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


Memorandum 65

Submission from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills

1.  How do you see the role of UKCES developing? What can the UK Commission do that its predecessors could not?

  The global economy is continually changing and facing ever increasing challenges and intensifying competition. In such a context, skills are becoming a growing source of competitive advantage and of increasing importance to government, business and trade unions. Governments across the UK have challenging ambitions to make the UK a world-class leader in employment and skills.[143] The ultimate goal they seek to achieve is to raise UK productivity, economic competitiveness and prosperity, and to improve social cohesion.

  Launched on 1 April 2008, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills is a key recommendation in Lord Leitch's 2006 review Prosperity for All in the Global Economy: World Class Skills. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills is a genuinely employer-led organisation, with Commissioners drawn from the highest levels of the private, public and voluntary sectors, supported by trade union leadership.

  The UK Commission aims to raise UK prosperity and opportunity by improving employment and skills. Its ambition is to benefit individuals, employers, government and society by providing independent advice to the highest levels of the UK Government and Devolved Administrations on how improved employment and skills systems can help the UK become a world-class leader in productivity, in employment and in having a fair and inclusive society: all this in the context of a fast-changing global economy. Ultimately, the benefits of the UK Commission's work will be:

  For individuals:

    —  increased employability and good careers advice;

    —  the transferable and specialist skills to remain employed;

    —  enabled by employers to utilise and develop the skills they have, bringing greater job satisfaction; and

    —  the opportunity to develop further skills to enter higher paid employment or to retrain for another career (career progression).

  For employers:

    —  an employment and skills system and qualifications that provide employees with good basic skills plus entry level expertise appropriate to the company and a willingness to learn more;

    —  the ability to influence the system so that it continues to meet their needs;

    —  increased ability to access appropriate training to upskill their workforce bringing a return on their investment; and

    —  an evidenced business case for investment in and utilisation of the skills of their workforce.

  For the UK Government and Devolved Administrations:

    —  robust, evidence-based advice on what works to inform decision-making regarding the skills and employment system, resulting in more co-ordinated, targeted, efficient public provision of services;

    —  qualifications and workforce development led by employer needs; and

    —  the workforce and economy moving towards government targets for increased employment and upskilling of the workforce through a better employment and skills system and increased employer investment.

  For society:

    —  Increased prosperity, with employment opportunity and sustainable careers for all.

  Because employers, whether in private business or the public sector, have prime responsibility for the achievement of greater productivity, the UK Commission will strengthen the employer voice, provide greater employer influence over the employment and skills systems and promote employer investment in people.

  As part of this, the UK Commission has been asked to take direct responsibility for funding and performance-managing; and advising Ministers on the relicensing of Sector Skills Councils. It will also have a lead role on the work SSCs and others are doing to improve our education and training system so that the available qualifications better reflect the skills employers need.

  The UK Commission will assess annually our progress towards making the UK a world-class leader in employment and skills by 2020. Recognising differing aims and priorities in the four UK nations, it will work across all four to support this world-class ambition, advising the relevant ministers on the strategies and policies needed to increase employment, skills and productivity.

  To meet the challenge, the UK Commission will be dependent on its reputation and influence, built on its specialist knowledge and rigorous research and analysis, if it is to effect the practical change necessary to meet the UK's ambitions. As an employer-led organisation responsible for championing the development of a demand-led skills and employment system and encouraging greater employer investment in people, the UK Commission will:

    —  draw on the expertise and understanding of employers who are already heavily engaged in building effective skills arrangements across the UK for each sector of the economy;

    —  develop its reputation as a credible and relevant voice and influential expert by fostering effective relationships with employers, the UK Government and Devolved Administrations and other partners; and

    —  undertake a comprehensive stakeholder mapping exercise to ensure that UK Commission staff engage effectively and appropriately with relevant interests to inform work in pursuit of UK Commission objectives.

  In forming its advice to the UK Government and Devolved Administrations, the UK Commission will:

    —  monitor and challenge the performance of parts of the national employment and skills systems in creating sustained employment and career progression;

    —  recommend systematic improvements in policy and delivery—including the better use of skills at all levels—through strategic policy development, evidence-based analysis and the exchange of good practice; and

    —  suggest further innovations and advise how employment and skills related services, working together, can deliver a more effective and integrated service for employers and individuals.

