2 Helping employers find training
that meets business needs
10. Employers
want simple ways of getting advice on the best skills training
for their business. However, there is a wide range of public,
private and voluntary sector organisations involved in planning
and delivering education and training for employees, and employers
have mixed views on how easy the available advice and guidance
is to understand. Train to Gain is introducing a brokerage service
for employers with independent brokers responsible to and funded
through the Learning and Skills Council. Brokers will seek to
make employers more aware of the link between better skilled employees
and profitability and business success. They are expected to help
employers identify the skills training they require and find a
training provider who can meet their needs at a location and time
that suits the employer. They should add value and reduce costs
by bringing together different small employers seeking the same
or similar skills development and providers who can provide the
best training solution for an employer or group of employers.[24]
11. The Learning and Skills Council is looking to
reduce its administrative costs and increase the percentage of
funds available for learning.[25]
There is a risk however, that brokers could create an extra layer
of bureaucracy between employers and training providers, especially
where effective relationships have already been established. It
is important therefore that skills brokers do not duplicate the
service provided by others such as by Business Link or Chambers
of Commerce. They should focus on those employers least likely
to invest in training, provide a simple route for getting advice
and help develop more consistently high quality contacts with
employers across the country. The Learning and Skills Council
has set brokers a target for 50% of their work to reach companies
who have provided little or no training for their employees. The
initiative will be marketed to increase awareness, and the Learning
and Skills Council is developing its website to include a register
of training providers, which will take account of feedback from
employers.[26]
12. The Learning and Skills Council is planning to
spend £30-40 million a year on 450 skills brokers, who
it proposes to appoint through competitive tendering. Brokers
will be accredited by the Learning and Skills Council and will
be expected to gain a national qualification. They will require
considerable business knowledge and experience to gain credibility
among employers. And they will need to understand the benefits
and impact of training on business, so that they can explain them
clearly and persuasively to employers, especially small employers
who may have the greatest difficulty releasing staff for training.[27]
13. There is a risk that publicly funded skills training
subsidises training that employers would have been willing to
pay for themselves. Only 14% of the 26,000 employers who had participated
in the 20 pilots of Train to Gain (the Employer Training Pilots)
had not been involved in training before, and the Institute for
Fiscal Studies[28] found
that only 10-15% of the training was additional to that which
employers would have provided anyway. The Institute estimated
that in the two-year pilot period, only 11,000 new basic skills
and level 2 awards had been made. The Learning and Skills Council
is considering carefully how to minimise the extent of 'deadweight'
as the Train to Gain programme is rolled out nationally, and the
Department will monitor take-up of training, to check that employers
are raising their overall investment in skills. The Learning and
Skills Council is also continuing to pilot and test wage compensation
as an incentive for employers.[29]
14. Skills brokers' levels of activity, operational
costs and overheads, and IT security will all need to be monitored
carefully in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Individual
Learning Accounts and Consultancy Brokerage Service, which were
wound up in 2001 and 1994-95 respectively. Individual Learning
Accounts depended on brokers to encourage people back into learning,
but the scheme had to be closed because of weaknesses in information
technology systems which meant the scheme was vulnerable to fraud.[30]
The Consultancy Brokerage Service, which operated a computerised
directory of consultants, was intended to help small and medium
sized enterprises' access good quality consultancy services, but
consultants were discouraged from registering because of cost
and bureaucracy.[31]
Through satisfaction surveys the Learning and Skills Council will
seek to examine whether skills brokers are impartial and are succeeding
in improving the commitment of "hard-to-reach" employers
to train their employees.[32]
15. Employers have a range of routes for influencing
training, including direct contact with colleges and other training
providers, or through the Learning and Skills Council and Sector
Skills Councils (Figure 2). Many employers want to influence
skills training but do not have the time to do so. Larger employers
with more than 250 employees are a relatively small group, and
their views are relatively easy to obtain. However, 96% of employers
have fewer than 50 employees, and it is harder for them to have
a voice.[33]
Figure2: Employers can influence skills training through a number of
channels
- Through representative bodies, such as the Confederation of British Industry and the Small Business Council
- The Learning and Skills Council includes employer representatives on its National Council
- The 47 local Learning and Skills Councils include and consult with employer representatives
- Governing bodies of further education colleges include and consult employer representatives
- The nine Regional Development Agencies include employer representatives
- The 25 Sector Skills Councils are designed as employer-led organisations for employers to influence the skills agenda
- Skills Academies from 2007-08 will include employers to govern and shape the Academies' work
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16. Sector Skills Councils help employers secure
the training they want for their sector, for example through liaising
with the Regional Skills Partnerships and with the local Learning
and Skills Councils who plan and fund provision in colleges and
other providers.[34]
The 25 Councils are employer-led organisations representing business,
industrial and other sectors. But there is relatively low awareness
among some employers, partly because some of the Councils are
still relatively new. Surveys indicate that awareness is improving,
but key tasks required of the Councils, such as developing Sector
Skills Agreements and Sector Qualification Strategies, represent
a particular challenge for some of the newer and smaller Councils.
There is a risk that they will become overstretched undermining
the quality of service they provide to employers.[35]
24 C&AG's Report, paras 15-18, Figure 3; Qq 1-2,
52 Back
25
25th Report from the Committee of Public Accounts,
Securing strategic leadership in the learning and skills sector
(HC 602, Session 2005-06), paras 3-4 Back
26
Qq 7, 39, 77-83, 92-95, 99-100 Back
27
Qq 12-16, 30-31, 79-83, 101; Ev 17-18 Back
28
DfES Research Report RR694: The impact of the Employer Training
Pilots on the take-up of training among employers and employees,
29 December 2005 Back
29
C&AG's Report, para 3.5; Qq 5, 68-70 Back
30
10th Report from the Committee of Public Accounts,
Individual learning accounts (HC 544, Session 2002-03) Back
31
Financial Times, 12 September 1995 Back
32
Qq 13, 88-90, 98 Back
33
C&AG's Report, paras 28, 4.3, Figures 4 , 11; Qq 2, 10-11 Back
34
C&AG's Report, Figure 12 Back
35
C&AG's Report, paras 29, 30, 4.2-4.3, 4.7-4.8; Qq 2, 22, 32 Back
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