her life around. A year ago, I was suffering from depression, anxiety, diabetes, multiple allergies and I'm dyslexic.

So I had quite a few health problems and despite a having a background in childcare, I found a lot of barriers to getting back into work.

Employers took the view that all these problems would affect my attendance, so I thought there was no hope of me getting a job.

I was stuck in the house and the more I sat there, the more I concentrated on my health issues and the worse they got. There wasn't anything for me to do - I had very little confidence.

I was also finding it difficult to find childcare for my own son, Lewis, who's now aged five.

'Huge demand'

In my son's school there had been an out-of-school care project, which unfortuately had to close due to a lack of funding. Four others in the area also closed for the same reason.

A lot of parents were unable to get back into employment or education because there wasn't affordable childcare in the area. So there was a huge demand for that type of service.

I heard about Working Links by chance. I was walking home from the hospital, saw a poster advertising the project in the window and walked in the door.

They were such a friendly, homely team - very welcoming. I found most agencies I had dealt with previously very negative, they said the childcare business was a pipe dream.

But Working Links just sat me down and listened.
They put me in touch with other agencies that could help with funding and interviewing staff. I had knowledge of childcare - but businesswise I didn't know anything.

I was very lucky to be able to open my own service, assisted by support and contacts from Working Links and JobCentre Plus.

It wasn't a garden of roses, there were a lot of challenges along the way. We had to prove ourselves as a business and I had to prove myself as a person - that I was capable of doing this.

When there was a problem Working Links would listen and help me lay out my options. They didn't do the work for me but supported me to keep going with it.

We've been up and running for five months now, we've got ten staff and we've got a big waiting list so we're now looking to open a second service.

We've now got 47 families using our service. It's enabled them to go into further education and employment and to expand their abilities and careers. It's very rewarding in that way.

I'm still in touch with Working Links, we provide volunteering opportunities and work experience for their clients now, so it's gone full circle.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Through Working Links I started my own business in childcare and out-of-school care in Paisley.

Big ambitions, but little new funding

2008-02-29 00:00:00

It could be the start of something big – very big. But “the dollars are less than we hoped for”, said a senior vice-president of one of the potential US bidders for Britain’s welfare-to-work market, as it became clear that the first round of contracting in this brave new world would involve no real extra money.

His qualified reaction was echoed by others. “The language and the vision are fine,” said Neil Bentley, the CBI employers’ organisation’s director of public services, of the government’s new commissioning framework for such services. “But we haven’t got there yet.” The first application will merely replace the existing, and struggling, New Deals for the unemployed with a more performance-based framework. The net value of the contracts will be roughly the same as existing ones. To create the “multi-billion pound” industry that the Freud report envisaged – and make inroads into the 2.6m people on incapacity benefit, for example – James Purnell, work and pensions secretary, has to win a battle with the Treasury.

At the heart of the dispute is whether the private sector should be paid back over several years out of the benefit savings from getting large numbers back into work. This contrasts with the current position, whereby payments for each successful case are fixed and there is an effective cap on the numbers that will be paid for.

This funding change was a main recommendation of the Freud report, which Mr Purnell said on Thursday “we are committed to implement”.

The Treasury, however, worries it could prove horrendously expensive. It fears that, with no curb on numbers, it would end up paying private providers to get into work people who would have got there anyway – so-called deadweight costs.

The department’s discussions with the Treasury are said to be taking place “in a warmer atmosphere” than they were. Mr Purnell said: “We are still talking through the details.”

Nonetheless, his officials believe the incentives in the new contracts will result in more people re-entering the workforce for the money spent. In time, that would strengthen the argument both for more direct spending and for the big change in the funding mechanism that Freud recommended, they argue.

Keith Faulkner, managing director of Working Links and chairman of the CBI’s welfare-to-work panel, said: “I am sure we will get there [to the Freud proposal] at some stage, because the prize [getting hundreds of thousands more people back into work] is so huge.

“We need to show these new-style contracts work over the next year or two, get through the next election, and then have a really interesting discussion with the new government – and of whatever political colour, because in England there is little difference between the parties on the need for greater use of the voluntary and private sectors.

“A little bit more patience” was required, he said. “But we are going in the right direction.” By Nicholas Timmins Public Policy Editor

Indeed, according to Department for Work and Pensions officials, planned spending on private and voluntary provision of all forms of welfare to work services is set to rise by only about £150m ($298m) a year over the next three years from its current £1bn a year. The schemes cover lone parents, people on incapacity benefit and the unemployed.

With its administrative budget falling by 15 per cent in real terms over the same period, the department – whose financial difficulties were underlined by Thursday’s disclosure that it needed to cut another 12,000 jobs and close 200 more offices to make ends meet – cannot afford to contract for much bigger welfare-to-work programmes.

Carter & Carter calls in administrators

2008-03-10 00:00:00

Training company Carter & Carter is calling in the administrators, 10 months after its founder was killed in a helicopter crash.

Carter & Carter said today that negotiations with its banks to restructure its debts had collapsed. This left the company, which runs government-funded vocational training programmes, with "no viable alternative" to meet its cash needs.

"The company will seek to work closely with the administrators, the Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Work and Pensions to minimise the effect on learners, clients and employees," it said.

Once a rising star of the stock market, Carter & Carter's fortunes have deteriorated rapidly since the helicopter crash on May 2 in which Phillip Carter, his son Andrew, family friend Jonathan Waller, and pilot Stephen Holdich all died.

It issued two profit warnings during the summer, caused by its failure to win a series of government training contracts.

Shares in the company were suspended in October following a third profit warning, by which time they had fallen to 82.5p from around £11 last May.

Then, it also admitted that it was "assessing the recoverability of certain current assets" and "the accuracy of certain other revenue streams in the business". Graeme Wearden

Vocational training quango to be closed

2008-03-18 00:00:00

England’s biggest quango is to be killed off “by 2010”, with local authorities taking the lion’s share of its £11bn annual funding.

The demise of the Learning and Skills Council, responsible for all vocational training, is another victory chalked up by local government since Gordon Brown became prime minister. The news reflects the much greater trust placed in local authorities by Mr Brown than by his predecessor. Local authorities have already been given greater power over academies – the controversial schools programme designed by Tony Blair to be independent of local government and governed instead by sponsors such as businesses and wealthy donors.

The LSC had many critics both in business and the public sector, who accused it of excessive bureaucracy. Its days were numbered once Mr Brown announced a shake-up in the machinery of government soon after becoming premier in June 2007. The Cabinet Office said then that funding for a range of education and training for 14- to 19-year-olds – including much vocational training – would be taken over by local authorities.