  In conducting its work, the UK Commission will provide vigorous and independent challenge, advising the UK Government and Devolved Administrations at the highest levels on employment and skills strategy, targets and policies. It will take account of the devolved nature of skills policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and employment in Northern Ireland and negotiate how it operates in the nations with this political context in mind. All UK Commission work will consider issues of equality of access and opportunity for all in building a sustainable economy, and will be underpinned by a strong evidence-base from research and analysis of policy and practice to ensure that the advice and recommendations put to Ministers are robust and of the highest quality.

  The far-reaching agenda of UK Commission, covers both employment and skills, and crosses the four UK nations. This allows the UK Commission to take a genuinely strategic, overarching view and to pool knowledge, and draw from best practice, across the nations for the benefit of the UK as a whole. It also gives it the legitimacy to explore and tackle issues that cut across policy boundaries, and, thus, to shift the centre of policy analysis beyond skills supply alone to include broader issues such as skills use, retention and demand and the role of skills in employment and economic development. For instance, it enables the UK Commission to tackle important questions, namely: why, when there has been significant progress on the UK skills front since the 1980s, has this not been matched by a comparable productivity miracle? The key to answering this lies in examining and understanding the complex interplay between the supply of and demand for skills and the interrelationships between economic development, employment and skills.

2.  What are the key questions that UKCES is trying to resolve?

  In its first year, until the UK Commission develops its Strategic Plan, which will set out its priorities for the next five years, the immediate priorities for the UK Commission have been largely driven by its sponsors. These have been articulated in detail in the UK Commission Business Plan[144] and include:

    —  publication of "a state of the nation" report assessing progress towards making the UK a world leader in employment and skills by 2020, and monitoring progress against international competitors in the context of the aims and priorities of the four nations;

    —  preparatory work towards publication of the 2010 review of the Employment and Skills System, including establishment of the terms of reference, in negotiation with the four nations;

    —  advising the UK Government on how we might make it simpler for employers and individuals to access the employment and skills system in England; and

    —  substantial progress on reforming, re-licensing and empowering Sector Skills Councils (SSCs).The UK Commission needs to fund and manage SSCs to deliver an effective network focussed on continuous performance improvement against the revised SSC remit using the standards set down in the re-licensing Prospectus.

  The UK Commission is currently in the process of developing its Strategic Plan and this will be published by the end of 2008-9.

  Current emerging themes include:

    —  simplification and clarity—systems, customer interactions/"journeys" and funding, sub-UK (spatial), and integration with business support;

    —  learning from and developing best practice/what works;

    —  address the employability of the UK workforce, and new workforce entrants;

    —  focus on vocational qualifications, apprenticeships and recognition of non-accredited/workplace/informal/training not leading to qualifications;

    —  need for development of leadership and (middle/ people) management skills leading to improved skill utilisation and HPWP;

    —  employer and individual driven/commitment/participation;

    —  diversity of employers and their needs;

    —  equality and diversity of individuals;

    —  SSCs—measures of success and transparency of performance; and

    —  development of appropriate system measures—based on outcomes (not input/output).

3.  What progress has been made with the relicensing of the SSCs? How will this process be organised?

  The SSC relicensing programme is organised in the following key phases:

  1.  Development, consultation and publication of the SSC relicensing employer document and technical prospectus.

  2.  Appointment of independent Third Party Assessors who will assess SSCs against the assessment framework set out in the technical prospectus.

  3.  Submission and review of Expressions of Interest (EOIs).

  4.  Assessment of individual SSCs proposals by Third Party Assessors and reports produced for Commissioners on their findings.

  5.  Commissioner meetings with SSCs, SSC Committee panels and recommendations to Government.

  The SSC Technical Prospectus [insert ref] is the key document for SSCs to use in preparing for relicensing. It describes the role and remit of SSCs in some detail, highlights a range of key policy issues, works through each stage of the relicensing assessment process and provides an assessment framework, setting out the key tests each SSC will need to meet if they are to maintain their licence.

