APPENDIX 8
Memorandum by the Learning and Skills
Council (LSC)
INTRODUCTION
The LSC—what we do
We have a vision of England in 2010. Young people
and adults have knowledge and skills matching the best in the
world as part of a competitive workforce.
We exist to make that vision a reality, to make
England better skilled and more competitive.
We are responsible for planning and funding
high-quality vocational education and training for everyone over
16 in England, other than in higher education.
We want to ensure that young people and adults
have the skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace and
to be personally fulfilled. That employers are able to
recruit individuals with the right skills to contribute to the
success of their business. That the system responsible
for delivering training and education to young people and adults
is high performing.
The key measures of our progress are a step-change
improvement in the number of people with basic skills and Level
2, the equivalent of five good GCSEs.
This is a huge task, so in the short term we
are focusing on six priority areas, these priorities are an assessment
of what must be done if we are to move quickly towards delivering
the world-class learning and skills that our economy needs.
Our priorities are to:
1. make learning truly demand-led so that
it better meets the needs of employers, young people and adults;
2. ensure that all 14-19 year olds have access
to high quality, relevant learning opportunities;
3. transform Further Education so that it
attracts and stimulates more business investment in training and
skills development;
4. strengthen the role of the LSC in economic
development so that we provide the skills needed to help all individuals
into jobs;
5. strengthen the LSC's capacity to work
effectively at a regional level—particularly with Regional
Development Agencies and Regional Skills Partnerships; and
6. improve the skills of the workers who
are delivering public services.
To support delivery of our priorities, the LSC
is designed so it can operate at a local, regional and national
level.
At a national level we provide leadership
to the system and promote a coherent and consistent national message.
At a regional level we engage effectively
with other key agencies—such as the Regional Development
Agencies (RDAs)—and on regional issues such as skills in
the context of the Regional Economic Strategy.
At a local level we have a real impact
in terms of delivering for young people, adults and employers.
Most learners train locally, most employers recruit locally and
use local organisations to develop their workforce. It is vital
therefore that the LSC reflects the needs of both employers and
individuals at a local level.
Of course, the LSC can't achieve its vision
alone; we work in active partnership, nationally, regionally
and locally, with those organisations who are critical to delivering
our targets and vision, of whom there are many.
Equality and diversity
We are committed to ensuring that learners of
all ages and backgrounds are able to realise their potential,
improve their life chances and contribute to economic growth.
We recently published our Equality and Diversity strategy for
2004-07 (a copy is enclosed); within this we will challenge discrimination
and promote equality across all learning and skills provision.
We have also set up a National Equality and Diversity Committee
chaired by Shirley Cramer, a member of the LSC National Council
and Chief Executive of the Dyslexia Institute. Members of the
Committee have input into this response, a list of members is
enclosed.
Equality and Diversity Impact Measures
(EDIMs) were introduced by the LSC in 2002 and have now been rolled
out across all local LSCs. All local LSCs now collate and analyse
learner data from the Individual Learner Record (ILR) for their
area from an equality and diversity perspective, particularly
the participation, retention and achievement of different groups.
Based on the analysis, each local LSC then agrees EDIMs with its
providers and local partners to address local priority equality
gaps.
Recent analysis of local LSC updates on EDIMs
shows that they cover a range of equality and diversity areas
including ethnicity, gender, learners with a learning difficulty
and/or disability (LLDD), older learners, offenders and geographic/economic
related inequalities. EDIMs addressing a gender inequality were
the largest category and within it, increasing female participation
was the biggest sub-category.
EDIMs are still developing—some focus
for instance on improving the local capacity to integrate, implement
and measure them in some way. There are, however, some examples
already of positive impact on an equality gap in relation to gender
and these are highlighted below:
— North Yorkshire LSC established
an EDIM to improve the completion rate of female leavers aged
19+ in all Work-based learning programmes from 34% to 37%. In
their EDIM update they reported that based on Work Based Learning
ILR (P12 03/04) it had increased to 46%.
— West Yorkshire LSC set an
EDIM to increase female achievement of frameworks from a baseline
of 11.7% to a target of 13.7%. Their progress report for 2003-04,
states that it has increased to 25.8%.
— Somerset LSC want to increase
the representation of female learners aged 16-24 in the construction
sector, from 1.5% in 2001-02 to 3% by 2005. In October 2004, they
reported that representation had increased by 1.11% to 2.67%.
The LSC recognises the importance of this opportunity
to contribute to the Women and Work Commission and influence actions
that will tackle the pay gap between men and women.
