ANNEX
THE SKILLS
LANDSCAPE
Skills strategy
The links between skills and productivity, wages
and social mobility are inextricably linked so that joint working
across Government is essential if policies are to address the
overall success of the nation.
The Government's skills strategy, articulated
in the two White Papers of 2003 and 2005 puts employers centre
stage in identifying skills priorities and shaping the design
and delivery of training. This, combined with the DfES 14-19 reform
programme and subsequent 14—19 White Paper published in
February 2006, aims to tackle long-standing weaknesses. That is
a long-term, highly ambitious agenda. A key part of that is to
enable employers to drive demand so that we can create a system
that provides people with right skills and who have committed
to a process of lifelong learning.
Through our 14-19 strategy we support young
people to gain skills for employability. We are also focusing
on support for adults, because a large proportion of those currently
in the labour market have low levels of skills and it is estimated
that 70% of the 2020 workforce have already completed their compulsory
education. This is the skills contribution to the Government's
ambition of employment opportunity for all. We need to get more
of the unqualified and low skilled into more productive and sustainable
work to improve social mobility and inclusion and drive up competitiveness.
Tackling the low skills equilibrium, raising
employer ambition, and securing the interests of the learners
and the nation as well as employers are all fundamental to achieving
success in a global marketplace. The demand for skills at all
levels and in all sectors is set to grow. Globalisation challenges
us to move to a high-skills, high value-added economy. This can
only be achieved by upskilling at all levels.
POLICIES FOR
DELIVERING THE
SKILLS STRATEGY
AND RESPONDING
TO EMPLOYER
NEEDS
Skills for employers
The two White Papers have encapsulated the Government's
intention to create a demand led system of learning giving employers
a much stronger voice in shaping the supply of training at every
level. We have established the Skills for Business Network jointly
sponsored by DfES, DTI and the devolved administrations. The 25
Sector Skills Councils will map the skill needs in their sector
and plan provision to meet those needs through Sector Skills Agreements,
supported by employers, Government and the skills funding and
planning agencies (Learning & Skills Councils and HEFCE) (see
below).
The Foster Report in 2005 recognised the current
strengths of the further education sector however, it set out
a compelling set of arguments for reform, A Further Education
White paper was published in March 2006 and it addressed the issue
of the economic mission of colleges and the importance of responding
effectively to the needs of employers. We are building capacity
of colleges and other training providers to deliver benefits for
employers and individuals. Over the next five years, we are investing
£1.5 billion to support the longer term transformation of
the FE Sector. Increased capital funding to the FE sector will
improve vocational learning facilities. Employers should have
access to learning provision that responds to their needs and
is of high quality. Colleges, universities and other providers
need to be proactive in understanding employers' sectoral and
local skill needs, including for higher level skills. DfES, the
LSC and HEFCE are implementing a range of policies and levers
to drive up employer demand for relevant high quality education
and training, and to secure their influence and engagement in
the Further Education sector.
Train to gain
The Train to Gain brokerage scheme, launched
in September, will particularly focus on attracting hard to reach
SMEs using lessons learned from the Employer Training Pilots (ETP).
The most attractive elements of ETP for employers were free training
(cited as the main attraction by 43%), then flexible training
(19%) with wage compensation third (10%). 86% of learners were
satisfied with training and were more inclined to undertake further
training as a result. Employers were also highly satisfied and
identified a range of benefits for both employees and the business.
As a result of involvement they were more positive about training
in general and for their low-skilled employees in particular.
Skills brokers will be equipped to enable employers
to access the widest range of skills and business support to meet
the requirements of their individual businesses. This will include
free Skills for Life and first full level 2 training, and access
to higher level training at full cost or majority contribution
from the employer. The Government's policy is to focus its subsidy
on first full Level 2 qualifications. This is based on the economic
and social benefits of more people acquiring them and the market
failures that prevent this happening, despite the benefits it
would bring. As part of Train to Gain we are testing wage compensation
to encourage small employers to release staff for training.
We are reforming qualifications, including through
a new Framework for Achievement, with employers (SSCs) in the
lead to make them more industry friendly and responsive to business
needs through unitisation and flexibility.
STRUCTURES TO
DELIVER THE
SKILLS STRATEGY
National Level
The Skills Alliance
The creation of the Skills Alliance was announced
in the first Skills Strategy White Paper, 21st Century Skills:
realising our potential (2003). It oversees the effective
implementation of the Skills Strategy and is jointly chaired by
the Secretaries of State for Education & Skills, and Trade
and Industry. It brings together the four key Government Departments
(DfES; DTI; HM Treasury; DWP) with employer and union representatives
as a social and economic partnership and key delivery partners.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
The LSC was set up in 2001 to plan and fund
high-quality education and training for everyone over 16 in England,
other than in higher education. It works closely with employers
to identity existing skills gaps, understand what skills will
be needed in future and to ensure that the right education and
training resources are in place. The LSC works at national, regional
and local level from a network of offices across the country.
