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8.19 pm
Jeremy Wright (Rugby and Kenilworth) (Con): I agree with those Members who have said that the Bill is a missed opportunity. The Leitch review and—to be fair to the Government—the White Paper that preceded the Bill were wide ranging and, in their different ways, ambitious documents, but this Bill is not. It is not all bad, of course. There are provisions on consultation that I welcome, and I also welcome the freedoms that the Bill gives to colleges—as far as they go. The problem is that those freedoms are undermined by other parts of the Bill, especially measures—which have been discussed in detail—that might give the Learning and Skills Council the power to intervene in the running of colleges. We should trust colleges to do the important job that we ask them to do.
Many Members have talked about the role that we want colleges to play, and all of them have recognised that they are crucial institutions that do good work. However, the Bill sends colleges mixed messages about how much we trust them to do that important work. We are considering allowing colleges to confer their own degrees, yet we are also considering allowing the LSC to direct governors to behave as it thinks most appropriate, and even to dismiss the principals of colleges. It is one thing for the Secretary of State to do that; at least he or she is elected and democratically accountable to this House. However, the LSC—a non-elected, non-departmental body—does not have such democratic accountability. I am profoundly troubled by that proposal.
There is another incongruous aspect of the Bill. The Secretary of State retains the power to issue guidance on how governing bodies should consult learners—clause 20 deals with that. I welcome these provisions, but the LSC does not gain that responsibility. The Secretary of State retains it, yet learning and skills councils will have the power to set up, dissolve and potentially fire the management of further education colleges. That is odd.
There is also the question of much the exercise of those powers that might be transferred to the LSC will cost. The hon. Member for City of Durham (Dr. Blackman-Woods) has made the point that there is the danger that there will be legal proceedings following the sacking of the manager, principal or chief executive of an FE college. I can say from experience that legal proceedings cost money. If those costs are no longer to be covered by the Secretary of State but instead are to be transferred to the LSC, it is important to recognise that it will be necessary to ascertain how those costs will be met. However, that is unclear.
On the transfer of certain powers to FE colleges, the explanatory notes state:
“There will be no increased funding as a result of the provision in the Bill transferring powers of the Secretary of State to establish and dissolve further education corporations to the
LSC. The LSC will incur certain additional costs in exercising the powers, but these costs are difficult to ascertain.”
Those costs might well be difficult to ascertain, but the costs of firing principals will be even more difficult to ascertain and could be much larger. We have heard about the costs that the Government hope will be saved by this restructuring of learning and skills councils, but before we accept those savings as a given it is important that we talk about what costs might arise on the other side of the balance sheet.
The Bill restructures the learning and skills councils in a way that I am unconvinced is either needed or desirable. On first inspection, it does not appear to me to be wholly sensible that the powers of the LSC should be transferred further away from learners and from employers, which is what the Government intend to do by transferring responsibility regionally instead of locally.
What concerns me most is not the organisation of the LSC, but its direction and priorities. As has been discussed in the debate, we face a very definite problem: we are behind our competitors in work force skills, and in many respects we are falling further behind. In 2006, we were 18th out of 30 OECD countries in terms of the proportion of 25 to 64 year olds with skills at or above level 2, and the problem is getting worse. The amount of learners between the ages of 19 and 59 fell by 16 per cent. between 2004-05 and 2005-06. There is a further decline in enrolments for 2007. I want to address that problem in the remainder of my brief remarks.
The LSC has focused primarily on those up to the age of 25, and everybody understands why it would wish to do that. It is important that that group is properly catered for and provision is made for it, but in the new world of work the over-25s are just as important and they are not as well served. Part of the reason for that is the progression that everyone now needs to make in the course of their chosen profession. As many Members have said, progress in training must be continuous. We must make provision for ongoing training for everybody. It will not be possible for people to sit on their laurels and think that the skills that they learned at 16, 18 or 21 will see them through the rest of their career. Ongoing training and skilling is vital.