Of the LSC’s £11bn budget, about £7bn will go to local authorities for education and training for teenagers. The remaining £4bn, for adults, will go to a new quango called the Skills Funding Agency. By David Turner, Education Correspondent

£10.4bn skills agency scrapped

2008-03-17 00:00:00

The government's £10.4bn skills agency, the Learning and Skills Council, is to be closed down - with most of the funds to be transferred to local authorities.
The plans have been announced by the government in a White Paper setting out the funding mechanism for the raising of the school leaving age to 18.

Local authorities will now be responsible for commissioning courses and training for older teenagers.

They will also be held accountable for ensuring that youngsters stay on to 18.

The White Paper, Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver, proposes the widening of local authorities' responsibilities - in the run up to the raising of the age for leaving education and training in England.

'Local democracy'

Local authorities will receive £7bn in annual funding for 16 to 19 year olds - and there will be a new Skills Funding Agency created as a funding body for further education colleges.

It will mean that local authorities will be fully responsible for offering teenagers a range of options, up to the age of 18 - including A-levels, GCSEs, the new Diplomas and apprenticeships.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said that this would put responsibility "fairly and squarely" on the shoulders of local authorities, with benefits to be gained from such local accountability.

Further Education Minister Bill Rammell said that the switch in funding would "reinvigorate local democracy".

This will mean the closure of the Learning and Skills Council in the next two years. This agency, created in 2001, is the public body currently charged with providing and improving the skills needed by a modern economy.

Mark Haysom, the skills council's chief executive, praised the achievement of the funding agency as a "remarkable success story" - but said that the "world does not stand still".

Mr Haysom said he expected transfers of some staff from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities and other funding agencies.

In 2006, staff at the Learning and Skills Council went on strike in protest at an earlier round of job losses.

Commissioning powers

The government has already outlined a transfer of funding to local education authorities, in its Machinery of Government announcement last summer - but it is now providing details of how this will be put into practice.

Local authorities, perhaps operating in clusters, will be expected to provide the "strategic commissioning" necessary to ensure that every young person has access to a place in learning up to the increased leaving age of 18.

In this commissioning capacity, the White Paper says that local authorities will be able to "expand strong and cease to fund weak provision" - and it promises "robust intervention where there is serious underperformance".

From 2013, it will also mean that local authorities will be responsible for ensuring that young people have access to apprenticeship places.

There will also be a Skills Funding Agency created to "ensure public money us routed swiftly, efficiently and securely to further education colleges and providers".

Mark Haysom's message to LSC employees

2008-03-18 00:00:00

Chief Executive's message on Machinery of Government Consultation, in full

The LSC is a remarkable success story and I am proud of what it has achieved.

Under its leadership, Further Education has been transformed. In towns and cities throughout England there are now world class buildings providing world class learning facilities; there are record numbers of young people participating in learning and enjoying unprecedented success; there are more adults than ever before with the skills and qualifications they need to improve their life chances; there are thousands of employers being helped to improve their competitiveness; there is an apprenticeship system delivering results to match the best in the world.

The LSC has made enormous strides in reaching out to disadvantaged communities; reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training; helping offenders into the world of work; and improving access and opportunities for those with disabilities and learning difficulties.

Through new funding approaches we are putting power and choice into hands of learners and employers. We have focused our funding on priorities and have sought to make it more responsive to local needs. And of course along the way we have hit – and often exceeded ‐ every target that has been set for us.

Importantly we have shown that you can achieve success while driving down costs. Our annual running costs are now some £100m less than our predecessor bodies.

All of this has been delivered through an enormous effort from all of you, the staff of the LSC, and many thousands of others across the wider system. I believe in years to come that people will look back at this time as an important period for Further Education, a time of investment of improvement, progress and innovation.

But the world does not stand still. In 2010 the LSC will enter its tenth year and this represents considerable longevity in an era of constant change. At that point we will have been in existence longer than any of our predecessor bodies. Since last summer we have known that 2010 will be a time of major change for us and today, with the publication of the Machinery of Government consultation document, we have finally got the chance to see the very different configuration of the post 16 landscape that is being proposed.

In summary, there will be two new bodies that will continue to drive ahead the huge agenda that we have been charged with since 2001. For young people there will be a new national Non Departmental Public Body, with some regional capacity, which will support local authorities in their new role in commissioning and funding 14-19 provision. Local capacity on 14-19 will therefore, as expected, be with Local Authorities. For adults there will be a new Skills Funding Agency, again with some regional capacity, which will oversee the distribution of funds to the sector and manage the performance of FE colleges. The Agency will also house the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), the National Employer Service, and the Adult Careers and Advancement Agency. As has already been announced, the Train to Gain brokerage service will transfer to Regional Development Agencies in April 2009.

Although there is still a great deal of work to be done to flesh out the detail of the proposals, what we now know is that in 2010 some of our staff will transfer to local authorities and some will move across to the two new organisations. Even before that, some staff will move over within the LSC to work for the NAS which is aiming to be up and running by April 2009 at the latest. Throughout the transition period we will work with and support all our staff as we move to the new arrangements.

Over the next two years there will undoubtedly be difficult decisions for us all – but there will also be new and exciting opportunities.

This two year period also allows us to continue to build on what we have achieved so far. There are more great buildings to be completed as we drive ahead with the renewal of the FE estate; there are new and stretching goals to be achieved in Train to Gain and Apprenticeships, and in driving yet further participation and achievement for 14-19 year olds. I want us to leave an outstanding legacy of achievement – one that we will be able to build on as we take up new roles and opportunities in the future.

In the meantime, we are working through the detail of the proposed changes and will be seeking the views of all members of LSC staff. To this end, we are sharing as much detail as we can today and we are putting in place further opportunities for feedback over the coming months. Through this consultation, we have the opportunity to influence the way in which the new organisations and arrangements will work and I want to ensure that the knowledge, expertise and experience of our staff are fully utilised in the development of these new models.

I will also be visiting as many offices as possible to hear at first hand your thoughts about the proposals. Last Autumn I managed to fit in 26 of these sessions over a period of a couple of months and I will be aiming to do much the same between now and early May.

I also want all staff to have a more formal opportunity to contribute to thinking on the implementation of the changes and I have asked Verity Bullough to work with other members of Management Group to put in a place a process to enable this. What I have in mind is that staff should meet in their national, regional or local teams and in regional and national Open Forums to discuss the proposals and provide written feedback that can be collated in Coventry and fed into the consultation. We will also, of course, continue to work closely with the PCS. Verity will write with further guidance on staff consultation in the next few days.

Last month I announced that David Russell would chair the Programme Board that will oversee transition arrangements. David will provide further details of how this Board will operate in the coming weeks.

