1 Introduction
1. The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, when delivering his
Budget Statement in March 2006, told the House that "today,
the British economy has just 9 million highly skilled jobs. By
2020, it will need 14 million highly skilled workers. And of 3.4
million unskilled jobs today, we will need only 600,000 by 2020".[1]
These predictions, based upon work conducted for Lord Leitch's
Review of Skills, published in December 2006, have been much debated
and challenged since they were made. However, the need for a more
highly skilled workforce is not in doubt. As Lord Leitch himself
said, "unless the UK can build on reforms to schools, colleges
and universities and make its skills base one of its strengths,
UK businesses will find it increasingly difficult to compete".[2]
2. The Government's plan for implementing the proposals
made by Lord Leitch in his Final Report recognised that there
were ramifications for adult learning, careers advice, higher
education, employers, school education, and participation in education
and training beyond school age.[3]
This Report looks at the last of these fields. Two Government
policy decisions underlay our inquiry: the first, dating back
to 2007, was to raise the age of compulsory participation in education
or training. We do not examine the merits of raising the participation
age in our Report: those debates have been held, and the legislation
is in place. Instead, our inquiry has concentrated upon the consequences
of raising the participation age, how different groups will be
affected, and what the options will be for young people subject
to the legislation. The second decision dates back only to October
2010, when the Government announced that it would make a significant
change to financial support for 16 to 18 year olds in post-compulsory
learning, by withdrawing the Education Maintenance Allowance.
3. We announced terms of reference for our inquiry
in January 2011. These were:
- What impact the Education Maintenance
Allowance has had on the participation, attendance, achievement
and welfare of young people and how effective will be the Discretionary
Learner Support Fund in replacing it;
- What preparations are necessary, for providers
and local authorities, for the gradual raising of the participation
age to 18 years and what is their current state of readiness;
and
- What impact raising the participation age will
have on areas such as academic achievement, access to vocational
education and training, student attendance and behaviour, and
alternative provision.
4. We received over 70 memoranda, mostly from local
authorities, colleges, professional representative bodies, young
people in learning, and voluntary sector organisations. We also
received over 700 short e-mail submissions from young people,
their parents, college staff and Connexions services staff, describing
the use made of the Education Maintenance Allowance and the implications
of its abolition. The main themes from these submissions are summarised
in Annex 2 to this Report. We also held an informal meeting with
students from Brooke House Sixth Form College in Hackney, London:
our discussion is summarised in a further Annex, also published
with this Report. We are grateful to all those who contributed
to the inquiry: the contribution made by young learners themselves
was striking.
5. We have, as always, been greatly assisted in our
work by our two Specialist Advisers, Professor Alan Smithers and
Professor Geoff Whitty.[4]
1 HC Deb 22 March 2006 col 292 Back
2
Prosperity for all in the global economy-world class skills,
Final report by Lord Leitch, HM Treasury, December 2006, Executive
Summary Back
3
World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills
in England, DIUS, Cm 7181, July 2007 Back
4
Professor Geoff Whitty has declared an interest as a Trustee of
the IFS School of Finance. Back
|