There is, however, a problem in that we are developing a plateau at about the level 2 mark. It is difficult for many people with level 2 skills to go on to develop skills at level 3 and beyond. There is much good provision for level 2 skills and below, but far less good provision for skills above that level. It is as important that people are able to develop such skills because, as is already generally accepted, we neither can, nor would wish to, compete with the rest of the world on the basis of lower wages. We will have to—and should want to—compete with the rest of the world on the basis of higher skills. The higher skills required to enable us to do that will not stop at level 2; we will need still higher skills. If there is a problem with graduating from level 2 to level 3 and other intermediate level skill qualifications, that needs to be addressed, but the Bill fails to do that.
It is also highly likely that anyone of my age or younger will not be able to expect that the profession, trade or career that they begin at 16, 18 or 21—or whatever age—will be the profession or trade that they will be working in when they retire. It is highly likely
that all of us will have to accept having two, three or perhaps four changes of career in a working lifetime. Reskilling and retraining become vital for that reason, and of course the people in need of such retraining and reskilling will be well above the age of 25. The skills structure needs to be flexible enough to deal with that and, as the Leitch review says, it needs to be demand led. It discusses individual learning accounts, and they seem to me to be the only way in which the system can be flexible enough to respond to such continuing and varied demands. Again, nothing in the Bill deals with that.
It is right—and it is accepted in the White Paper and in the Leitch review—that we cannot wait to deal with those problems. They will not be resolved by dealing with the skills requirements of people under 25 because, as both documents observe, 70 per cent. of the working population in 2020, which is the target date for all that Government activity, has already left compulsory education, so it is too late for them. We have to make provision for them post-25.
Finally, it is important not to forget in the course of this debate that further education is about more than simply work-related skills. It is important that we regard education as a lifelong experience, with merits not simply for gaining new skills for the workplace but gaining new experiences for life more generally. Further education can be a social experience; it can be a health-giving experience; it can be an enhancing experience in many different ways. We have lost sight of that because, in this debate and in others, we talk a great deal about the needs of people between the age of 14 and 25, and a little less, although we have still discussed it, about the needs of those who need to retrain in the working environment. Those who have been forgotten are people who engage in further education—I do not want to say “recreationally”, because that is the wrong word—without a direct connection to employment. For those people, further education is important. For all of us, it should be important, because if we are going to persuade those who need to reskill for the good of our economy that education is a lifelong experience, and should be available to them, they need to see that we regard education as lifelong for everyone. I hope that in the course of this debate, we do not lose sight of those people, but it does not seem, either for them or for those who need for their own good and for the good of all of us to reskill later in life, that the Bill deals with their problems.
My hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell) referred to the Bill as a tidying exercise, and it may be so. The Secretary of State described it as an enabling Bill, but in my judgment it does not enable anywhere near enough. It does not enable us to deal with fundamental problems in our economy and the skills structure. Until we do so we will not be able to compete. I very much hope that in the course of our debate and the Bill’s progress that the Government will either add what needs to be added or consider very shortly a further Bill that will deal with those problems.
8.31 pm
Mr. Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab): I have a lot to be thankful for as a result of my experience in further education. My time in Hartlepool sixth form college in the late 1980s and 90s, particularly the experience, commitment and enthusiasm of the staff by whom I was taught, opened up to me the possibilities that are available in the world. In retrospect, the level of commitment from the staff was astonishing in the face of Government indifference and a real-terms cut in FE sector funding in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Despite that, the tutors and staff at the college were focused and professional. They gave me confidence and ignited the ambition that allowed me to go on to university and, ultimately, led to membership of the House. The dedication of the staff in the FE sector is second to none, and I am extremely pleased to pay tribute to them.