This is an important day for the LSC and I would urge you all to read the document and take the time you need to digest the information. I am asking all managers to free up their diaries so that there is sufficient opportunity to discuss the changes with teams and, where appropriate, with individuals. Our focus must be on supporting all staff as we move through this period of change.

Mixed reaction to changes in skills funding.

2008-03-19 00:00:00

The sector responds to the closure of the LSC and reforms in skills funding.

The Machinery of Government proposals to axe the Learning and Skills Council and transfer £70 billion funding to local authorities has been given a mixed reaction.

The Association of Learning Providers says local authorities need to respond flexibly to Apprenticeship demand under the new skills system. They stress the need for a comprehensive implementation plan, to be drawn up to cover the next two years, based on a fully transparent mapping of existing provision so that independent providers, who deliver the majority of Train to Gain and Apprenticeships, can be visible to and recognised by local authorities, in the same way as schools and colleges.

Graham Hoyle, ALP’s chief executive, said: “The new arrangements will put local authorities firmly in control of commissioning all provision for 14-19 year olds, and ALP has already challenged ministers about the different approach needed to respond flexibly and quickly to changing employer demand for Apprentices. An annual funding allocation, which waits a year to reflect on any changes, just will not do, especially as we seek to drive up Apprenticeship numbers to meet the new 400,000 target.”

However ALP do say that they welcome the White Paper’s recognition of a possible single professional procurement agency serving the interests of several government departments (and possibly European and even lottery funds). The Association are also pleased that the paper cites the need to bring together employment and skills monies, something they have been arguing for over recent years.

The Association notes that all this is in the future, however, and for the time being providers will have to cope with the splitting up of the LSC funding regime. Providers will look towards the new Skills Funding Agency, concentrating on adult demand-led arrangements, but including within it the National Apprenticeship Service, which will also collect 16-18 Apprenticeship demand from the one hundred and fifty local authorities and, on their behalf, contract with providers.

ALP say they also welcome the indication that providers will be able to hold not only regional but also national contracts, alongside large employers, who will continue to have single contracts with the National Employers Service.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, commenting on the changes said: "Many of the proposed reforms, such as giving local authorities a greater strategic role for young people, should help more employees get the skills they need. But with two in five workers still not getting any regular training at work, this organisational reform must not divert attention from the wider skills challenge - getting more employers to offer quality apprenticeships and training opportunities.

"The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has played an important role in supporting the Government's skills strategy in recent years. Ministers must ensure that the expertise built up by LSC staff is utilised in any future arrangements, without recourse to redundancies."

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) claims the move calls into question the Government’s commitment to lifelong and lifewide learning.

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, “Since the incorporation of colleges, every change to the institutional infrastructure has initially resulted in damage to provision for adult part-time students. The experience of NIACE is that any measures that set the needs of one group of learners against another generally results in adults losing out.”

He continued, “For the Government’s proposals to succeed, Whitehall departments, local government and new funding bodies and agencies will need to display greater levels of flexibility and willingness to work across organisational silos than has occurred in the past. The challenge for local authorities in working together and with others is considerable.”

NIACE proposes that Government should give local authorities a statutory duty to advise and comment on the plans of the Skills Funding Agency with regard to the adequacy and sufficiency of local arrangements for the education and training of adults - within their areas - in the welfare of communities.

Rosie Spowart

Employers get the best of both worlds

2008-03-19 00:00:00

EMPLOYERS, are you looking for a way to fill your vacancies but also want to give something back which will help to improve the local community? Then help is at hand with a new recruitment service from Working Links.

The organisation now offers a full recruitment service for regional employers looking to fill any vacancy, from entry-level or unskilled positions right through to managerial posts. The new service is unlike any other recruitment service because profit is not Working Links’ main focus.

The service is free of charge for entry level or unskilled jobs, and for roles that require specific skills and experience, highly competitive terms are available.

By using the new service employers can be confident that they’re investing in the local community through the Links Foundation, the charitable trust that is responsible for managing and distributing Working Links’ Community Reinvestment Fund. Since its launch in 2004, the Links Foundation has supported almost 50 different projects throughout the UK – to date Working Links has invested more than £1.2m.

Abigail Conway-Todd, who manages the new service in the North East, said: “We believe that sustainable employment is the best route out of poverty, so we are now extending our service so that more people can find the job that’s right for them and move up the career ladder.

“And there are benefits for employers too. Not only do we offer a bespoke recruitment service but companies can meet their corporate and social responsibility pledges by helping to invest in the local community.

“This service really does combine good business practice with significant social impact.”

A dedicated team of experienced recruitment consultants provides the service across the whole of the North East and across all sectors, from hospitality, contact centre, public sector and engineering, to commercial and finance.

Stockton-based Brulines, which supplies information management systems to the pub and licensed trade, is already benefiting from the service, having used it several times in recent months to fill positions.

Christine Robertson, human resources manager, said: “The staff at Working Links have listened to our requirements and worked with us to ensure that candidates have the skills and experience we need. Brulines is very much an equal opportunities employer; using this service allows us to attract the right candidates for the right roles and also gives quality opportunities to people, giving them the chance of achieving their ambitions with a degree of confidence in progressing their careers in successful businesses.”

Climbié lessons not learned, says research

2008-02-04 00:00:00

The social care professions have failed to heed the lessons of Lord Laming's landmark inquiry into the murder of child abuse victim Victoria Climbié, government-funded research revealed yesterday.

On the fifth anniversary of the Laming report, an analysis of 161 of the most serious cases of abuse and neglect between April 2003 and March 2005 was posted on the website of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

A team from the University of East Anglia found two-thirds of the children died and the rest suffered serious injuries. Nearly half of the cases involved babies under 12 months old.

It had been thought that Lord Laming's harrowing report ushered in fundamental changes in child protection. He told how social workers, healthcare professionals and police officers failed to act on the telltale signs of torture and neglect suffered by Victoria, an eight-year-old from Ivory Coast, who died in London in 2000 with the marks of 128 injuries on her emaciated body.

But the UEA analysis of serious case reviews found teachers, police, midwives, nurses, doctors and social workers were continuing to make many of the same mistakes.

More than half the children were known to social care services at the time of the incident and 12% had already been placed on the child protection register.

But there was often poor communication between the various agencies involved in child protection. Staff were preoccupied with children's eligibility for services rather than making the individual child's welfare the primary concern.

In families with children who had suffered long-term neglect, social services often failed to take account of their past history.

And - repeating errors made in the Climbié case - they closed the files on some of the children only days or weeks before they died or suffered serious injury.

Lead author Marian Brandon, a child care specialist at the UEA, said: "Though the majority of these cases were essentially unpredictable, our findings suggest that risk could be minimised if practitioners were more curious and thought more critically and more systematically.

