PDF version available for download (PDF help)

TUC Submission to Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment

• Summary
• Introduction
• Overview of the Skills Strategy
• Trade Union Role in Skills and Training
• Prioritising the Low Skilled
• Train to Gain
• Sector Skills Councils
• Apprenticeships
• Changes to ESOL Funding
• Reforming the Supply of Skills
• Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)
• Preparing for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• Investors in People
• Conclusions

Summary

The TUC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Department for Education and Skills/Learning and Skills Council Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment consultation. The TUC supports the approach within the Government's skills strategy to focus on the low skilled as the main priority for government funding. In particular the Government's Skills for Life Strategy is key for supporting equality both in its broadest sense, ie redistribution to the low paid and low skilled, as well as in respect of particular groups including women, people from black and minority ethnic communities and disabled people, who are more likely to be low skilled.

The recognition within the consultation of the positive role of unions and ULRs in promoting equality in skills is also particularly welcome.

However there are a number of areas of particular concern:

• The move to give employers greater power over the learning and skills system may undermine efforts to boost equality;
• The consultation document focuses on the economic benefits of skills, and the TUC believes the important social role of skills development should be given greater recognition;
• There is insufficient account taken of the potential for multiple sources of disadvantage;
• The TUC is concerned to ensure that the social role of colleges is maintained and supported;
• The document assumes that increased competition in the further education sector will boost equality, however there is no evidence that this would be the case and in fact this is likely to undermine equality; and
• There is also an assumption that demand led funding approaches will effectively articulate the needs of learners, and the TUC is concerned that this will not be the case, particularly for certain groups such as women, people from black and ethnic minority communities and disabled people.

This submission also includes comments on particular areas outlined within the consultation, which are considered in more detail in the main body of the submission that follows.

Introduction

1. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is the national centre for trade unions representing 6.5 million workers in 62 affiliated trade unions. The TUC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Department for Education and Skills/Learning and Skills Council Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment consultation (the consultation).

2. The consultation considers the implications for disability equality, gender equality and race equality of the proposals in the Government's White Paper Skills: Getting on in Business, Getting on at Work, published in March 2005 and the subsequent development and implementation of these proposals. It also considers the White Paper Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances, published in March 2006. The TUC made submissions following both of these white papers. The TUC submission following the 2005 skills white paper is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-10140-f0.cfm, and the TUC response to the FE white paper is available at: http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-12089-f0.pdf.

3. The Leitch Review of Skills, which was commissioned by the Chancellor Gordon Brown, reported on the UK's skills needs looking forward to 2020. The final report of the Leitch Review of Skills was published on 5 December 2006. In light of the Leitch Review of Skills, the TUC welcomes the commitment in the consultation to 'ensure that any new areas of work or changes to our policies are fully equality-assessed for their impact on different groups and communities' (para 1.6.2). The TUC believes that the equality impact must be fully taken into consideration when implementing major recommendations of the Leitch Review, for example in respect of demand led funding.

4. The TUC has produced a number of documents in relation to the Leitch Review of Skills. The report '2020 Vision for Skills' set out TUC priorities for the Leitch Review and is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-12524-f0.pdf. A TUC briefing on the Leitch Review is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-12778-f0.pdf. As part of the Government's response, the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) have published a joint consultation document 'Delivering World-Class Skills in a Demand-led System'. The TUC response to this consultation is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-13135-f0.pdf.

Overview of the Skills Strategy

5. There is a growing awareness that concerted action is required to tackle the discrimination faced by many groups in the labour market when it comes to accessing training and development opportunities. For example, we know from research that training opportunities in the workplace are currently skewed to those that already have the highest skills and qualifications and also that Union Learning Reps are playing a crucial role in empowering low-skilled employees to improve their access to training and development.

6. The TUC supports the focus within the Government's skills strategy on the low skilled as the main priority for government funding. In particular the Government's Skills for Life Strategy has been particularly significant and has supported equality in its broadest sense, ie redistribution to the low paid and low-skilled, as well as in respect of the groups that benefit most. Women, especially older women and women who have been out of the labour market, people from black and ethnic minority communities and disabled people are more likely to be low skilled and are therefore likely to benefit from this approach.

7. Skills discrimination and occupational segregation are major problems. The Women and Work Commission and the EOC Inquiry into Occupational Segregation have both identified the key areas of concern and made recommendations to help women access more training and skilled jobs in particular sectors traditionally dominated by male employees (e.g. construction and engineering). The TUC has welcomed the commitment in Budget 2006 to fund a package to take forward the skills recommendations in the Women and Work Commission and to drive elements of this forward at the sector level. Trade unions are supportingand developing this work.

8. However, t There are also many other areas of skills discrimination that need to be tackled and the TUC called for the Leitch Review to recommend that the Government develops concrete proposals in this area, including for black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people and older workers. These issues remain to be tackled and the Government is urged to further develop this area of skills policy including through further investigations and research so that we can comprehensively understand the issues.

