Select Committee on Public Accounts Thirteenth Report


3  Meeting the needs of business and local labour markets

20. Linking skills and employment support to local labour market needs is of critical importance because the jobs available, the skills needed and the skills of people looking for work vary between regions and these variations can be even greater at the local level. Competition for vacancies is greatest in London, Yorkshire and Humberside, the West Midlands and the North East. In the National Audit Office's surveys of Regional Development Agencies and Local Strategic Partnerships, eight of the nine Regional Development Agencies and 78% of the Local Strategic Partnerships considered that 'skills mismatch' was one of the barriers to employment in their area.

21. At a regional level Jobcentre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council work with a range of organisations including Regional Development Agencies, Regional Skills Partnerships, and employment and skills boards to understand the future needs of local labour markets. When deciding which training to supply, the Learning and Skills Council takes a lead from Regional Development Agencies. Every Regional Development Agency has a regional economic strategy that sets out in the short, medium and long terms how it sees economic development in that region, including the priorities for jobs growth and sector growth. It is important that Jobcentre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council take full account of what employers expect by way of jobs and long-term skills needs. The Learning and Skills Council's 150 local partnership teams aim to allow the Council to keep in close touch with local employers to understand their changing needs, while the Train to Gain programme helps employers to meet their current training requirements.[27]

22. Jobcentre Plus is establishing Local Employment Partnerships to match up the people most disadvantaged in the labour market with local job opportunities. Employers who sign up for the partnership commit to offering employment opportunities to people who are furthest from the labour market, while the Government undertakes to provide candidates who are ready to work and who have the skills needed for the specific jobs on offer. To date, over 200 companies have agreed to participate. Jobcentre Plus agrees that the public sector also has an important role to play as an employer in this initiative. A working party of Departmental Permanent Secretaries has been established to determine how the civil service will participate in Local Employment Partnerships.[28]

23. Adult training is becoming increasingly 'demand-led' and responsive to employers' needs. This trend is reflected in the funding of adult provision (Figure 5). Changes to arrangements in skills provision include:

  • The rationalisation of adult vocational qualifications, which began in 2003. The reforms aim to offer clear progression routes and to allow employers and providers with a greater range of options for having their own training nationally accredited.
  • The development of a standard set of indicators for assessing the quality of provision in post-16 learning providers. Responsiveness has been identified as one of the key performance areas. The framework is due to be implemented from summer 2008.
  • A new standard for the employer responsiveness and vocational excellence of training providers. This new standard will provide a badge of quality for employers to look for when purchasing training.

Figure 5: An increasing proportion of adult funding is planned to be spent on employer responsive provision



Note: Employer responsive provision includes employer-based National Vocational Qualifications, Apprenticeships and work-based learning and Train to Gain. Adult learner responsive provision includes further education (19+), learndirect, employability learning, adult safeguarded learning and the Offender Learning and Skills Service.

24. The Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 announced funding for over 7.3 million training places over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11, representing a drop in the number of training places of 0.7 million compared to those available between 2005-06 and 2007-08.[29] Resources are being refocused on priority areas including Skills for Life, full Level 2 and Level 3 provision and all employer responsive provision, with the number of training places in these areas set to increase.


27   Qq 27-30, 58 Back

28   Qq 23, 56, 60; C&AG's Report, para 5.6 Back

29   Qq 77-79, 91; C&AG's Report, paras 4.8, 4.15 Back


 
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Prepared 28 February 2008