"But in order to practise in this way, workers need to be well supported, by their managers and senior managers.

"Many practitioners lacked support and were in teams depleted by staff absence and long term sickness. In many cases families were known to adult services and not just to children's services.

"There needs to be a shift so that children and whole families are a priority for all agencies, not just those directed at children."

Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the children's commissioner for England, said the research showed a failure to put the child at the centre of cases, poor case supervision and a failure to intervene early enough.

"The child's safety must be paramount, but too often the child at risk of harm is not even asked what is actually happening to them ... This is not about castigating social workers. Child protection must be the responsibility of all who work with children," he said.

Kevin Brennan, the children's minister, said England would shortly be the first country in the world to review all unexpected child deaths.

"Since the period covered by [this research] we have introduced Every Child Matters, [a policy] which has placed the safety of children at the heart of everything we do, including clear guidance and training for local children's services, the police, health services and others about the importance of sharing information."

He added: "We are committed to reducing preventable child deaths and promoting the welfare of all children. We will continue this relentless focus on children's safety to improve practices, raise standards and achieve the best possible outcomes for every child." John Carvel

What did adults do to deserve this?

2008-04-01 00:00:00

These are bad times for adult learners. We have seen a drop of 1.4 million adults in Learning and Skills Council-funded courses, and face tens of thousands more adult places disappearing by 2011, after allowing for the rise in numbers planned for Train to Gain programmes.
The government has ended public funding for adults seeking to prepare for mid-career change by taking a second course in higher education. And now we are facing fundamental changes to the planning and funding of the further education system. Yet every change in in the past 20 years has led, at least in the short run, to a worse deal for adults.

There are, doubtless, good arguments for making 14-19 education coherent - not least if it can end the unfair funding differentials between schools and colleges. But what if your initial education is delayed and you are 21 or 22 when you finish? How will your needs be met by a split in the planning and funding arrangements for 14-19s and 19-25s?

Who could blame colleges for further cutting adult opportunities when faced with fully subsidised provision for young people, and complete insecurity in the funding of adult learning?

What have adults done to deserve the frantic dance of institutional change we have seen visited upon further education since 1992? It would not be tolerated in schools. It is not entertained in higher education. Employer engagement in schools and universities is planned after institutional security is ensured. In FE for adults, no such security is on offer.

The litany of changes to funding agencies and regimes, since colleges were incorporated, shows a fundamental failure on the part of successive governments to settle on the role of FE, and a long-running failure of trust in the professionalism of staff. And, it seems, change comes whether the sector is seen as successful or troubled. After all, the LSC was created when a modicum of institutions were judged to be failing, and it is to be abolished after hitting all its targets, with ever more successful achievement rates in colleges and other providers. In place of the LSC, we are to be blessed with two bodies, one for young people and the other for adults. We do not have enough evidence of successful cross-silo planning to be confident that two agencies (and local government, too) will make a better job of planning and funding than the LSC.

In my 20 years at Niace we have had 16 junior ministers responsible for adult learning. Hardly surprising, perhaps, that policy memory is so weak, and that the patience to leave structures time to mature is in such short supply.

Indeed, mucking about with structures leaves no space for the sustained policy commitment needed to make a real difference. Where, after all, is the re-skilling policy we need to complement the government's up-skilling policy? Without one, the Leitch aspirations for a skilled workforce will be unachievable. Where, too, is the strategy for people outside the workforce and the benefits system? How will we re-engage the part-time workers lost to learning since the introduction of the skills strategy?

Nothing in these changes suggests that we will have a better balance of learning policies for adults fit for England's economic needs. And as for social cohesion and justice, the collapse of commitment to widening participation and achievement since The Learning Age - the influential green paper published in February 1998 about lifelong learning - beggars belief. Adults in England deserve much better than this.

· Alan Tuckett is director of Niace (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education)

£25m boost as training firms merge

2007-11-16 00:00:00

Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL training company Sencia has signed up to a £25m initiative that will extend its range of services as part of a bigger group.

Sencia trains adults for work and is now part of a specialist adult learning and skills group employing more than 450 people following the merger with Sheffield-based apprenticeship learning provider STL to create the Employability and Skills Group (ESG).

The newly-formed group has also acquired midlands specialist child care sector company Triangle Training for an undisclosed sum, as well as national employer contracts training provider Orient Gold.

ESG chief executive Adrian Holmes said: “Our training portfolio will grow to include skills programmes delivered on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council and employability programmes delivered on behalf of Jobcentre Plus.”

He added: “Sencia fits comfortably into our skills division and complements the experience and expertise already available within the group, enabling us to further enhance our training offer for employers and individuals.”

The Employability and Skills Group operates across the UK, with locations in London and the south east, north east, north west, east and west midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside.

MPs want more further education savings

2007-10-04 00:00:00

England's further education sector could save beyond the £75 million savings target set out by the government, according to an influential group of MPs.

The public accounts committee identifies a need to modernise procurement practices involved in spending £1.6 billion every year in its latest reports.

It says the Learning and Skills Council's (LSC) £75 million is potentially unambitious, claiming that colleges are not prioritising procurement highly enough and are "let down" by poor-quality information systems.

Adopting practices like grouping together for economic purchasing purposes and using procurement cards will help drive the savings, the report finds.

"Many further education colleges have been slow to modernise their processes for buying fuel, catering, stationery and other supplies. This is a serious point because money saved on procurement could be redirected towards teaching and other frontline services," PAC chairman Edward Leigh said.

"There is a lot of room for improvements in information sharing and indeed, even more fundamentally, for developing the systems within colleges for generating the right kind of management information in the first place," he added.

"Most colleges don't even know the amount of business they do with particular suppliers. They need to catch up with modern procurement practice."

Bill Rammell, minister for lifelong learning, further and higher education, admitted that there was still "room for improvement" but said the government was already helping implement many of the changes called for in the report.

"Colleges are increasingly engaging with developments in procurement, making use of better information and expertise available to them. I urge all colleges to raise the importance of procurement within their own establishments and seek the support on offer," he said.

Report slams Jobcentre Plus' IT

2007-10-09 00:00:00

Public Accounts Committee is highly critical of IT transformation intended to reduce agency's administrative workload. A Public Accounts Committee report into the effectiveness of the services provided by personal advisers in the Jobcentre Plus agency has slammed the IT systems used to carry out their roles.

In one of its main findings that recent Jobcentre Plus reforms had not made advisers' jobs easier - according to two-thirds of advisers surveyed - the report was damning in its assessment that they're productivity is "affected by slow or problematic IT" systems.

