House of Commons - Re-skilling for recovery: After Leitch, implementing skills and training policies - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee

Re-skilling for recovery: After Leitch, implementing skills and training policies - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Contents

6 Individuals

Individual demand for training

193. Of the three partners identified by Leitch it is the voice of the individual that is hardest to capture. The Government can make itself heard and employers have recognised organisations to collect and represent their views. It is more difficult to know where to go to hear the true opinions of individuals. Concerns were raised that the voice of the individual should not be lost. For example, Lifelong Learning UK told us:

More demand-led provision should provide students with better career prospects as the courses they are undertaking are endorsed by industry (through SSCs). However, there still needs to be space for student choice as well. Students are becoming more demanding as increasingly they are required to pay for their courses, particularly in Higher Education. Measures need to be in place to enable students to study what they want to study—which may not always be directly endorsed by an employer/SSC … It is important that as Leitch is implemented, the learner remains at the centre of policy and planning.[390]

194. The Equality and Human Rights Commission had "concerns about the extent to which the new adult careers service and advancement agency, and Skills Accounts, will capture the voice and potential of [the 4 million people neither working nor on benefits] and create appropriate arrangements for securing skills and progression throughout the lifecycle".[391] The Commission described this group as "the hardest to reach and potentially the most in need" and "people who do not appear within the documentation."[392] The self-employed and other groups, such as the disabled, may also struggle to be heard, particularly if 'demand-led' becomes predominantly 'employer-led'.

195. The Government has quite rightly placed strong emphasis on this part of the agenda as demonstrated by the then Minister in his appearance before us. Recognition that concerted action needs to be taken to increase demand and expectations among individuals has been taken on board by the Government in the launch of the Our Future. Our Hands. Our Success campaign in July 2008. DIUS claims that the campaign "has proved successful by stimulating an increase in the appeal of learning new skills and is prompting people to explore opportunities and actually do a course" and that "an econometric analysis undertaken by Learndirect has shown the 12% uplift in calls to the careers advice line attributed to the Skills Campaign equates to around 37,000 calls".[393]

196. However, it has also been suggested that the Government's focus on targets and on channelling funding through Train to Gain may be counterproductive. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education commented that:

Government policies are inadvertently hampering adults' motivations to learn and disregarding needs that have an impact on learning demand. As departments and providers are pressured to achieve the qualification targets, they are using levers such as limiting funding entitlements only to learning that will count towards those targets. This has left learners not only with less publicly funded subjects and modes of study but also with less choice of learning being offered.[394]

NIACE was concerned that "many adults, especially those with lower levels of skills, need time to develop motivation and confidence before they commit to a full course … current policies drive providers towards 'quick wins' which guarantee funding but that disadvantage the most marginalised learners".[395]

197. One witness told us:

We have got to have many approaches as to how we get a change in culture. For a change in culture you have to take people with you. You cannot take change and implant it on them … that is where change happens, at the coal face, with real people learning more about themselves and about how to work as a team. Just having faith in learning in general without targets is very, very important. That is how you get cultural change.[396]

Achieving this cultural change is a critical part of the Leitch agenda. We note that UKCES is undertaking a research project into "the barriers to employee engagement and employee demand", and the Chief Executive assured us that "we are very keen to make sure that we understand the customer journey, the individual journey in all of this so that the individual voice gets reflected into the system as well".[397] We regard this as essential and are keen that the research should examine not just employees but also those out of work for whatever reason. The issues of worklessness and under-employment, and especially the challenge of supporting those wishing to return to work either with or developing adequate skills to do a job with progression after a long period outside the workforce (this particularly applies to women) must be given much higher priority. This is an area where strong continuing joint working between DIUS and DWP programmes and policies will be essential. We hope that the UKCES research project leads to firm recommendations to Government on how to simplify access and reduce delay in providing training, especially to the unemployed, and that the Government is prepared to act to address these crucial issues. Individual voices, not just those of the currently employed and employers, must be heard.