For a relatively small town, Hartlepool has a remarkably diverse further education provision. Hartlepool sixth form college has an A-level pass rate of 99.7 per cent, and is going from strength to strength under principal Rick Wells. Hartlepool college of further education had an A-level pass rate of 100 per cent. last year and, under the strong leadership of Dave Waddington, is driving forward with passion the skills agenda in the town. We are blessed, too, to have a specialist art school in Cleveland college of art and design which, under the leadership of David Willshaw, understands the importance of its contribution to the British economy at a time when Britain is the design workshop of the world. Graduates of the college designed “Bob the Builder” and now head up the Jaguar X-type design team, although I do not necessarily think that it was the same people. A sixth form college is attached to the English Martyrs school, with a remarkably committed head teacher in Joe Hughes. The choice for learners in Hartlepool would be the envy of people in much larger towns and cities.
I am pleased that there is broad consensus in the House about the fact that skills, and the need for our country’s economy and work force to adapt to meet the challenges of globalisation, are a vital part of economic and education policy. Leitch mentioned that in his report, and many other hon. Members far more articulate than me have reiterated it, not least the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright), who preceded me. I agree with the Government’s approach that the FE sector should be the engine of economic growth and social progress. I agree, too, with the sentiments of the recent White Paper and the Bill about to what a further education college’s remit should be: it should improve employability and skills in its local area and contribute to economic growth and social inclusion to meet the demands of the modern economy.
There is an acute need for Hartlepool to upskill its work force to compete in the regional, national and global economy, and to give every individual the tools to achieve his or her own ambition. There are significant challenges. The percentage of school leavers who stayed on in further education and training in Hartlepool is good at 88.1 per cent.—higher, in fact, than the regional and national averages. However, the Hartlepool figures reduce to well below the national average when the whole of the 16 to 19 age group is considered. That
shows that there is a pressing need toretain learners in the FE sector so that they can train and obtain appropriate skills beyond the age of 17.
The infrastructure of the Hartlepool economy is dominated by the public sector, with a third of all jobs in the town being in the NHS and the local authority, and in the education sector. In view of the deprivation and ill health caused by years of neglect, that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it shows that we have a relatively undeveloped and small private sector. Its domination by a few large firms—certainly in my constituency, but also across the region—reduces the ability of Hartlepool and the north-east to be dynamic, diverse and more enterprising, and therefore more prosperous.
There are skills gaps, in the region and in my constituency, in the financial services sector and the utilities sector. It is estimated that the Tees valley will require 30,000 additional jobs in the next decade in high-value, added-process industries such as chemicals, science, engineering and manufacturing technologies, but at present we do not have the appropriate skills base to fill them.
Low skills levels in Hartlepool, below the sub-regional and regional levels, are hindering our potential progress. In many ways, though, that scenario could only have been dreamed of even 20 or 30 years ago: then, we had the highly skilled workers, but we did not have the world markets or the Government to help them. Today, there is a chance that we will squander this once-in-a-generation opportunity if we do not match the potential with the skills in the work force, and the role of further education in that is crucial. The Bill is at its strongest and most forceful when it focuses on responding to employer demand and on allowing Britain and the regional economy to compete, but there is still a long way to go.
The Government’s aspiration is that 50 per cent. of all young people will go on to higher education. Nationally, the participation rate has reached 43 per cent., but only 24 per cent. of young people from the north-east enter higher education, and the figure among my constituents is even lower. Although the increase in the number of young people progressing to higher education is in line with the national average, we are starting from a much lower base—the result of immense cultural barriers.
The key challenge is to raise aspiration, to show a proportion of young people in my constituency and elsewhere in the north-east what is achievable and possible. That is where the Bill needs to be looked at in a fresh way. It quite rightly places the onus on the FE sector to act as the catalyst of the national economy in the face of the pressures of globalisation. The consequence is that purchasing power in terms of the design, shaping and costing of the courses on offer in FE is placed in the hands of employers, but that tends to focus FE learning on those already in employment. How does the Bill therefore marry up with the worklessness agenda? How does it contribute to the Government's target of ensuring that 80 per cent of working age adults are in employment, when its emphasis is on people already in work?
The equalities review found that not being in education, employment or training for six months between the ages of 16 and 18 was the single most
powerful predictor of unemployment at the age of 21. I would like the Bill to contribute more towards removing the massive cultural barrier of young people and others not in education, employment or training. I know that clause 7 requires the regional LSCs to consult and canvass the views of potential learners, but how is that possible if they are so hard to reach, and therefore disengaged from any such process?
