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Valerie Davey (Bristol, West): I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the situation in Bristol. I am sure
that the same is happening throughout the country. The Department and others have a huge capital programme that is being delivered on the ground. Our local authority, and, no doubt, others, are issuing contracts on the understanding that it will be local people who get jobs, so, particularly in the building industry, where that huge capital programme is being worked out, and where the local authorities and Government Departments are involved, it is possible that young people could be brought into those jobs with the asset of the colleges, schools, Connexions and LSC, which know the needs in an area and can offer the training that those young people would need to get a job. It is a case of our contracts—
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. The hon. Lady must resume her seat. I must say that I think that she needs to hone her intervention skills. That was too long for an intervention.
Mr. Lewis: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker; I got the message.
The principle of using the procurement process, particularly in the public sector, to influence the ability to employ people locally and to get employers to invest in skills is a very good one indeed. We must get the right balance between training young people for the needs of the labour market and allowing them to have transferable and flexible skills by ensuring that we do not focus on training that is too job-specific. None the less, the principle is absolutely right.
We also need to give a strong and positive message about all progression routes and not only the conventional academic route. Every parent and commentator understands GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels, but there is not the same understanding, passion, highlighting or focus in respect of the other ways in which young people can progress, achieve and succeed in the education system. That issue is about some of the messages that we send out; we need to be much clearer and stronger about the alternative ways in which young people can progress through the system.
In turning to adults, I wish to focus on both employers and individuals. On employers, we face a particular challenge in getting far more small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in skills than hitherto. We need to do a number of things to facilitate that. First, we need to create a far more simple system enabling SMEs to access training. We need to achieve a genuinely "no wrong door" approach. We have looked at the principle of having one door, but, historically, every initiative that has sought to create one door has failed, so it is far more constructive to seek a "no wrong door" approach to accessing skills and training.
We believe that it is right to make increasing use of intermediaries who work with business day to day, such as bankers, financial advisers and legal advisers, who sometimes speak in the language of business as we as politicians in the public sector cannot do. We need to use people who deal with business day to day to get the message across about the importance of skills and the best way of accessing the skills system.
We should also be using the supply chain more. That can involve larger companies doing business with smaller companies and making it a part of their contractual arrangements that the smaller companies should invest in skills. Even some of the larger companies are now willing to help to train more people than they need so that their sector is strengthened overall. I am delighted that the director general of the CBI recently said that he believes that some of the larger companies should make much greater use of the supply chain in influencing investment in skills and training.
In responding to my right hon. Friend the Member for Tyneside, North (Mr. Byers), I referred to the regional development agencies and learning and skills pilots, which I think will be very important. We need to respond to employers' concerns about lack of flexibility in the current qualifications framework. Employers need a much greater input in the design content and assessment of our qualifications. I am delighted to report to the House that, for the first time, the Learning and Skills Council, the Sector Skills Development Agency and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority are working together to create a far more employer-friendly and flexible qualifications system.
We need to build on fiscal incentives such as the employer training pilots and employer learning accounts, which are focused on small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. We are developing the sector skills council network to replace the national training organisations. In response to some of the cynicism and concern about the pace of progress on the roll-out of sector skills councils, I point out that, in the White Paper, we will publish a clear time scale for the introduction of the councils and the coverage of a vast proportion of the UK work force. We will therefore be able to respond to concern about the time involved by making it clear how the new network will roll out in the next two to three years.
Mr. David Chaytor (Bury, North): I was pleased to hear my hon. Friend's positive remarks about the employer training pilots. Will he tell us when they will be evaluated and whether that is likely to happen in time for publication of the skills strategy? Are we likely to see an extension of the pilots in the strategy at the end of June?
Mr. Lewis: As a consequence of the evaluation of the six initial employer training pilots, we are extending them to create another six. They will now run in a total of 12 local learning and skills council areas, providing free training and subsidies to enable employers to give their workers time off to train up to level 2. Realistically, it would be difficult to evaluate by the end of June pilots that are only just beginning. We occasionally roll out programmes before we have the evaluation evidence, but having rolled out six—now 12—we shall examine them closely to inform future policy development.
Mr. Sheerman: The Minister cannot get away from the fact that there are only two. Employers are asking when they will all be up and running, because for too long they have not known what the future will be.
Mr. Lewis: My hon. Friend was sceptical about the publication of the skills strategy in June, but I have been
able to confirm today that that will happen. Likewise, I can reassure him that his question will be answered in the White Paper, which will include a clear timetable for the roll-out of sector skills councils over the next two to three years. That will answer those who have raised legitimate concerns about the amount of time that it is taking. I have been very supportive of the desire of the Sector Skills Development Agency to ensure that the new councils are not merely re-badged national training organisations. If that were to happen, the initiative would be completely wasted.Moving on from employers to individuals, my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) will be pleased to hear that we will announce a successor scheme to the individual learning account scheme, which will be designed to maintain the best principles that underpinned ILAs. We accept that the implementation and delivery of ILAs went terribly wrong, and we have expressed that regret on a number of occasions, but we still believe that the basic principles that underpinned ILAs then are as relevant now, and it is important that we introduce a successor scheme that maintains those principles.
We shall develop the role of the union learning fund, which has been incredibly successful, especially in getting back learners who dropped out of education and training many years ago.
We shall say more about an unprecedented level of investment in prison education and training. That investment has not received enough attention in this House or outside. We are putting more money into prison education and training over the next few years than has ever been put in. Almost the best crime-fighting policy that one can have is to give people basic skills, at minimum, or even higher-level skills. It is then far more likely that they will leave custody and not be part of the rotating door group who are the main reason why our prisons continue to overflow. As a society, we need to create a new approach whereby we give offenders opportunities to take a different course, and education is central to our capacity to do that.
We need to focus on benefit recipients. Although we have the highest employment in living memory, we need to be much better at giving people who remain close to the labour market the skills that will enable them to make the final jump into work. We also need to consider the economically inactive who are almost permanently on benefit. It is difficult to imagine them going straight from benefit into work.
Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton): Is my hon. Friend giving serious consideration to the proposal put forward by the Foyers Federation for a further education maintenance allowance for young people in foyers, especially 19 to 30-year-olds, who are caught in a trap?
Mr. Lewis: We intend to elaborate in the White Paper on our plans for a further education maintenance allowance. It is difficult to imagine that we will be able to roll that out as a national entitlement, but we need to get on with the job of introducing the principle of such allowances, with a view to their becoming permanent in due course.
We need to be clear about the distinct and important role played in the skills strategy by adult and community learning. We need to be much clearer about its
contribution, the way in which we intend to support it and how it will fit in with some of the other investment in skills, education and training. I assure hon. Members that we remain committed to the principles that underpin adult and community learning.
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