The Skills and Post-16 Education legislation started and ended in the Lords, with Royal Assent being given just before the end of April, prior to the Queen’s Speech in May.
In itself, the Bill was never seen as controversial. Many of the measures laid out were either building on previous consensus or the Lifelong Learning Entitlement – a step in the direction of a lifelong individual learning account, something which all major parties have toyed with for the last three decades.
The general welcome for the Bill was encouraging because it meant that there would be some consistency, and while future governments would want to expand or tweak, there would, at least, be the chance of embedding and carrying forward positive measures. What was not in the Bill was commented on as much as what was.
Sometimes, legislation is not necessary; rather, executive action by the government. One such example is providing greater clarity and flexibility in respect of the raising, and use of, the Apprenticeship Levy.
Even items which were controversial rested more with government decisions not requiring legislative approval, than what was placed on the face of the Bill. The most obvious one of these was the “defunding” of qualifications deemed to be of insufficient quality [some confusion over the role of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, and that of Ofqual], or where so-called “overlap” existed with current or future qualifications. In the latter case, the newly trialled T-Levels.
In the end, a cross-party consensus involving former secretaries of state and ministers from both Conservative and Labour governments, supported by the Liberal Democrats and crossbench peers, resulted in some protection for young people taking, for instance, BTEC National Diplomas and other advanced vocational qualifications. I found myself teamed up with Lord Baker, secretary of state for education under Margaret Thatcher; together with two former Conservative higher education ministers: David Willetts and the prime minister’s brother, Joe Johnson.
None of us spoke against T-Levels, but rather that they should be one of a very small group of high-quality qualifications that would allow young people some choice and, above all, enable them to access a course that was appropriate for their own needs – relevant, of course, to future employment, but cognisant of the fact that all of us learn very differently, and that “one size” does not fit all.
The government saw the sense in finding a way forward, and in very clear public statements from the despatch box and in writing, offered the kind of reassurances that enabled the Bill to be speeded on its way in a much better state and with much greater cross-party support than would otherwise have been achievable.
Now, however, the development of Local Skills Improvement Plans [or Local Skills Improvement Processes, as many businesses have put it to me], need to be developed collaboratively at local level and to turn their immediate needs into learning and skills for the economy of the future.
While we have the most enormous number of vacancies that upskilling can help to fill, it is the economy of the future, the challenge of artificial intelligence and robotics, and the rapidly changing nature of work which is crucial.
Progression in work will be vital and with it the ability of men and women to return to learn throughout their lives using the Lifelong Guarantee, and the loans that go with it, but also any future bursaries and a more joined up approach between the responsibilities of employers, individuals, and, collectively, government on behalf of the nation.
Get this right and we will help both the individual to grasp the possibilities of both social mobility and financial wellbeing, but also enable the nation to benefit from those able to cope with the challenges of the future; to have the soft and hard skills to take on that ever-changing world, and to do so with a ladder of learning which turns legislation into reality in the daily lives of those who have never even heard of the new Act of Parliament.
This article originally appeared in The Leaders Council’s special report on ‘The Impact of the Skills & Post-16 Education Act on the Construction, Engineering & Manufacturing sectors’, published on July 4, 2022. Read the full special report here.