"Many of the shortcomings in the IT system are simple," it concluded, where for example, it requires them to re-key identical information for every new customer or makes it hard to print out information they need.

And it said the IT systems lacked the "basic functionality that would be expected in a modern office," citing a National Audit Office report published last November that found the systems "ran slowly ten times a week" and were "old and incoherent."

It said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should press IT contactor EDS for "simple improvements in order to help save adviser time."

As a result, it also found administrative shortcomings meant advisers spent 20 per cent less time in face-to-face contact with the unemployed people the Jobcentre Plus agency was created to help in comparison to agencies with similar remits.

During the committee hearings, Jobcentre Plus chief executive Lesley Strathie was grilled by MPs as to why the IT systems were failing, given that EDS makes a 30 per cent margin on its work with the DWP.

"You might have thought that for a 30 per cent profit margin you could get cut and paste thrown in, would you not? Why is this still coming up after we first heard about this problem several years ago?" asked Richard Bacon MP.

Strathie responded, saying an ongoing technology refresh would enable advisers to open several windows at the same time in a much more user-friendly manner. "That is probably the briefest way of answering your question," he added.

But the agency is still in the midst of reorganising its IT systems after the £143-million benefit process replacement programme (BPRP) was scrapped last year.

Now the introduction of the new employment and support allowance (ESA), as mandated by the 2007 Welfare Reform Act, is likely to add to delays in the reorganisation, as it requires the scope to change again. Earlier this week ministers said the DWP had not yet begun to ready its IT systems for the introduction on ESA in October 2008.

EDS declined to comment on the report.

£20m for Scottish Enterprise pay-offs

2007-11-05 00:00:00

More than £20m has been allocated to cover redundancy payments at Scottish Enterprise, The Herald understands.

The figure, placed by some sources at nearer £30m, excludes staff who will transfer seamlessly to any new national training agency.

Scottish ministers have been pressing ahead with proposals to downsize SE as part of a "de-cluttering" of the enterprise network. A senior executive at Scottish Enterprise stressed last night that no figures could be put on any final redundancy bill because the government's review of the enterprise network was still under way.

It is thought that, of the 2500 workforce, 1000 would be transferred to the new agency and some 1300 would remain with SE. This would mean that about 200 people would be made redundant.

The suggestion that the number of jobs under threat and the money earmarked for the cost of redundancies meant this amounted to more than £100,000 a post was dismissed by a spokeswoman. She said the final job losses were not yet known, but she accepted that under public sector terms there would be a price to pay.

The SE shake-up has seen the agency's training functions stripped out and handed to a new combined training and careers body.

At the same time, there is already political pressure building up on Jack Perry as chief executive of what will now be a radically slimmed-down body, which will have its operating budget slashed by one-third.

It also emerged yesterday that the national development and training body is also facing a counter-suit from two senior executives, suspended recently for alleged malpractice.

The two, who were suspended for more than a month, are now understood to have responded with a grievance complaint against other senior figures.

An SE spokeswoman said: "Isobel Brown and Charlene O'Connor are still suspended. They continue to defend their position vigorously."

But The Herald understands that this vigorous defence has moved to attack, with several fellow senior executives at SE being cited under the agency's grievance procedures.

The seniority of the two - Ms O'Connor was senior skills director and Ms Brown was her deputy - takes the grievance up to the level of Ms O'Connor's boss, Lena Wilson, who is just one step down from Mr Perry.

The Herald first reported two months ago that the two senior executives on the training side of SE had been abruptly marched out of the building and placed on suspension over allegations of alleged misconduct.

We later reported allegations from whistleblowers in the training industry that this involved contracts that had been awarded by the senior SE executive to friends.

But Ms O'Connor and Ms Brown have not only denied the allegations, they believe that since an invitation from SE to the police resulted in an opinion that there was no case worth investigating, it is time for them to go on the attack.

The fact that police have declined to investigate will strengthen the hand of the two executives, whose supporters say they came under fire simply for doing their job of trying to improve the quality of training overseen by SE.

"Putting the Life into Lifelong Learning"

2007-11-07 00:00:00

iz Smith, director of unionlearn, writes about the importance of lifelong learning in her November column for FE News. Unionlearn has won its spurs as a leading proponent of Skills for Life in the workplace, but fewer people are aware of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) work that we are doing. That there is great appetite for CPD is undisputed. In the first month of the unionlearn Learning and Careers Advice Service, the most frequent enquiries were about law and psychology courses. And the majority of people who used this service had no qualifications. All this reveals the hopes and aspirations of trade union learners, who recognise the value of education and are now confident enough to reach out for it. The good news is, that once they have started learning, they just can’t get enough of it.

One of our key roles is to make sure that learners progress to whatever levels they aspire to. Level Two is just the beginning, as far as unionlearn is concerned, which is why we offer advice and guidance on all levels of courses. And unionlearn backs up its promises with practical partnerships with key providers such as the Open University, the National Open College Network, National Extension College and Sector Skills Councils. Thanks to the excellent relationships we have developed, trade union members benefit from 10 per cent off some OU courses, and all NEC courses, and learners can rely on our Quality Award, which stamps a unionlearn seal of approval on providers. These measures show that unionlearn takes its responsibilities towards union learners seriously and it shows a long-term commitment to providing pathways to both further and higher education.

Don’t just take my word for it. A new piece of survey-based research, Learning Unlimited: A survey of union members and higher education opportunities, by the Open University and unionlearn highlights union members’ increasing awareness that higher level skills will be required in the workplace. Almost all the respondents agreed that it was important to be continually learning. The survey revealed that two in five were already engaged in further education, training or development and more than two in five had an A Level or equivalent qualification. Almost a third of the respondents already had at least a first degree or equivalent and were ready to progress through postgraduate education/continuing professional development. Four in five wanted to take up learning for personal development or leisure, and over a half thought it would benefit them in work.

Unfortunately, the research revealed the same old problem that learners face in workplaces throughout the country. Sixty per cent felt that getting time off was a problem and over 80 per cent agreed that their employer providing time off to study would determine whether or not they took up courses. Predictably fees and course costs were another barrier, and almost three quarters expressed an interest in learning if the employer paid all or part of the fees. We can all identify with people when they said that they needed help with childcare, travel, and study costs.

Yet, it is also evident from the survey that new ways of learning are needed. Traditional methods of learning, such as lectures were a turn-off for many, who wanted to learn in small groups. It’s clear that to satisfy these needs, more incentives for employers to provide paid time off to learn and to contribute to fees are needed. As unions, we need rights to negotiate these types of opportunities. Given that much more flexibility in the delivery of learning is required, Union Learning Representatives are playing an important part in helping, and supporting, their members to access higher education. Unionlearn wants to see lifelong learning mean life.

