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6.47 pm
Andrew Selous (South-West Bedfordshire): I want to start by referring to a document published by the EU social fund, which I came across in my work as a member of the Select Committee on Work and Pensions. It assesses the labour market skills of the different countries in the UK, as they affect economic performance.
Two comments stick out. According to the report, the UK has
- "Poor basic skills amongst a significant proportion of the workforce"
- "Low educational attainment levels and participation rates in lifelong learning."
I want to pay tribute to the excellent Dunstable college in my constituency, and especially to its new director, Chris Vesey, who recently took over. That FE college runs highly innovative courses at a number of sites around my constituency, and it works extremely well with schools and the nearby Luton university. It has also been instrumental in helping to establish the new learning warehouse that is to open in Leighton Buzzard. That innovative and exciting venture will enable people in full-time work to access vocational training in the evenings or at weekends.
I also pay tribute to my local university, which is pioneering vocational higher education in a number of fields, with a large number of students coming into it much later in life. It is definitely aiding the economic development of my area.
Over the past few years, in certain respects we have gone slightly backwards in relation to vocational education. There have been 190,000 fewer enrolments in adult and community learning courses since 1996, and the vocational proportion of GCSE-equivalent courses has fallen since 1997—worrying factors about which the Government should not be complacent.
It seems to me that the challenge is to try to maintain the enthusiasm that children have when they start school, and to try to keep that throughout their education. It often starts to tail off at around the age of 13, when a large number of children perhaps find that the curriculum is not meeting their interests and aspirations, which is why my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale, West (Mr. Brady) is going in the right direction with his proposals to make technical and vocational education open to people from the age of 13 and to set up new types of schools that focus on those areas. I also hope that those schools and colleges will look at what are often called the "soft skills", which are important in terms of getting people into work. When the Select Committee has looked at employment matters, as the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris), who also serves on the Committee, seems to agree, we have found that those skills are particularly important in terms of getting people into work. People's ability to go through their daily routine and to get on with others is often critical to moving them nearer to the labour force, getting them into work and helping them to stay there.
If we are to help people later in life and to help people to work to a later stage in their lives than many people who retire in their late fifties and early sixties, vocational education has a great role to play, particularly for people who have been in stressful manual occupations. A great role exists for FE and vocational training to help those who want to continue working and supplement their retirement income to move into less stressful work, rather than continue in work that they find physically demanding and extremely draining.
I know from meeting my local FE providers that the different funding streams are a great source of concern, and I know about the difficulties between the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Learning
and Skills Council and the skills alliance. The hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis) summed up the problem well when he said that there is a difference of approach, whether it is a local, sectoral or regional one. We must sort out which one we use. My preference would not be the regional route, because time and again I have seen that areas such as mine, which do not have major towns, lose out. I would like the local and sectoral route to be used.It is worrying too that so many FE colleges do not feel that the LSC offers them good value for money. As we heard earlier in the debate, if only 3 per cent. of colleges believe that they are receiving good value for money, that is indeed a problem. A quote comes to mind that I heard yesterday from Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in respect of the Government's approach to the private finance initiative and the complexity of vocational funding in this country:
- "Out of complexity comes confusion and out of confusion comes chaos".
Finally, I want to mention the question of foreign languages, about which I am concerned. Recent Government announcements will reduce the amount and extent of foreign language training. Before I became a Member of the House, I worked for a company that had its headquarters in Germany, and it was noticeable that almost everyone whom I dealt with in the German headquarters spoke fluent English. In a world in which we need to trade abroad to survive, we neglect foreign language skills at our peril. I urge the Government to consider the consequences of that for Britain as a trading nation.
6.55 pm
Mr. Ivan Lewis: With the leave of the House, may I first say gently to the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Horam) that people are sensitive to the use of the term "schizophrenic"? I understand that he has been a Labour Member of Parliament, a Social Democrat MP and now a Conservative MP. I am not sure that he should label me in that way in that context.
I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North (Mr. Chaytor) that Bury college of further education is a centre of excellence. It may be in Bury, North, but many of the students and staff live in Bury, South. I urge Mike Tomlinson to take seriously my hon. Friend's points about curriculum and qualifications when he considers the future of 14 to 19 education.
On a personal note, I hope that the hon. Members for Altrincham and Sale, West (Mr. Brady) and for Daventry (Mr. Boswell) are still in their posts next week. I genuinely mean that. I hope that they will still be able to participate in these debates. There is much consensus on vocational education, but the sheep and goats model emanating from the Conservatives is clear. It is clearer than ever before that their higher education policy is driven by political opportunism and not the needs of the country or the needs of young people.
Mr. Lewis: I agree entirely with the comments. of the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley)
about productivity. Yes, we need skills, but innovation, capital investment and leadership are among several other factors. Although it is right for us to create as simple a system as possible for employers to access, the idea that they would go through one door is simply not true. That is why we must ensure that, whichever door employers choose to walk through, they receive the same advice and information and get the training when they need it.The hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis) raised a number of important issues. He expressed concerns about the relationship between regional and national, but he obviously has not heard what we have said about the regional skills alliance. He seemed to dismiss the importance of the national delivery partners coming together, which is important. We must remember that employers choose to network in very different ways. Some identify with their region, sub-region and local high street and some clearly identify with the sector of which they are members. When influencing demand, we have to have an approach that is sensible nationally and that takes account of regional and sub-regional issues.
I am glad that my hon. Friend the Member for St. Albans (Mr. Pollard) mentioned the importance of prison education. He will be glad to know that, over the next three years, we will make a record level of both revenue and capital investment. We are going through a new contracting process to ensure quality provision in prison education and we are creating new positions of heads of learning and skills councils in every institution. We are also bringing together vocational training and education in prisons.
The hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) paid tribute to his local colleges and talked about modern foreign languages. Forcing young people who do not want to do modern foreign languages to study them is not the answer to the problem of our country genuinely needing people with those skills for our economy and place in the world. That is why we are determined to drive the teaching of modern foreign languages down to primary level so that children enjoy learning them. That will become a natural part of their early-years development and they will be positively keen and enthusiastic to develop those language skills as they get older.
The Tories are fond of citing figures for adult and community learning. Let us be clear that there has been a reduction in enrolment in adult and community education, but the greatest single reduction was between 1996 and 1997 when 170,000 fewer people enrolled in adult education colleges. [Interruption.] Some 170,000 fewer people enrolled in adult education courses under the Tories. Although there has not been an improvement in the position, the number has stabilised in recent years. The Tories should not quote distorted and disingenuous facts if they want us to believe that they are somehow a changed political party.
I believe that vocational education is central to the future of our economy and our society. If we want a socially just and economically successful society that competes internationally—
It being Seven o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
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