9. While welcoming much of the thrust of the skills strategy, there are a number of areas of concern. The economic benefits of skills are important, however the TUC believes the social role of skills development should be given greater recognition. Further, the TUC disagrees with the continued move towards an 'employer led' approach. To truly address the country's skills needs and to best reach equality objectives, it is important to ensure the strategy is 'employment led' rather than employer led. There is no evidence that giving more control to employers over learning and skills will improve equality for disadvantaged groups of workers.

10. The TUC believes that the Equality Impact Assessment would also benefit from a greater recognition of the barriers to learning and skills development through multiple sources of disadvantage. In most areas of the consultation document, the issues of gender, race and disability are looked at in isolation. Creating silos does not address the multiple disadvantage that many people face. This should be explicitly addressed.

11. The following sections set out the TUC perspective on a number of specific areas addressed within the Equality Impact Assessment.

Trade Union Role in Skills and Training

12. The recognition within the consultation of the positive impact of trade unions on disability, gender and race issues is particularly welcome. The Union Learning Fund, and the recent development of unionlearn are important in taking forward these initiatives.

13. The important role that trade unions can play in relation to supporting access to workplace training is further demonstrated by research that unionised workers fare better in access to training. For example, black and Asian workers belonging to a trade union have a huge advantage in being offered training. Just 16 per cent of unionised black and Asian workers have never been offered training compared to 36 per cent who are not union members [1] . Unionised women also fare much better in access to training.

14. Union Learning Representatives play a particularly important role in supporting equality as noted in the consultation document. T he development of the union learning agenda has also done much to increase the diversity of union representatives. There are now over 15,000 Union Learning Representatives in the UK, and the proportion of these reps who have never held a union position before has, 'risen massively from 9 per cent of the overall total in 2000 to 28 per cent in 2003 and 35.5 per cent in 2005'. These new activists are more likely to be women and younger than union reps as whole. Black and Asian ULRs make up 7 per cent of the total - compared to 4 per cent of the broader representative base. [2]

15. The consultation paper however notes that '... Unionlearn is unlikely to have an impact on workplaces where there is no such [union] recognition' (para 3.3.5). Unionlearn recognises that building union organisation and growth is key to extending learning opportunities to more working people. This is reflected as a key priority in the Strategic Plan for unionlearn, 2006-2009.

Prioritising the Low Skilled

16. As set out earlier, the TUC agrees that the focus of public spending on the low skilled is the right one. However the current requirement for funding to be made available only for a 'first' qualification means that many people with outdated existing qualifications will be excluded. This will have a greater impact on particular groups, for example, older workers and women, particularly older women and women returning from career breaks. The TUC is concerned that this approach does not address the reality of people's lives. To further promote equality within the skills strategy, these funding anomalies need to addressed for people facing disadvantage in the labour market.

17. The TUC is also concerned that many of the low skilled workers that would benefit most from accessing provision up to level 2 are not in the position to take up these opportunities. Access to training via Train to Gain requires employer involvement, and while some employers will engage in the programme to train their low skilled staff, many will not. In effect by channelling funding through Train to Gain, employers are acting as gatekeepers. Reaching employers who have the poorest record in training or supporting workers should be a prime objective of the Government. The lack of statutory measures to promote learning and skills limits the capacity to achieve equality objectives, including statutory rights to collective bargaining over training and paid time off.

18. Further, our understanding is that the level 2 individual entitlement requires a minimum of approximately 16 hours per week of direct learning. This requirement far exceeds what most people in work could realistically manage in their own time. This would be particularly acute for people with caring responsibilities and is therefore likely to have particular implications for women. These issues need to be taken into account in further policy development.

19. The TUC is concerned about the gap in provision for low skilled workers, and believes that Collective Learning Funds are one mechanism where some of these issues could be addressed. CLFs would be joint employer-union initiatives that encourage employers to increase the scope of training and development opportunities for their workforce and to commit new investment to this. In addition, CLFs would explore how employees might be encouraged to co- invest their time along with the employer in a wider range of non- job- specific training and development.

20. The DfES and TUC have agreed that the CLF model should be trialled in a number of workplaces. Over the longer term this lifelong learning model should be scaled up so that it becomes the norm in workplaces rather than the exception. The Leitch report supported the use of Collective Learning Funds, specifically in relation to taking forward the employer pledge (paragraph 5.40).

21. Free access to entry-level courses is an important stepping-stone in order to re-introduce many people to learning. The introduction of the Foundation Learning Tier will clarify progression routes. However in the interim, the TUC is concerned about policy that shifts funding away from existing courses that fall outside of current PSA priorities, but which act as stepping-stones provision. This may remove incentives to get back into learning and the TUC would like the Government to ensure that measures are in place so that people can access such forms of learning.