  The Employer Document, [insert ref] provides a shorter summary of the role of SSCs, outlines the assessment process and asks employers to both get involved with their SSC and, where they are involved, to offer their views on SSC effectiveness.

  The UK Commission has established a high level SSC Committee, chaired by Charlie Mayfield, (Chairman of John Lewis), to oversee the process and advise the full Commission on the formal recommendations that should go to Government. A member of the Committee will visit each SSC as part of the process and the Commmittee will hold panel sessions with each SSC once it has received the formal report form the third party assessors to review the evidence and prepare it's recommendations.

  The UK Commission has been working very closely with DIUS and sponsoring Governments across the UK to agree and publish these documents. We have also been in close contact with the TUC and employer organisations to gain their endorsement for the relicensing strategy and to seek their help in achieving widespread circulation of the Employer Document. The TUC, CBI, CiPD, FSB, IoD and BCC have all endorsed the approach to Relicensing.

  All key activities of the Project are currently on track and the following milestones have been achieved:

PHASE 1

    —  The Employer document and SSC Technical Prospectus were launched at the UKCES Summer Reception on 7 July 2008. They have been well received.

    —  Our stakeholder management and communications strategy has ensured positive support and endorsement from the leading representative bodies and across UK Governments.

    —  We are beginning to receive feedback on SSCs from a range of individual employers and representative organisations.

PHASE 2

    —  The National Audit Office (NAO) has been appointed as the independent Third Party Assessor to support the UK Commission in undertaking SSC relicensing. It was felt that NAO would bring the experience and credibility to ensure the process is robust, professional, fair and consistent.

    —  Detailed plans are now being agreed with the NAO, including a three day training programme for assessors to take place in September 2008.

PHASE 3

    —  All SSCs submitted their four-page Expression of Interest (EoI) on time by 15 August 2008.

    —  Each of the EOIs has been assessed, key issues have been identified and a timeline has been drawn up for the assessment phase, taking full account of when each SSC would wish to start the process.

PHASE 4

    —  The assessment of SSCs will start in October 2008 and will run through to summer 2009. The work will be organised in five tranches of five SSCs, each of which will conclude with a SSC Committee panel. The panel will meet each SSC and make recommendations.

4.  Should generic issues such as management skills be addressed by UKCES, rather than each SSC?

  The Government is committed to improving how the skills system supports employers through Sector Skills Councils and identifying and responding to sectoral skill needs. There is a concern however that such a focus may inadequately address important generic skills needs that cross the economy. To avoid this potential pitfall, the UK Commission recommends a dual approach to addressing such issues, involving SSCs and the UK Commission itself.

  The UK Commission needs to take a lead strategic, advisory role on shaping skills policy on key generic skills such as management and leadership, where recent policy interventions have had limited sustained impact. In the case of management and leadership specifically, we would expect this issue to be one of the top five priorities for the UK Commission given its importance in driving productivity improvement, public service effectiveness and modernisation, and the effective deployment of skills across the economy. Further work will therefore be required to review interventions to date and to consider what further action is required moving forward.

  The UK Commission is also looking carefully at the complex set of issues relating to other generic and cross cutting skills and will come forward with detailed proposals following consultation with the SSCs and other sector skills bodies that currently sit outside the SSC network. The UK Commission will need to take a firm strategic role in helping to shape delivery and practice to respond to wider generic skills needs. In this regard, through its executive function it needs to ensure qualifications reform work meets the same standards in generic skills areas as it does in the SSC network.

  Our initial analysis has shown that a number of generic skills relate to occupational areas such as Accounting and Publishing—as these align well with some specific sector interests, these skills needs have been incorporated, or are in the process of being incorporated, within specific SSCs. Other generic skills such as administration and marketing and customer services are genuinely pan sectoral. It will be important that the UK Commission works with the lead organisations in each area to formulate the strategic agenda for skills, to contract with whomever can best offer occupational standards and qualifications reform work for each of these occupations outside the SSC network and to encourage the Alliance of SSCs to actively coordinate the dissemination and use of generic skills across the SSC network.