The pay gap is not just a social and moral issue;
it is also an economic one. For example, employers are not getting
the full benefit of women's skills where they return to work in
lower skilled jobs. Equal Opportunities Commission research shows
that there is a clear link between a lack of women in certain
occupations, industries and skills shortages.
Crucial to this is an understanding of the relationship
between the pay people receive and the skills that they possess.
We know there is a difference between the pay men and women receive
for doing the same job—currently about 10%, but this is
reducing (in the 1980s this gap was closer to 20%) (Source:
Women and Equality Unit: The Greater Pay Gap in Great Britain).
However, the most significant contribution to the gender pay gap
is the fact that men and women tend to be concentrated in different
industries and different occupations which affects their levels
of pay.
Consequently we need to understand much more
about how the learning and skills individuals obtain—both
in education and in work—contributes to their position in
the workforce and the pay they receive.
In particular, if we are to address this disparity,
we need to give careful thought to how we up skill and re-skill
women to ensure they are able to take up new opportunities. The
LSC has a critical leadership role to play within the sector working
in partnership with others, such as colleges, providers, Connexions,
JobCentre Plus and RDAs.
The LSC has a leadership role
The LSC has a critical role to play in leading
the delivery system ie the post 16- education sector so that it
is responsive and is able to transform outcomes for both individuals
and employers.
The issue of gender disparity needs to be looked
at across the whole of the post 16- education sector, but the
role of FE in particular is critical.
We are already integrating considerations of
equality and diversity into our agenda for change programme[39]
and the FE Review[40]
to ensure that our development of long-term strategies for the
FE sector, tackle a range of equality issues that are linked to
productivity, including the gender disparity issue.
Clearly this is not something that we can do
on our own. We need to work in partnership with others to tackle
reduce the pay disparity between men and women.
Women are not as well qualified as Men
Men tend to be more qualified than women overall:
— 53% of economically active men (in
work/available for work) are qualified to level 3 or above—compared
to 47% of women. (Source: DfES Statistical First Release: 03/2004.)
— 14% of working age men have no qualifications,
compared with 16% of women (Source: LFS Spring 2004.)
— Approximately 49% of men who are
of working age gain qualifications at level 3 or above, compared
to 40% of women. (Source: DfES Statistical First Release: 03/2004.)
— This reflects historic patterns:
men have traditionally been more likely to study and gain qualifications.
(Source: DfES Statistical First Release: 03/2004.)
The Picture is Changing: Young women in education
now out-perform young males
As we know increased levels of qualification
result in increased pay, this goes some way to explain current
pay gaps.
However, there are marked differences by age—simply
put, the picture is changing, with younger women overtaking their
male counterparts and reversing this pattern: For example 12.3%
of women aged between 16-24 hold higher level qualifications (level
4+) compared to 10.6% of men. (Source: LFS Spring 2004.)
Across all areas of education we can see that
women—particularly young women—are now out-performing
their male counterparts:
— More girls stay on in post-16 education
and training than boys—in 2003, 26% of 16-18 males did not
participate in education or training compared to 24% of females.
(Source: DfES Statistical First Release: 03/2005.)
— Girls now out-perform boys in GCSE
results—almost 60% of girls gain five or more GCSEs at grades
A-C, compared to only 47% boys. (Source: DfES Statistical
First Release: 01/2005.)
— The same applies at A level. In 2003-04
132,100 females aged 16-18 achieved 2+ A levels or equivalent,
compared to 112,100 males (Source: DfES Statistical First Release:
02/2005.)
— More women (52%) than men apply to
and are accepted on university places.
This is going some way to reducing the pay gap—however
slightly. For example: as a direct result of gaining a degree,
women had earned 37% more than they would have done—compared
to men who only earned 17% more.
In addition, social and cultural change means
that fewer women are staying at home to bring up children, which
means that there is greater "potential" for the pay
gap to reduce further. Women are increasingly likely to return
to work within a year of having a baby. In 2002, 72% who were
at work during their pregnancy returned to work, compared to only
24% in 1979. (Source: DTI—interim update of Key indicators
of Women's Position in Britain, December 2004.)
However, this is oversimplifying the issue;
even though women (particularly young women) are out-performing
young men in education, their choice of subject is having a direct
impact on their future employment and earnings potential.
Young women are concentrated in areas that are
traditionally lower paid
Throughout all areas of further and higher education,
women and men tend to follow different (stereotypical) areas of
learning. The following highlights from the Equal Opportunities
Commission's research into gender segregation of Apprenticeships
highlights some of these issues (source—EOC):
— 41% of all Apprenticeships are taken
up by women—but the areas they pursue are very different
to men.
— in 2003-04, only 3% of Apprenticeships
in Engineering and 1% in Construction held by females.