Liz Smith, Director, unionlearn

Just the job

2007-11-07 00:00:00

A tailored scheme to help long-term unemployed people find a job is helping to turn lives around. Louise Tickle reports. There were 133,720 people who had claimed jobseeker's allowance for more than 12 months at the end of September, and they're currently costing taxpayers around £370m a year. But it's not like this vast sum of public money is buying them any measure of happiness.

According to Kevin Friery, the clinical director of employee assistance specialists Right Corecare, long-term unemployment increases people's incidence of depression and suicide, decreases their sense of confidence and self-esteem, and results in more GP visits, more use of medication, social services, more hospital admissions and a progressive detachment from social networks and close relationships. And the longer people are off work, Mr Friery says, the more ill they become.

Meanwhile, though the temptation to tell a long-term unemployed person to get "on yer bike" and get looking for a job might be great, the effects of such a cavalier approach are likely to be dismal. The only thing that works in this situation is a sustained, long-term commitment to building people's confidence, skills and work experience, because for someone like David Wynn, who was without qualifications, homeless and 18 months jobless when he hit the age of 49, the outlook otherwise is very bleak.

Step in an organisation called Working Links, which was founded seven years ago to help people out of the rut of long-term unemployment through an intensive, individualised programme of coaching, coaxing, practical help and even financial support that can extend over months and years if need be.

"David had never had skilled work before, and his age meant that casual labouring jobs were getting to be no longer an option," says Alan Godfrey, Mr Wynn's Working Links consultant. "He was living in a Salvation Army hostel, which is a pretty streetwise place, and he wasn't streetwise, so he was really quite vulnerable."

Mr Wynn went onto a special programme run by Working Links for people who are homeless, recovering from substance abuse or ex-offenders. Because of the vulnerable nature of these clients – ex-offenders, for example, can range from those who've been in prison overnight to serious offenders -they get one-to-one support from an adviser that includes guidance on basic work skills such as timekeeping, health and safety, why it's necessary to report in sick rather than just not turn up, and how to disclose sensitive information on your background to an employer.

All this may seem obvious to someone used to a work environment, but for anyone who has lived outside normal working culture for an extended period, the norms of employment can feel alien and hard to absorb.

Funding for training that someone is interested in, detailed attention to interview skills, teaching clients who aren't computer-literate how to search for jobs on the net and analysing their interview experiences after the event are all elements of a service that aims to build up their qualifications and psychological readiness for entering employment.

Mr Godfrey acknowledges that Mr Wynn was hardly one of his more difficult clients in terms of attitude – "he really wanted a job and worked very hard to get one". He has now got a Security Industry Authority licence and is employed in a security company.

The voluntary nature of the programme may well be important to the clients. Nobody has to go to Working Links, no matter how long they've been unemployed, but once they are there, it's evident the care that consultants demonstrate for people on a personal level seems to make a big difference.

"James [her Working Links consultant] always supported me; well, everyone in there did, they were always encouraging you," says Cheryl Bettridge with real feeling. The 37-year old mother of five was sofa-surfing and "pretty low" when she was first put in contact with the organisation. After completing a 10-day programme to boost her confidence, help her with interview skills, give her a quality CV and help her actively look for work, she was, she says, feeling very different to when she first walked through the door. After getting a job that didn't work out, she's three weeks into another as a delivery driver, and it's one she says she enjoys.

Her consultant James Blandford is a specialist lone parent adviser, and says that this group is very different to some other types of long-term unemployed. "They're desperate to go back to work generally because they want to do better for their kids," he explains. "But they're worried that they'll have to work full-time and so be abusing their kids, and they're terrified that their benefits will be mucked up."

Carefully communicating his calculations on how salary, tax credits and any other state benefits might offer an improvement on income support and housing benefit is crucial, he says, to dispelling lone parents' genuine fears that they and their children will end up destitute because they've taken a job. There's also the worry about the "financial gap" that opens up between being paid a month in arrears and bills needing to be paid in advance.

"A typical nightmare scenario is they start the job, then it's half-term and the nursery wants a deposit and it hasn't been paid. On an individual basis, we can offer a grant for a nursery deposit, providing they're doing 16 hours work. The beauty of it is that we're more deregulated than the job centre, and we've got a flexible spend," he said.

This individualised approach has resulted in Working Links supporting 85,000 people into what they term "sustainable employment" since 2000. The company, which works closely with local Jobcentres, is only paid the final and most substantial part of its fee once a client has been in employment for 13 consecutive weeks. They'll keep in touch for as long as a client wants them to, but key to success, says Mr Blandford, is that it's not about getting a job at any cost.

"I refuse point blank just to make them go for any job – it has to be a job you enjoy and that you can do, because you're going to fail. And that's what these people don't need."

Queen's speech

2007-11-07 00:00:00

Queen's speech promises to 'raise aspirations' of the young……. Gordon Brown's plans to meet the "rising aspirations" of the British people were set out in the first Queen's speech under his premiership.
The government promised improvements to education, housing, health care and children's services in today's speech.

A new education bill will raise the school leaving age to 18. The Queen said the government would "raise education standards and give everyone the chance to reach their full potential".

The speech also announced new rights to skills training for adults and draft legislation to reform apprenticeships.

There will also be a bill for children and young people, including those in care, to give "all children the best possible start in life".

In addition, the government has promised to help people achieve a "better balance between work and family life" and legislation will be introduced to claw back "unclaimed money in dormant bank accounts" for youth facilities and social investment.

The speech also included a bill on human embryology to ensure that Britain remains at the forefront of health research.

The bill to keep young people in education or training until 18 is aimed at achieving world class levels of skills and to bring about greater economic productivity and dramatic improvements to individual life chances.

The bill will introduce a requirement to remain in education or training beyond the current statutory leaving age, and implement recommendations from the Leitch Review to improve adult skills.

By 2013, all 17-year-olds, and by 2015, all 18-year-olds will participate in some form of education or training.

The bill will place a duty on young people to participate, and on parents and local authorities to make that sure they do, and employers will have to release young people one day a week for outside training.

Local authorities will have the duty and power to assess the education and training needs of young people aged 16 to 19 with special educational needs.

On adult skills, the Learning and Skills Council will have to provide courses to allow learners over the age of 19 to get functional literacy, numeracy and full level 2 qualifications, and learners aged 19 to 25 to attain a first full level 3 qualification for free.

The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Steve Sinnott, said the government was right to raise the leaving age to 18. "Sixteen year olds cannot afford to be outside education or employment. If they do, they face dead end lives," he said.

However, he stressed the need for the government to be careful that any sanctions did not backfire and "lead to the ghettoisation of those young people who will be the hardest to reach".