5.  Should there be an SSC for small businesses?

  No. The purpose and remit of SSCs is to bring together employers from strategically significant sectors of the economy based on coherent patterns of employment and skills. They are not structured by occupation or by thematic issue. The relicensing prospectus does however make it very clear that SSCs are charged with bringing together a coherent voice on skills which represents all types of employers in their sector and that to achieve relicensed status they will need to demonstrate the confidence, support and influence of employers from each part of their sector, including smaller and larger organisations and from each part of the UK. This does not mean, as small organisations themselves, they can be expected to reach out to every small firm in their "footprint". But it does mean that they should actively consult small and large businesses in establishing their strategies, they should involve small and medium sized employers (SMEs) appropriately in their governance, they should ensure their work on qualifications is appropriate for SMEs and they should be building partnerships to ensure the priority skills needs they identify are picked up by the wider skills system.

6.  How important is the relationship between UKCES and the further and higher education sectors? How are you working to develop this?

  The FE and HE sectors are fundamental to the UK achieving its world class skills and employment ambitions, and thus the relationship between the UK Commission and these sectors is key.

  The FE and HE sectors will play a key role in future delivery. The qualification reform process is rolling out concurrently with important reforms in FE and HE, following the afore-mentioned reviews. The experience and expertise within and across the FE and HE sectors is a critical resource for the UK Commission to draw upon to understand whether the intended consequences of education and qualifications reform can be translated into effective learning and training experiences, which, ultimately, enhance the UK's work-class standing. In general the approach taken to the work of reviewing delivery system processes will be highly collaborative, drawing directly on the experience of practitioners. We will establish a number of expert panels to guide system review work, drawing on experienced professionals from FE and HE and beyond. There are also two prominent Commissioners from these sectors. The UK Commission needs to establish relations with a range of strategic and delivery stakeholders in the FE and HE to take into account the challenges and opportunities the sectors face. For instance:

    —  It is important to gauge how the range of products that are being developed within the Qualification reform programme can be delivered in different contexts and environments including regions, sub-regions and localities.

    —  Qualification reform in England covers both compulsory and post-compulsory learning, delivered through distinct public programmes, ie 14-19 reform (including Diplomas) and the Vocational Qualification Reform. The FE sector and, perhaps to a lesser extent, HE are expected to respond (ie to deliver these high profile programmes whilst also offering new flexible approaches (eg "bite sized" training and the achievement of credits). In some instances these may be competing demands in terms of provider resources and user expectations. It will be important to understand how well compulsory and post-compulsory initiatives are coming together as a balanced and rounded offer. It is also important that in the desire to achieve world class ambitions, provision, and associated funding streams, do not become too "target-driven", leading to distorted and unintended outcomes, and under-supply in critical skills areas.

    —  Recent mergers and the formation of partnerships and networks are bringing about changes to the provider infrastructure, especially within the FE sector, following the recommendations of the Foster Review. How these emergent `supply chains' can work with the new qualification offer will be important if aspirations for increased mobility, better progression and enhanced skills are to be realised.

    —  The products of qualification reform include not only new qualification types such as Diplomas and redesigned VQs but also the strategic documents such as Sector Skills Agreements, Sector Qualification Strategies and Sector Compacts, all of which are designed to assist the transition to a more demand led system of provision. The usefulness of these strategies to decision makers and the readiness and willingness of the sectors to use them is a key element in bringing about this change.

    —  The strong policy emphasis on Apprenticeships, coupled with changes to the compulsory leaving age potentially represents a significant change to our understanding of the transition from compulsory education to working life and further learning. We would hope to learn more about how this transition is working, from those in the field and the customers they work with, ie employers and individuals.

    —  We are also mindful of the increasing range of activity at sub-regional level, for example attempts to strengthen sub-regional progression from further to higher education and highly skilled employment through the Lifelong Learning Networks. Looking at the rate of growth of higher education delivered in those FE Colleges who have pursued the `mixed economy' approach to provision may also be important. Collaboration and, in some cases, competition between the FE and HE sectors in what may come to be considered as new terrain may be increasingly important in drivers of growth of intermediate and higher level skills called for by Lord Leitch.