— in contrast, 91% of Apprenticeships
in Health, Social Care and Public Services are held by females.
We can see that these patterns of learning are
translated into very different work patterns with women tending
to be concentrated in particular industries and occupations (for
example 60% of working women are in just 10 occupations). This
also affects the pay they receive; for example pay in childcare
is generally half of that in construction and engineering.
Research by the Equal Opportunities Commission
suggests that two-thirds of young people weren't aware of the
pay differentials between various careers, when they where making
career choices. For example, 67% of women aged 16-24 said they
would have considered non-traditional areas if they had known
they paid more than "women's work".
We and other key partners need to improve the
role modelling and careers information and advice that young people
receive from a much early age, to promote non-traditional subject
choices and then later, to ensure that young people are aware
of pay issues and implications as they begin to think about their
future learning and employment choices.
We need to learn from what we know works
The LSC and the wider post-16 sector have considerable
experience in engaging young people and encouraging interest and/or
entry into non-traditional routes of learning.
For example: Gloucestershire LSC ran a collaborative
project with five work-based learning providers that focused on
breaking down the gender segregation in apprenticeship programmes.
This offered taster sessions (for 120 Year 10 pupils) offering
hands-on experience in non-traditional sectors (boys went into
Hairdressing, Early Years and Care while the girls went into Engineering
and Electrical Installation). The impact of this one scheme was
significant—with participants showing a huge shift in attitude
towards working in these respective industries, following their
taster sessions.
There are many other schemes like this running
across the country—we need to learn from these and build
on what we know works, to challenge people's perceptions, improve
the information they receive and encourage wider access into non-traditional
areas.
The area of careers education and guidance and
young people's learning is critical. We believe this has the potential
to make a major difference in developing a long-term strategy
to address the gap between men and women's pay. In particular:
Women can be more excluded from the labour market
More women are entering the labour market than
ever before. However, there is still a significant proportion
of women who have the potential to be in employment, and yet they
are not. Many women not currently in a job face barriers (both
real and perceived) to entering employment. These can include
access to affordable/high quality childcare; the ability to work
flexibly (family friendly policies) and the opportunity to work
part-time or job share.
This means that we are wasting human resource
which damages our competitiveness ie it fails to recoup on the
investment in education and training that these women have received
and ignores opportunities to close the productivity and skills
gap by drawing from the full pool of talent available.
To overcome this we need to provide women that
want to enter employment with the right kind of encouragement
and assistance—to give them the skills and confidence and
support that they need to take up employment. This means access
to tailored and flexible information, advice and guidance, training
and support.
A partnership approach is critical and programmes
like the Government's New Deal for Skills[41]
are key to understanding and addressing issues.
However, we need to recognise and understand
more about the impact of other factors. For example, social class,
ethnicity, geographic location and disability can all have a much
greater influence on participation in learning and/or the labour
market than gender. We need to really understand the relationship
between these variables if we are to promote equality of opportunity,
including reducing or removing the pay gap effectively.
Women returning to workforce often face barriers
to improving skills
Research indicates that men and women entering
employment from full-time education have similar levels of pay.
This consistency remains true for those who are continually employed.
However, when people take a break from employment—their
pay drops—more significantly so for women.
In addition, as women are far more likely to
take a career break (to have children) they are doubly disadvantaged.
Similarly, women returning to work often encounter
difficulties around access to childcare and the ability to work
flexibly.
Those that do return may find that they have
fallen behind in terms of the skills required (for example their
product awareness becomes out of date); pay received (the pay
gap is greater following return) or experience they can offer
(time out doesn't "count" for most employers).
It is critical that women have access to flexible
information, advice and guidance; and training that is delivered
at a time and place that meets the needs of women returners.
We need to support women who are in the workforce
Women employed in certain areas may find it
harder to remain and/or progress in their jobs, particularly where
they have caring responsibilities.
For example, research by the DTI found that
balancing home and work-lives is an important factor in retaining
women employed in the Science, Engineering and Technology industries.
Their study of 7,500 UK employees found that
large numbers of women dropped out of careers in these sectors
because of inflexibility in working practices and an inherently
masculine culture.
These inflexible working practices are often
reflected in the availability of training courses. That is, although
women are more likely to participate in training (18% had training
compared to 15% men) there are issues about availability. Further
work needs to take place to increasingly understand and then address
the issue of "masculine culture".
For example, at present access to training for
people in the workforce varies by gender. This means that not
only are women returners potentially discouraged from remaining
in higher paid occupations, they may also be excluded from access
to further training and development opportunities.