"The reforms also have to be thoroughly prepared for and funded. A repeat of the botched introduction of the school leaving age in the 1970's is not an option," he added.

"I urge the prime minister not to lose the opportunity this bill represents. It could be expanded to rid the education service of some of the worst mistakes of recent legislation as well as introducing new ideas."

Meanwhile, Stuart Turner, head of skills at the Working Links Group, which helps excluded young people get work, said: "Ensuring that education or training is compulsory for all 16 to 18-year-olds is a positive step at a time when the UK is facing a skills shortage.

"However, for this to be a real success specialist organisations like Working Links need to be involved in the process, working in partnership to ensure engagement with the potential NEET group at a younger age as many youngsters have already become disenchanted and fall out of the system before they are 16." Anthea Lipsett

New Scottish skills body takes shape

2007-11-08 00:00:00

First details of Scotland's new skills body - created by merging Careers Scotland, learndirect scotland and most of the skills and training functions of the enterprise networks - were announced yesterday.

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop told the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee that she had established an interim board and that Billy Allan, currently chairman of the University for Industry, will continue in that role as interim chairman of the new skills body.

In addition, Donald Henderson - formerly Head of Teachers Division within the Scottish Government's Schools Directorate - has been appointed as interim chief executive to manage the transition programme.

Ms Hyslop said:
"Skills for Scotland, our recently-published skills strategy, clearly established the importance we attach to making sure Scotland's people have the skills our country needs for success.

"That's why we're moving forward with the creation of our new skills body, which I expect to be operational by April next year. In the meantime, the shell of the body should be formed by December 31 and the appointments to the interim board I have announced today are a key part of this process.

"I am pleased to announce the appointments of additional board members Willie Roe, Barbara Duffner, Janet Lowe and I look forward to working with all of them to ensure Scotland is well-equipped for a prosperous economic future."

The new skills body will use Scottish UfI Trust Ltd (the holding company for Scottish University for Industry) as the vehicle for its formation.

Billy Allan has agreed to continue as chairman of Scottish University for Industry, taking on the additional responsibilities involved in establishing the new body.

Mr Allan is the Executive Chairman for ASCO, a provider of supply chain management services and solutions to the international oil and gas sector and other related industries.

Prior to this he was the Managing Director of Alfred McAlpine Business Services having been part of the buy-out of E J Stiell Ltd, a facilities management company acquired by Alfred McAlpine. He was a board member of SUfI from November 2001 and became Chairman in November 2004. He sits on the Advisory Board of Strathclyde University's Graduate Business School.

Donald Henderson is a career civil servant, who joined the then Scottish Office in 1981. Other than three secondments to other government departments (Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1984-85, Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1992-93 and the Cabinet Office 1999-2002), he has spent his career in Scotland, working in a variety of subject areas including overseas trade, international sea fisheries, European structural funds and competition policy.

His most recent posting was as Head of Teachers Division where he was responsible for implementation of the 2001 national agreement A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century and for class size policy.

The appointment of additional board members will run until June 30, 2008 and attract a remuneration of £2,330 per annum (in line with the remuneration of the current SUfI Board).

Ministerial public appointments are made after consultation with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland.

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointee's political activity (if any) to be made public. No political activity has been declared.

Willie Roe is chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. He is also director of Rocket Science UK, providing consulting services and solutions in the fields of economic development, lifelong learning and multimedia technology. He is currently chairman of the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing Ltd and in January 2007 was appointed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions as chairman of the board of the Disability and Carers Service.

Barbara Duffner is a Scottish Enterprise board member. She is also a non-executive board member of the Student Loan Company, a member of the Judicial Appointments Board Scotland and sits on the Fitness to Practice Panel of the General Dental Council. She is a public interest member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland, a lay member to the Court of the University of Glasgow and an employment tribunal member. She was a member of the Welfare to Work taskforce and chaired the review of the Careers Service in Scotland, which led to the creation of Careers Scotland.

Janet Lowe is a member of the Funding Council. She chairs the council's skills committee and her appointment runs until October 2009. A former principal of Dunfermline's Lauder College, she is also a member of the Court of the University of Dundee. During her 30-year career in further and higher education, she held posts at the University of Hull, Napier University and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. She has been a member of the Garrick Committee on higher education, the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum, the Court of Heriot-Watt University, the board of the Association of Scotland's Colleges, the board of the Interactive University and the boards of the Scottish Further Education Unit and Scottish Enterprise. She was also a member of the independent Local Government Finance Review Committee which reported to Scottish Ministers in 2006.

Apprenticeships need to be tied to jobs

2007-11-08 00:00:00

"Apprenticeships need to be tied to jobs to ensure successful expansion" say training providers

ALP responds to Government announcements

Britain’s apprenticeship training providers have welcomed the Apprenticeships Bill in the Queen’s Speech and Ed Balls’ proposals for expanding apprenticeships as part of plans to raise the learning leaving age, but have warned that more employers need to be signed up to the programme to ensure its success.

According to the Association of Learning Providers (ALP), which represents vocational learning providers who train more than 80% of the country’s apprentices, much of the value of an apprenticeship to a young person is that it comes tied to a contract of employment with a local employer, together with good earning prospects.

However, as a House of Lords committee report reported in the summer, not enough employers are offering apprenticeships to meet demand from young people. Part of the challenge, says ALP, is helping employers access more easily financial support for apprentices of any age between 16 and 25 rather than just for the 16-18 age group.

The relative lack of apprenticeship funding for 19-25 year olds turns off potentially interested employers and leaves young people themselves disaffected when expectations on increased opportunities are being raised. Training providers also report that this is a stumbling block in trying to break down the gender imbalances within many apprenticeship programmes, because young women often wait until they are over 18 before deciding that they want to try an apprenticeship.

Furthermore, ALP would be concerned if the Government’s Programme Led Pathways, which offer apprenticeship training with no immediate offer of employment or guarantee of employment on completion, were used as major means of expanding apprenticeships.

UCAS-style matching service needs careful thought

These issues are also related to ALP only being able to give a cautious welcome to the Government’s plans to introduce a UCAS-style matching service for placing young people with employers able to offer apprenticeships. The association is concerned that the number of available places will be vastly outweighed by the number of young people wanting them – again resulting in unmet expectations and disaffection which would damage the growing reputation of the programme as a high-quality post-16 education and training option. ALP believes that efforts need to be focused on increasing the number of places offered by employers.

Graham Hoyle, ALP’s chief executive, said: “The high reputation of apprenticeships among a rapidly increasing number of young people, often with good GCSE results in their pocket, depends on places being offered with a proper job tied to them. The Government needs to be more flexible in responding to employer requests for support in funding apprenticeships if there is not going to be a big mismatch between what businesses can offer and young people want.”