  In addition there may be specific issues that the UK Commission needs to specifically monitor in the FE and HE sectors following recent policy reviews and reforms. For instance:

    —  Commitments to progressive self regulation for the FE sector are an important post-Foster development and UK Commission will need to be aware of how this process is impacting on quality, success and responsiveness to employer and learner needs.

    —  In a broader context, the role of the FE system in the progressive integration of employment and skills services may be significant, as the aspiration for a growth in the percentage of adults of working age who are active in the labour market will require provision of specific training and opportunities for recognising new skills for the returners to the labour market and those leaving the benefit system. Groups targeted by recent policy interventions, such as lone parents and Incapacity Benefit claimants may be new customers of the FE system. These reforms may also bring new providers into the FE sector. Therefore, the relationship between a broader and increasingly self regulating FE sector and an aspiration to integrate the FE service into the wider employment and skills system could be an important one. How the advice and guidance provided by the Adult Advancement and Careers Service links with advice provided "in-house" among learning providers may be an important aspect of these changes. Advice and guidance on new qualification offers, progression routes and the use of credit as the new currency of achievement across all qualification frameworks will also be significant to learners and to employers.

    —  The strong policy emphasis on promoting workforce development amongst adults who have left compulsory education also raises important challenges for the HE sector and requires HE institutions to move away from their traditional customer base. There is a role for the UK Commission to monitor the extent to which the HE sector can meet employers and employees needs to access high quality, high level learning, optimising the use of technology and maximising opportunities to fit learning around the demands of work, family and community. In this context it will also be useful to assess the effectiveness of new co-funding arrangements with employers.

    —  In addition, in a knowledge-driven economy, it will be important to consider what role HE can and does play in stimulating on-going innovation, and sufficient levels of research and development. In this regard, it will be useful to monitor the links between the HE and business sectors, the degree of partnership working, levels of sustained investment, and knowledge transfer.

7.  What are the chief problems identified so far in the simplification project?

  The simplification project being led by the UK Commission has identified six concerns from employers:

    —  difficulties of access for employers to the system—relating to the extent to which employers understand the system, feel competent to seek to engage, succeed in finding the right organisation and/or service to meet their requirements, and find the initial contact welcoming and responsive;

    —  complexity of programmes and initiatives—the extent to which the employers understand, or are confused or even overwhelmed by, the range of programmes and initiatives on offer, are able to assess the potential for a particular initiative to meet their requirements, and be sure that their choice is the most appropriate of those available;

    —  too restrictive constraints on individual programmes and initiatives—the extent to which the eligibility rules and limitations on programmes unduly restrict the ability of individual employers to participate in a programme, or a sufficiently wide range of employers from engaging with it;

    —  excessive bureaucracy in administrative arrangements for programmes or initiatives—the extent to which the administrative rules and reporting requirements of programmes are unduly demanding, time consuming or burdensome on employers, disproportionate to the real accountability requirements;

    —  complexity of structures and organisation—the extent to which the sheer number and range of skills and training organisations, and/or the extent to which they seek to engage directly with employers, confuses or overwhelms employer interest; and

    —  rapidity of change—the rate of changes in programmes, initiatives, organisations and procedures adds a further dimension of confusion for employers, who can find it extremely difficult to keep up with change and even become aware of new developments, let alone understand them.

8.  What would an ideal system of skills planning and delivery look like?

  The simplification project is about simplification of the English skills system from the perspective of the employer. The wider question of what the skills planning and delivery system should look like has to be much wider than that. It has to be more than England. It has to be more than simplification of access—to include simplification and/or improvement of processes, objectives, governance etc. And it has to be about employment—because a fundamental premise is that there is a need for greater integration between employment and skills.

  It would be premature to answer this question in detail. This is a subject to which the UK Commission will be devoting considerable thought and energy in the coming years. It will develop a picture of how the delivery system should ideally be structured in the course of preparation of its 2010 review. But in broad outline, the system of skills planning and delivery should have the following characteristics:

  1.  Integrated. To include:

    —  Integrated with economic development. Recognising that skills are a derived demand—that the reason we need skills is to support economic activity.

    —  Integrated with employment. This is much more than just creating an efficient interface between Jobcentre Plus and the SFA. It's about ensuring that all parts of the skills system have as a major priority (in many cases the overriding priority) helping people get and progress in work, through meeting the needs of employers for skilled staff. So it is as much about integrating the aims of skills and employment as it is about integrating employment services with skills services.

