Further written evidence submitted by
Children's Workforce Development Council
At the Select Committee hearing on 30 March, CWDC
and other witnesses gave evidence about the young people's workforce
and the CWDC funded Progress project. The project was mentioned
several times by witnesses. Select Committee officials invited
CWDC to send information about the outputs and outcomes of the
project and to make a further point about data collation for the
workforce.
THE PROGRESS
PROJECT
This project ran from February 2010 to end March
2011—comprising a lengthy period of capacity building and
planning and an offer of 25,000 training places to the voluntary
sector, which were taken up in Q3 & 4 of 2010-11. The overall
project cost £4.05 million, which mainly subsidised the offer
of accredited training units at QCF levels 2 and 3. The following
five priority training areas were covered:
1. Facilitating learning and development of young
people;
2. Safeguarding the health and welfare of young
people;
3. Maintaining health and safety in the workplace;
4. Promoting access to information and support;
5. Promoting equality and the valuing of diversity.
Demand exceeded supply and CWDC endorsed funding
for additional places. By the end of the project 27,883 training
units had been subsidised, benefiting an estimated 9,000 learners
across England. The following tables show the take-up of training
by region, level and priority area:
Table 1
SUMMARY OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL UNIT DELIVERY
AT LEVELS 2 AND 2
| Total unit allocations
| % delivered at level 2 | % delivered at level 3
|
| 27,883 | 67% | 33%
|
The majority of units delivered were at level two. This
trend was consistent throughout the project and confirmed the
prediction of a greater demand for entry-level training within
the young people's workforce, reflecting the high proportion of
volunteers in the voluntary sector and the need to fill gaps in
skills and knowledge.
Table 2
SUMMARY OF UNIT DELIVERY BY PRIORITY AREA (PA) AT LEVELS
2 AND 3[126]
| %PA1 | %PA2
| %PA3 | %PA4 |
%PA5 |
| Level 2 | 33 | 15
| 26 | 16 | 9 |
| Level 3 | 32 | 18
| 14 | 15 | 21 |
| Totals | 32 | 17
| 20 | 16 | 15 |
Many units fell under more than one priority area and weighted
figures in the more generic priority area 1.
The project focused on accredited units so that learners could,
over time, build up their learning into recognised qualifications.
Analysis of units taken show the most popular qualification frameworks
at Level 2 were:
— Award
in Emergency First Aid at Work;
— Award
in Community Sports Leadership;
— Award/Certificate
in Youth Work Practice;
— Award,
Certificate and Diplomas in Progression frameworks;
— Certificate
in Peer Mentoring.
At Level 3 the four most popular frameworks were:
— Award
and Certificate in Working with Vulnerable Young People;
— Preparing
to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector;
— Certificate
in Assessing Vocational Achievement;
— Diploma
for the Children and Young People's workforce.
The popularity of learning and development qualifications
suggests that some organisations are working towards building
their infrastructure to deliver and assess their own training
programmes. This would be a more cost effective approach to the
funding of training for individual organisations.
The project built the capacity of the voluntary sector
to run its own accredited training in future, funding accreditation
bursaries of £1,000 for 30 voluntary organisations to run
accredited training.
From April 2011 CWDC is unable to offer further funding
for this project.
Data collation on the young people's workforce
The Committee and witnesses also referred to CWDC's
publications A Picture Worth Millions: State of the Young People's
Workforce. CWDC has not been remitted to produce any further
updates of these data collations. The Committee may wish to consider
the value of such reports for enquiries such as these and for
workforce planning in general.
May 2011
126 Figures subject to rounding Back
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