Specific Government policies for individuals

SKILLS ACCOUNTS

198. New initiatives to assist individuals under the Leitch agenda include the introduction of Skills Accounts. This was highlighted as one of the two key measures in World Class Skills, the other being the Skills Pledge. The Government expects that by 2010-11 adult learners with Skills Accounts will be able to access £500 million of adult funding, increasing to around £1.5 billion by 2015, when Skills Accounts will become "the key mechanism via which all adults access learning outside Train to Gain".[398] The Accounts will offer a 'virtual voucher' of state funding representing an entitlement to purchase relevant learning at an accredited, quality assured provider of their choice. They will also give individuals access to a range of other services through the adult advancement and careers service, and an online record on which to store their qualifications and achievements.[399] The Government intends that "As the service develops the range of products and services will increase so that a Skills Account becomes the one-stop-shop for learning."[400] The first pilots began in September 2008, allowing learners in the South East and East Midlands to open accounts at selected colleges, and from November to open accounts through a wider range of access points including online.[401]

199. Throughout our inquiry, there was little information available on the details of how Skills Accounts will work and some confusion as to what they would offer. Tom Wilson of the TUC told us that "I do not think people have yet got to a clear concept of what a new skills account might look like".[402] The absence of detail may have encouraged some to fill the vacuum with hopes of what they want the accounts to achieve and to represent; Tom Wilson, for example, gave us the TUC's wish-list:

For us, the key features would be, firstly, that the range of kinds of qualifications or training or opportunities that they could pay for would be as wide as possible, and not, as Alan was saying, some rather narrow utilitarian approach that was just very tightly focused. Secondly, I think they were collectivisable and there is this interesting concept, the collective learning funds, which we pushed for and secured inclusion of in the previous FE White Paper where there are some pilots being explored now in the East Midlands and the North West. The idea is there that workers could pool their learning accounts working with Train to Gain, perhaps, with employer funding too, create a collective pot and in that way get far more than the sum of its parts because training, generally, most employers would, I think, prefer to do in a systematic way with a group of workers rather than just one-by-one.[403]

200. We are concerned that, as details emerge, there may be some disappointment with the programme. The emphasis placed on Skills Accounts in the most recent information from DIUS in answer to questions from us is firmly on the role of the Skills Account as an on-line record of achievement and entitlement, with the virtual voucher merely "information about the public funding that an individual is entitled to, based on their circumstances and their choice of course" [404] and not a redirection of funding through the hands of individuals as may have been supposed. Skills Accounts are therefore to be seen as "the main mechanism through which people unlock their entitlements to public funding, rather than the entitlements themselves", which have not changed.[405]

201. On the face of it, Skills Accounts have the potential to place power in the hands of individuals but it is hard to regard the current proposals as an exciting radical development. There is a virtue in having an on-line record of achievement and in having access to tailored advice on entitlements but it is not clear how this will directly raise demand. Still less is it clear how it will encourage progression from Level 3 to Level 4 skills. We strongly support Skills Accounts and the principle that real funding should be placed in the hands of individual learners to empower them to engage with their learning. At present however vagueness as to how the Accounts will operate risks both confusion and a lack of impetus. Skills Accounts that merely became a paper or online accounting exercise, listing achievements or entitlements, without new funding initiatives or incentives would be sterile and quite inadequate to address the issues Lord Leitch highlighted in his Report. We hope that once the operational effectiveness of the programme has been established through the trials, the Government will be more ambitious in its plans for skills accounts to justify the importance placed on them by Ministers and by key policy papers such as World Class Skills.

AACS

202. The adult advancement and careers service (AACS) brings together the advice services of learndirect and next step and is designed to work in partnership with Jobcentre Plus. It will be trialled in stages from 2008-09 to 2010. The SSCs commented that "The move towards an increasingly demand-led system requires a step-change improvement in the quality of Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) offered to potential students, whether at 14, 18, or as a lifelong learner. Currently many people are studying in areas where they stand little chance of employment, whilst there are skills shortages in other areas".[406] They felt that their own labour market information was "key to meeting this requirement."[407] However, CRAC: The Career Development Organisation point out that there is no onus on the SSCs or RDAs to provide relevant labour market information from a career development perspective.[408] This has to be addressed.

203. A further point raised in evidence was that the advice service should cater for all ages. The Centre for Skills Development called for AACS to develop links into local employment markets and local opportunities and to cater to both young people and adults,[409] referring back to a report from the Skills Commission which urged the Government to introduce an "all-age service" for the delivery of Information, Advice and Guidance.[410] CRAC emphasised that the same issues of coherency of service applied to postgraduate and research staff. It argued that "It is vital that stronger links are built between [the UK Grad programme, RDAs, SSCs and employers] in order to support doctoral researchers' career decision making through access to relevant labour market intelligence".[411]

204. We believe that there should be a one-stop shop for all advice which should cover all ages and levels. However, if the service is to be truly universal, then the quality of the advice offered must be high across many different sectors and skills levels and capable of handling inquiries from people of all backgrounds and experiences. The quality of the advisers and the information on which the system is based, both on the demands of the market and on the availability of training and funding options, is crucial. Towards the end of our inquiry DIUS produced a 'prospectus' for the new Service: Shaping the future, a new adult advancement and careers service for England. This includes details of ten 'prototype' services. Much is riding on the effectiveness of the new AACS and we recommend that the Government report on the trials and consult individuals, employers and training providers on their experiences of using it in 2009 before the system is made universally available in 2010.