    —  Integrated, to some extent, with the wider social support network—recognising that the barriers to obtaining skills and putting them to use in the labour market are not purely skills barriers but often include issues related to disability, caring responsibilities, discrimination etc.

  2.  Simple to understand. Fewer brands that change less often; less cumbersome processes; etc—the points covered under simplification above. This also needs to be true for individuals as well as employers.

  3.  Driven by outcomes not processes.

    —  A strong focus on articulating goals that promote the achievement of long term valuable goals.

    —  This may mean doing the necessary work and taking the necessary risks to set targets that are challenging to measure—for example:

    —  it is far easier to measure whether one has hit a target of getting someone into full time employment (of any kind, with a minimum duration of 13 weeks) than it is to measure whether one has got a client into a long term, sustainable job with job satisfaction and good prospects for progression and pay increases. But the latter is actually what we want. So targeting the former is probably not the best way to get it;

    —  targets for distinct skills outcomes and employment outcomes, allocated to different bodies with the system, are easier to establish but will not drive an integrated employment and skills system.

    —  It should also mean driving performance more and more by telling people what to do but not specifying in detail how to do it.

  4.  Responsive to the varying challenges and opportunities offered by different:

    —  people;

    —  places; and

    —  employers.

8.  What progress has been made in identifying how to measure and encourage the development of employability?

  The UK Commission is leading on a project examining employability skills, seeking to identify best practice in this area. The concept of employability has been debated for many years amongst policy makers and researchers, and there are dozens of different definitions.

  In 1989 the CBI published Towards a Skills Revolution, the report of its Vocational Education and Training Task Force, which put a clear emphasis on these skills. In the two decades since, numerous reports have articulated the need for these skills, and have provided definitions under a range of different headings, including Core Skills; Key Skills; Essential Skills; Functional Skills; Skills for life; Employability Skills; Generic Skills; and Enterprise Skills—to name but some.

  Research for the UK Commission identified 135 reports that touched on the nature and value of employability skills, broadly understood. Little in this material contradicts the proposition that these skills are of wide value and are in short supply. However, close scrutiny of these shows that whilst there is no shared agreement on a definition, and/or measurement, and the concept has been used with a variety of meanings and in different contexts, the reality is that 80-90% of the definitions are common.

  There are some definitions that command quite wide acceptance. The CBI definition and the definition developed by the Canadian Conference Board and subsequently adopted by the Skills for Business Network are probably among the most authoritative. But, although at the level of fine detail there is considerable diversity, all reputable definitions overlap to a great extent. There is very clear "clumping" around personal communication skills, using numbers, words and technology, problem solving, team working and customer care, for example. Nevertheless different definitions command a loyalty out of proportion to the their distinctiveness.

  Our conclusion from this overview is that the challenge with employability skills is not to define them, or to prove that employers want them, or to show how they fit in with the aspirations of individuals. The challenge is to help people acquire them. So the question the Commission is focusing on is not "what are employability skills?", or "why do we need employability skills?", but "how do people learn employability skills?"

  The UK Commission will produce a detailed document before the end of 2008 setting out the results of a review of practice in teaching employability skills in over a hundred FE colleges, universities, employment providers, non-profit organisations and businesses. This document also draws on a survey of the existing academic literature on the subject. The purpose of the document is to draw together such a consensus as there is on what is good practice in inculcating employability skills, and to form the basis for further work necessary:

    (a) to develop teaching/training and assessment approaches where necessary; and

    (b) to establish ways of motivating and equipping the employment and skills system to adopt these approaches.

October 2008



http://www.ukces.org.uk/pdf/080814%20D%200809%20Business%20Plan%20final.pdf



143   As set out in World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England; Skills for Scotland, a Lifelong Skills Strategy, Success through Skills (Northern Ireland) and Skills that Work for WalesBack

144   As set out in World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England; Skills for Scotland, a Lifelong Skills Strategy, Success through Skills (Northern Ireland) and Skills that Work for WalesBack


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2009
Prepared 16 January 2009