Regional/Local
As well as regional and local LSC offices, each
region has a Regional Skills Partnership (RSP) to help to meet
regional needs and to help to join up skills policy and budgets
in each region to achieve coherent working of all the agencies
involved in the skills delivery field. RSPs bring together the
RDA, the LSC, JobCentre Plus, the Small Business Service and the
Skills for Business Network with other regional partners.
Delivering Skills with the Trade Unions
The TUC are full partners in the Skills Alliance
and are represented on Regional Skills Partnerships. Trades Unions
are involved in development and approval of Sector Skills Agreements.
The Union Learning Fund has been expanded including role and numbers
of learning representatives.
The Sector Voice: The Skills for Business network
The Skills for Business Network consists of
the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and 25 employer-led
Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) covering 85% of the workforce. SSCs
are strategic employer-led bodies. Licensed by Government, they
are leading the drive to improve competitiveness and productivity
in industry and business sectors. Their role is to:
— Deliver top quality analysis of international,
national and regional trends in labour, skills and productivity
in their sector though Sector Skills Agreements.
— Develop national occupational standards
defining the skills needed in their sector to develop up to date,
high quality courses and qualifications.
— Work with employers to generate greater
employer commitment to maintain and improve their skills base.
Given their different stages of maturity, there
are significant variations in capacity, capability and performance
between SSCs across the network. The final SSC—Government
Skills, was recommended for licence in November 2005. Of the 25
SSCs: 18 (70%) have been licensed for between 1 and 2 years; 7
(30%) have been licensed for between two and three years.
SSDA is working with SSCs to achieve realistic,
viable and sustainable funding models. Part of the licensing criteria
for SSCs requires them to have and maintain active engagement
with employers including SMEs and micro employers. There is provision
in the SSC governance arrangements for SME representation. Examples
of SSC activity to engage SMEs include developing links with Trade
Associations, Chambers of Commerce and professional bodies. SSDA
is working with the Small Business Council and Small Business
Service to improve levels of SME engagement in the SfBN. The cross
sector work on management and leadership, led by the SSDA, also
includes a specific SME focus.
A key role for SSCs is the development of Sector
Skills Agreements (SSAs). The 2003 White Paper announced that
SSAs would be developed by each of the SSCs to "set a longer
term agenda for raising productivity in each sector, the skills
needed for international competitiveness, and how employers might
work together on a voluntary basis to invest in the necessary
skills". SSAs provide a mechanism for identifying the skills
and productivity needs for each sector and a framework which allows
employers, through their SSCs, to sign up to a key set of sector
skill priorities with the main funding and delivery agencies.
Developing an SSA is a six stage process comprising:
— A skills needs assessment, which
is a forward-looking analysis of the drivers of change in a sector
and how this translates into future skills, needs.
— An assessment of current education
and training provision.
— A gap analysis bringing together
the views of demand and supply as the basis for identifying priorities
for action.
— An assessment of the scope for collaborative
action by employers to address the identified skills gaps and
weaknesses.
— An action plan outlining the joint
actions to be taken by SSCs, employers and partners to meet sector
skills needs.
— A checkpoint review to drive implementation.
The first SSAs were launched in March 2005 with
others coming on stream gradually until the end of 2007. The completion
of SSAs is a key priority for the SSDA in 2006-07. We see SSAs
as the most powerful tool a SSC has. They provide a crucial mechanism
to deliver on four strategic objectives: increasing productivity;
addressing skills gaps and shortages; providing greater opportunities
and achieving more responsive education and training provision.
In short they are a key feature of the employer-led skills agenda.
SEMTA (Science, Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies
Alliance) is the main SSC for manufacturing. Four other SSCs have
an interest in manufacturing: Cogent—Chemicals, oil &
gas, nuclear, petroleum, polymers; Proskills—process and
manufacturing industries including coatings, extractives, building
products and printing industries; Skillfast—Apparel, footwear
and textiles and Improve—food and drink manufacturing and
processing. These five SSCs have formed the Manufacturing Skills
Alliance to consider issues replicated across all manufacturing
sectors. We are keen to see crosscutting working across the Skills
for Business Network and are pleased to see the formation of clusters
for this purpose. The Manufacturing Skills Alliance offers a real
opportunity for genuine partnership working across some very important
sectors of the economy.
SEMTA was one of the four "Pathfinder"
SSCs who launched their SSAs in March 2005. This covered three
of it's thirteen broad sub-sectors; aerospace, electronics and
automotive. SSAs for the remaining sub-sectors are in development.
Cogent and Skillfast are in the final stages of completion while
Proskills and Improve are just embarking on the process.
September 2006
| 