Employer Training Pilots
The LSC's Employer Training Pilots—soon
to be the National Employer Training Programme—are successfully
reaching employers who have never previously engaged in training
their workforce. They tackle basic skills and level 2 shortcomings
by working directly with employers. Learners tend to be female
aged between 26 and 45, in full-time low-skilled, low paid jobs.
The majority are working towards an NVQ level 2 (or equivalent).
For example: a female learner on a recent Employer
Training Pilot scheme run by London East LSC said: "I don't
have a lot of time to go to college because my husband works nights
and so for me to be able to sit here in the office and get a qualification
and a certificate really is great." Tracy Meakins, Office
Manager, Pickhurst Homes.
We need to learn from what works
Again we need to use experience of what we know
works. For women currently not in employment and who need tailored
support to move into employment, the New Deal for Skills has a
critical role to play. Because we know that women need a much
more flexible means of accessing training, at a time and place
that is suitable for their needs, the future National Employer
Training Programme has a key role to play.
It is also important not to consider women as
a "one size fits all" cohort. Whether it is related
to information, advice and guidance, support into work or workforce
development, issues of ethnicity, disability and age will compound
the gender pay gap and also need to be considered. Again, building
on best practice and using programmes such as the New Deal for
Skills and the National Employer training Programme are essential
to reaching these groups.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If we are to make a difference to the pay gap,
the LSC believes we need to focus on the following key areas:
— We need to tackle this issue from
an early age and ensure that young people are able to make better
and more fully informed choices about future learning and employment
opportunities and are able to do this earlier in their education.
— We need to build this area into
other key government strategies for learning, skills and young
people. We will work with partners to influence the 14-19 and
Skills White Papers, the Youth Green Paper, New Deal for Skills
and the National Employer Training Programme.
— We must learn from what works.
The LSC can and will provide leadership where necessary: disseminating
good practice and influencing related national, regional, local
strategies and programmes.
The LSC is passionate about reducing this pay
gap and ensuring that access to all learning and skills opportunities
is truly available for all.
We will work with the Commission to support
this investigation and look forward to championing and delivering
its recommendations throughout the post-16 learning sector.
February 2005
Authors:
Julie Nugent, Director of Planning and Performance,
LSC National Office
Claire Davis, Planning and Performance officer,
LSC National Office
Kit Roberts, Director of Equality and Diversity,
LSC National Office
Jenny Catlin, Policy Advisor, Chairman's Office,
LSC National Office.
LEARNING AND SKILLS COUNCIL
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE
| Chair of Committee
| | |
| Shirley Cramer | Chief Executive
| Dyslexia Institute |
| Members | |
|
| David Barker | Business Development Manager
| REED in Partnership (North East and Yorkshire)
|
| Jeremy Crook | Director |
Black Training and Enterprise Group |
| Nicola Dandrige | Head of Equality
| Thompsons Solicitors |
| Patrick Grattan | Chief Executive
| Third Age Employment Network |
| Amir Kabal | Chief Executive
| East Staffordshire Racial Equality Council
|
| Peter Lavender | Director for Research, Development and Information
| National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
|
| Alyson Malach | Head of Lifelong Learning
| Manchester City Council |
| Angela Mason | Director—Women and Equality Unit
| Department of Trade and Industry |
| Sally McEnhill | Principal |
Merton College |
| Judith Norrington | Director of Curriculum and Quality
| Association of Colleges |
| Yvonne Thompson | Managing Director
| ASAP Communications |
| Hilary Wiseman | Head of Diversity
| HSBC Bank |
| Expert Advisers | |
|
| Nick Johnson | Director of Strategy and Delivery
| Commission for Racial Equality |
| Nick O'Brien | Director of Legal Services
| Disability Rights Commission |
| Caroline Slocock | Chief Executive
| Equal Opportunities Commission |
| Observers | |
|
| Susan Pember | Director Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit
| Department for Education and Skills |
| | |
39
LSC's agenda for change is a key programme of activity to transform
the FE sector. It focuses on five themes: skills/employers, quality,
funding, efficiency, data. It will also look at the reputation
of the sector. Back
40
The FE Review is an independent review being carried out by Sir
Andrew Foster and is looking at the role of Colleges within FE.
Sir Andrew will report his findings to the Secretary of State
for Education and Skills and Chairman of the LSC. Back
41
New Deal for Skills sets out new ways of tackling longstanding
barriers that prevent low skilled individuals from entering and
remaining in employment. It also encompasses the recommendations
in the Welfare to Workforce Development report from the National
Employment Panel, published in March 2004. Implementation is underpinned
by collaboration between the LSC and Jobcentre Plus. Back
| 