205. We believe strongly that a single Careers Service should cater for young people and adults. It should not be the case that individuals have to access a new service simply because they have reached their 19th birthday. We therefore recommend that in at least one of the trial areas a unified Careers Service is provided for young people and adults and feedback obtained on which model is more effective.

THE RIGHT TO REQUEST TIME TO TRAIN

206. In June 2008 the Government issued a consultation paper, Time to Train, which set out proposals to give employees the right to request time off for training. The Government explained:

This new right would help encourage and support adults to develop their skills and rise as far as their talent will take them. That empowerment will be particularly valuable for those employees who don't currently receive training. And, by helping to raise their employees' awareness and aspirations in relation to skills, the proposed right would support and encourage employers to invest in the skills of their employees as a driver of future business performance.[412]

One SSC Chief Executive, representing employers, described the right to request time off to train as "a really positive move" but he cautioned that in such a system "the employee himself has still got to be motivated enough to want to demand the training" and concluded "I do not think the right to request in itself is really the whole answer to generating more demand at the workplace level".[413]

207. The Government's current proposal is a considerable step back from the previous policy of a 2010 review of whether employees should have a legal right to workplace training up to level 2.[414] Whilst it is an important first step, at this early stage in the development of the proposal, we are not yet convinced that the impact is likely to be of the scale necessary to make a significant contribution to the Leitch targets. Assuming that the measure is passed by Parliament, we recommend that the effectiveness of the right to request time off for training be monitored and reported annually.

Lifelong learning

208. Lifelong learning can encompass many different activities outside the traditional school-FE-HE route. The 1996 UNESCO Report Learning: the treasure within was "a powerful plea for viewing education in a broader context." It suggested that there were Four Pillars of Education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, suggesting that the "periods and fields should complement each other and be interrelated in such a way that all people can get the most out of their own specific educational environment all through their lives."[415]

209. The Government is in the process of developing policies in this area. In January 2008 it published a consultation document on how the Government can most successfully promote informal Adult Learning (Shaping the Way Ahead) and in April 2008 a second paper, Adult Learning: Investing in the First Steps, set out the Government's plans to invest £1.5 billion on first steps training for adults who have yet to gain basic skills. In addition, in 2007-08 it committed £210 million for learning for its own intrinsic value for personal and community development, with this level of spending to be maintained from 2008-09 to 2010-2011.[416] The Secretary of State, interviewed in the Guardian newspaper in October 2008, echoed the sentiments of the UNESCO report when he said "some of that spirit which was valuing learning for its own sake and saying that we want to provide opportunities to learn—even if people are doing it simply because they want to stretch their horizons ... that was a good spirit, and what I hope we're trying to do is rekindle it and to do it in a way that's appropriate for the 21^st century."[417]

210. Despite this, as Age Concern pointed out, the number of number of people aged 60 and over participating in Further Education halved between 2003 and 2006 and the number of people aged 60 and over participating in Adult Community Learning decreased by 12% between 2005 and 2006.[418] This implies that a significant proportion of the population is becoming increasingly detached from the goal of lifelong learning.

211. Even those too young to be covered by Age Concern's survey may be failing to gain the benefit from the Leitch reforms. As has been raised previously, the ambitious nature of the targets means that the skills agenda has to reach those already in the workforce if the number of qualifications at each level is to be attained. However, several witnesses, like the Association of Accounting Technicians, argued that "to date in implementing Leitch, the Government's policy focus and funding priorities have focussed on the younger age groups".[419] This was a matter of concern for a sector which attracted mature people seeking retraining. The AAT also suggested that for this age group, the concentration on level 2 was inappropriate because these people were capable of and more motivated by taking higher qualifications.[420] Age Concern agreed:

The training and qualifications the government is currently promoting are not always appropriate for many adults over 50, for whom achieving a full Level 2 qualification is not the best or most cost-effective way of improving employability. Instead, these workers may need accreditation of existing skills, together with support to plug specific skills gaps with bite-sized training. The focus on first full Level 2 qualifications also precludes those with historic qualifications who wish to make a career change or those who may have been away from work for some time, for example raising children.[421]

The Equality and Human Rights Commission concurred that "the importance of enabling people who have been out of the labour market to re-fresh outdated skills to improve their employability is not recognised through current proposals."[422] The Open University stated in evidence that it "regrets that the current policy climate tends to promote the view that the Leitch agenda is the preferable alternative to lifelong learning rather than regarding it as a necessary complement to it."[423]

212. We believe that lifelong learning is an important area of policy where effective solutions must be found. It brings many benefits, both to the individual and to the economy, and it will be a disaster if the Leitch targets lead to a concentration on the quick wins of qualifications for school-leavers at the expense of older workers who have just as much aptitude and ability. We note that NIACE is currently holding an extensive inquiry into lifelong learning, with the intention of reporting in 2009. We look forward to the outcome of that report at which time we may well return to this subject again.

Role of the unions

213. One readily available channel for representing the interests of individuals within the workforce is the trades union movement. We heard some criticisms of the Leitch review, suggesting that it had "airbrushed" out trade unions from the skills picture.[424] The TUC set out for us the role of the unions in learning and skills, exercised for example through the current trials of collective learning funds (CLFs) which aim to optimise contributions to broad workforce development that fall outside the direct responsibility of employers or Government-subsidised provision. A key aim for the TUC in the future is to look at how CLFs can be integrated with government programmes such as Train to Gain and skills accounts.[425]

214. The TUC is responsible for unionlearn and its network of 18,000 union learning representatives (ULRs). The TUC stated that it is "to press the Government that it would make sense to provide ULRs in the workplace with a strategic presence which would fully exploit their capacity to support learning and skills development that enhances organisational performance and the wider development of individual employees."[426] The TUC is also "currently engaged in a strategy to strengthen the role of trade unions and ULRs in supporting the welcome expansion of the Apprenticeship programme over the coming years".[427]

215. All witnesses spoke positively about the role of ULRs. Professor Wolf told us: "I think they are incredibly important because people who are in employment know their union rep; it is a trusted intermediary. One cannot overestimate the degree to which as human beings we trust people we know."[428] Alan Tuckett of NIACE agreed that ULRs as "learning champions" fulfil a "need for people who have been turned off education and training to have people who go out and negotiate the possibilities with them".[429] Yorkshire Forward gave an example of their work in Yorkshire and the Humber where through trade union organised learning at work days in May 2007, 7,068 people in 75 workplaces participated in events and 1,185 went on to enrol on courses.[430] The number of workplaces taking part in such events in 2008-09 was set to double to 150.[431] Tom Wilson from the TUC made the point that ULRs could act as a bridge between employees and employers:[432]

What we find very often is that ULRs will talk to their members at the workplace, their members will say, 'Well I went on that course last week and frankly it wasn't much good, it wasn't quite right for me'. The employer does not hear that, for all sorts of reasons, but ULRs do and ULRs can sit down with the training manager, whoever it is in a company, and start talking about, 'Maybe we could change that course or get a better course or a different course' and that is exactly the kind of thing that they do. If there was a lot more of that and a lot more sense of the learners, the workers, being involved in the kind of course and the course content and so on, I think you would see a far greater uptake and continuation of progression.

216. Professor Hopkin, on behalf of UUK, told us that many universities were "looking at accrediting the work of union learning", regarding it as "absolutely critical because that way we reach an audience that we have not actually reached".[433] The Minister concurred in regarding trade unions as "absolutely critical" to the discussion.[434] We welcome the expansion of unionlearn and support the closer involvement of the unions in encouraging the key brokering role of the unions in the development and take-up of opportunities to raise skills levels within the UK workforce.

390 Ev 239, para 7.1 Back

391 Ev 269, para 21 Back

392 Ev 269, para 20, Q 392 Back

393 Ev 310, para 48 Back

394 Ev 233, para 11 Back

395 Ev 233, para 12 Back

396 Qq 181-2 [Frank Lord] Back

397 Q 213 Back

398 Ev 103, paras 2.21-2.22 Back

399 Ev 103, para 2.22 Back

400 Ev 308, para 26 Back

401 Ev 331, para 26 Back