On Second Reading in another place, mention was made of how vital it is to break down the rigidity between further education, higher education and schools. The hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell) made a powerful and thoughtful speech, in which he mentioned the need for that fluidity, and it is something that we in Hartlepool are embracing already.
The town’s college of further education has a centre of vocational excellence—a CoVE—in engineering, and two other CoVEs in different disciplines. There are close links between the college and St Hild’s school, which is a specialist engineering school whose high-tech lab and engineering facilities I am due to open in the next few weeks. Teachers from St Hild’s provide input into the CoVE; conversely, tutors from the college teach 15 and 16-year-olds at school or on the college campus. That fluidity is vital if we are to encourage more of our young people to enter engineering, one of the growth areas for the Hartlepool economy in the years to come.
It seems to me that FE colleges with a modern and welcoming environment—they are not schools, with their possible memories and ramifications, nor yet universities, which to learners at that stage might seem out of reach—are the ideal place to widen participation and tackle the problem of disengagement. I therefore ask Ministers to question whether this Bill does all that it could to address that specific concern.
Foundation degrees, in their short existence, have been an enormous success in my part of the world. Hartlepool college of further education provides a range of foundation degrees accredited by the universities of Sunderland and Teesside on subjects from assisted learning and working with young people to construction and manufacturing maintenance engineering. Cleveland college of art and design is reconfiguring its courses so that all its higher education courses will be taught from its Hartlepool campus from September. It will be launching new foundation degrees in applied arts, as well as in costume construction for stage and screen—whatever that is—contemporary textile practice and commercial photography. The number of students on the campus studying for HE degrees will rise from 200 to 700. Hartlepool sixth-form college provides a full-time law degree in conjunction with Leeds Metropolitan university. Students complete their first year in Hartlepool and then transfer to Leeds for the second and third years.
Foundation degrees have been a success in my area because they have been undertaken in a spirit of collaboration and partnership. They allow real investment to come into Hartlepool, which in turn lifts people’s aspirations because they have the opportunity to take valued qualifications that they would previously have been unable to take, and that very much widens participation. However, I am concerned that allowing FE providers to award their own degrees will result in unnecessary and counter-productive competition and
rivalry between FE and HE providers, which would prevent collaboration. On Second Reading in another place, my noble Friend Lord Sawyer, who is the chancellor of the university of Teesside, highlighted the university’s £6 million capital investment in a higher education centre at Hartlepool college of further education, and there is the prospect of the university putting much more investment into Hartlepool. However, I ask the House, and particularly Ministers, to consider whether the university would readily co-operate with Hartlepool if it felt that potential students were somehow being poached? Although those concerns were addressed during the Bill’s passage through another place, I hope that during the Committee stage in this House Ministers will mitigate such risks so that the awarding of foundation degrees strengthens the partnership between FE and HE and does not compromise the principle of ensuring that there is mutually beneficial support and provision and the best strategic fit.
The Government are right to see skills as the major factor in developing our economy in the 21st century and also to place FE providers at the heart of that challenge. I hope that the Bill can address such challenges, subject to the concerns that I have raised, and I wish it well in its passage through the House.
8.43 pm
Mr. Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright). We have had a great education in this debate. We had the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Ms Smith) who demonstrated Smith’s law, according to which, it is fair to say, a speech expands in inverse proportion to the length of a Bill. My hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley), who is now in his place, talked cobblers, as befits someone who represents that fine town in Northamptonshire.
I would very much like to have supported the Bill, but I cannot, in common with my hon. Friends, because it lacks imagination and is, unfortunately, about structures—it is a missed opportunity. It is also about bureaucracy and fails to reflect the reality of further education in the real world. In common with others, I believe that Ministers have missed a trick in failing to wait for the final recommendations of Lord Leitch’s report on skills. They should have done so because it would have meant that we could have had a much more fully informed debate.
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