ALP has recently submitted a full written proposal to the DCSF and DIUS on apprenticeships can play an even greater role in serving the economy and improving the career prospects of young people. It is committed to work closely with the Government and the Learning and Skills Council to ensure that the programme can be expanded successfully.

New legislation must ensure ‘unbiased’ advice in schools on post-16 options

The House of Lords committee report on apprenticeships was the latest in a long line of studies that have identified biased advice in many schools against vocational learning options as a factor behind the record numbers of young people in the NEET group (i.e. not in education, employment or training). ALP will be exploring whether the Education and Skills Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech, can be used to place a statutory obligation on local education authorities and schools to rectify this problem either directly or by strengthening the role of Ofsted in this regard.

Three new partners for the quango tango

2008-03-25 00:00:00

The latest education white paper kicks off with a strange sort of death sentence. Rather than listing capital crimes, it launches into a rhapsody of praise for the Learning and Skills Council and its achievements.
Year on year, it notes, the quango has presided over more people not just coming into education, but managing to bag the qualifications they want.

"Over 2 million adult learners have achieved a first qualification in literacy, language or numeracy since 2001, and over 1.7 million more adults have achieved a level 2 qualification."

The LSC is a Labour creation. Having allowed it to survive for a decade, ministers were hardly likely to say that it has been anything other than an unalloyed success.

But if the quango has played such a blinder, to blow it away now and replace it with three new bodies - the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA), the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) - seems odd.

Division of £7bn

The reason given by the government for the LSC's demise is that the skills landscape has changed, which makes it sound as if external forces have forced its hand. But it was the government that altered the terrain last summer by splitting the Department for Education and Skills in two.

This white paper - Raising Expectations - is an attempt to explain how that split is going to work. In particular, it sets out how local authorities, under the direction of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, are to divvy up the £7bn that the LSC currently allocates to sixth forms, colleges and training companies for 16- to 19-year-olds. And how the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is to direct the remaining £4bn of the LSC's budget for training the over-19s.

"We want every 16- and 17-year-old in the country to stay on in education or training so that they get a better job, have the chance to earn more and can make the most of their talents," said Ed Balls, the secretary of state for children, schools and families. "Local authorities will play a key role in making this happen."

All college managements will have read the white paper with no small degree of anxiety to find out how they are going to stand with their local authorities.

Barely a decade and a half has gone by since further education was taken out of municipal control. In that time, colleges have come to value their autonomy. The prospect of surrendering some of it back to local government - of having their operations, and even their survival, dictated by town hall politicians - appals them.

But having read through Raising Expectations and learned how the LSC's work is to be performed by two agencies, 168 local authorities and an as yet unknown number of "sub-regional" clusters of authorities, they will not necessarily have been a great deal wiser.

"We are about to put it into a diagram to try to make it easier for members," says Julian Gravatt, director of funding and development at the Association of Colleges. One of the criticisms of the LSC was its monstrous size, he says.

"It's a bit like splitting British Rail up into so many smaller units," says the AoC's president, David Collins, principal of South Cheshire College. "There is going to be a lot of time spent on boundary issues between them. It looks very complicated and it could be a bureaucratic nightmare."

According to the white paper, local authorities will have to coordinate with their neighbours, working together in "sub-regional clusters", to decide how the money will be spent and what it will be spent on - how much of it will go on schools places, how much on college places and so forth.

"The message back to me from fellow principals is that it certainly looks like a hefty increase in bureaucracy, both for local authorities and for colleges," says Collins.

"Rather than the simple model at the moment of getting funding from the LSC and the Higher Education Funding Council, some of them will be drawing down funding from at least five different bodies - local authorities, the SFA, the NAS, Hefce and from skills accounts."

Some colleges will welcome the diversity of funding sources. Others might decide that they want to plump for one side or the other of the fault-line at 19 that is reinforced by the white paper, shedding their under-19 or over-19 operations accordingly.

The SFA, described in the white paper as a "smaller, lighter-touch body" than the LSC, will have a funding, but not a planning, role. It will dole out cash to colleges and training companies in response to two expressions of demand - from employers wanting to improve their workers' skills and from private individuals wanting to buff up their own skills.

The former will apply for funding via the Train to Gain programme. The latter will access public cash by opening up "skills accounts" that will give them "greater ownership and choice over their learning", though whether this actually means anything and how it can be squared with the slashing of numbers of courses for which public funding is available under Labour has yet to be explained.

Whether they decide to move to one or other side of the 19 fault-line, or whether, for instance, some colleges decide to split into separate pre- and post-19 institutions, they will want it to be their decision and not one forced on them.

According to the white paper, local authorities will be able to "reshape the nature of provision" to a significant extent without "making major organisational changes". This will presumably be by cutting funding here and boosting funding there.

Death by a thousand cuts

"The local authority will be saying to a college: what we need is x," said Rob Wye, the LSC's national director of young people's learning. "The college will say: we can't provide x, we provide y, and the local authority will have to decide whether it goes with y or looks elsewhere."

There is some anxiety in colleges that although local authorities might not be able to close them down, they might achieve the same end by a thousand cuts. In allocating a college's cash, an authority must not restrict funding to students living within its boundaries. It must accept that colleges often draw students from further away, which is why the government requires "patterns of provision" to be decided on a larger scale by the sub-regional clusters.

This could cause tension. Local authorities will want to think their colleges attractive to students living outside their borders but their elected members will have more concern about responding to their voters.

When local authorities cannot agree among themselves on how resources should be deployed, it will be up to the YPLA to step in and settle the matter.

There are encouraging messages for colleges in the white paper. The presumption that any good school can open a sixth form is to be watered down. In future, any application for a new sixth form must "take account of the need for collaboration with local partners" and of the overall educational set-up for 16- to 19-year-olds in the area. This will also apply to bids to establish academies with sixth forms.

The white paper has best news for the 96 sixth-form colleges, which are at last to be granted legal status. "We lost our identity in 1992 when further education colleges were incorporated," says Sue Whitham, head of secretariat at the Sixth Form Colleges' Forum. "We've been referred to in all subsequent legislation as 'former sixth form colleges'."

Since 1992 these colleges have been lumped in with general FE colleges but now they are to leave the further education family. This is a recognition that sixth-form colleges have maintained their status and that there is a sixth-form college sector, says Whitham.

The white paper states that any college should be deemed a sixth-form college if it "predominantly caters for students aged 16 to 19". Thus 200 general FE colleges could be eligible to change status.

While it would not be a death sentence to the further education sector if they all took that route, it would change the landscape significantly.