22. Many 'hard to reach' potential learners are likely to have a very poor experience of learning and need a lot of support and encouragement to return to learning. Even if they are the most in need of learning, they may be the least likely to express demand and the LSC should take care not to erect barriers in the form of fees, high minimum hours thresholds or requirements that all courses lead immediately to qualifications.

Train to Gain

23. The TUC supported the Employer Training Pilots and their national roll-out via the Train to Gain programme. Unions have played an important role in delivering Train to Gain, particularly to hard-to-reach learners. To build this role there is a need to ensure that brokers work with unions and particularly ULRs in unionised workplaces.

24. The TUC believes that the role of employee demand within Train to Gain has not properly been taken into account. As demonstrated by the role of Union Learning Representatives, employee demand for learning is a powerful mechanism for achieving skills development. The TUC believes that more should be done to harness employee demand for learning.

25. Statutory rights would assist in this endeavour. A right to paid time off, particularly for adults without a level 2 qualification, would act as a lever to engage those employers that refuse to allow their staff to access state-subsidised paid time off arrangements (i.e. via the Train to Gain programme). This is particularly important given the significance of time as a barrier to training, particularly for learners with caring responsibilities.

26. As noted earlier, the TUC is concerned that under the current arrangements, too many people will fall through the gap where their employer either does not take part in Train to Gain or does not include all workers in training programmes.

27. This argument does not just apply to Train to Gain in respect of Skills for Life or Level 2. The TUC welcomed the announcement in Budget 2006 of a level 3 pilot aimed at women that is being taken forward via Train to Gain in London. The TUC is working to raise awareness of the pilot among unions in order to promote take-up. The TUC is planning a promotional event in June and a bargaining guide aimed at unions. However the TUC is concerned that the blanket charge to employers for each course place and the lack of flexibility to negotiate collective approaches will limit the potential take-up of the offer.

Sector Skills Councils

28. There is a need to develop genuine social partnership arrangements on skills policy and delivery at national, regional and sectoral levels in order to drive forward a genuine demand-led approach that reflects the needs of both employers and individual employees.

29. The TUC has supported the development of Sector Skills Councils, however the sector approach in particular requires a more robust social partnership approach as it has the potential to deliver some of the key elements of a post-voluntary skills framework which would advance equality.

30. Unions play a key role in promoting equality within SSCs and in particular Sector Skills Agreements. Examples of union's successes in promoting the inclusion of equality and diversity issues in Sector Skills Agreements include Asset Skills' commitment to "tackling the gender and age deficit within the surveying profession", Cogent's intention to work with the trade unions to promote their new apprenticeship scheme to "applicants from non-traditional backgrounds", and SEMTA's undertaking to work with the trade unions to "jointly develop an Equality and Diversity strategy for the sector".

31. More broadly, unions seek to ensure that that the needs of low skilled workers are addressed within Sector Skills Agreements. In particular, unions seek to promote Skills for Life including ESOL. However the TUC is concerned at the difficulties in some sectors in getting agreement to include these areas within SSAs.

32. TUC believes it is important to significantly strengthen the equality and diversity remit of Sector Skills Agreements so that Sector Skills Councils are obliged to come up with concrete initiatives for improving training opportunities for women, black and Asian workers, disabled workers and older workers with clearly prescribed targets and outcomes. This would include Apprenticeships. Equality should be explicitly considered before SSAs are signed off and equality criteria should also be included when licensing or re-licensing Sector Skills Councils.

33. The TUC has supported the Sector Pathways initiative arising out of the £20 million package from Budget 2006 to take forward the skills recommendations of the Women and Work Commission. The following quote from the TUC Deputy General Secretary was included in the press releases announcing the successful Sector Skills Councils:

"These projects giving the chance for women to boost their skills and career development are welcome and should result in more women moving into better-paid jobs. Alongside this we need to see the structural and cultural barriers for women in non-traditional sectors broken down, for example through quality part-time work and challenging stereotypes. Unions, and in particular union learning representatives will have a key role to play in supporting the women involved".

34. The TUC is continuing to work with the DFES and Sector Skills Development Agency on this project. In taking forward these initiatives there is a need to ensure that SSCs genuinely engage with and view unions as key partners.

Apprenticeships

35. The TUC supports Apprenticeships but has concerns that they can exacerbate equality issues. It is right that the consultation document recognises the challenge of equality and diversity in this key government programme. This issue needs to be urgently addressed. Earlier this year the TUC made a submission on Apprenticeships to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee Inquiry into Employment and Training Opportunities for Low-Skilled young people. The TUC perspective on Apprenticeships was covered in detail there. A copy of the submission is attached, and is also available at: http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-13167-f0.pdf. The TUC has also raised these issues through the Apprenticeships Ministerial Steering Group.

36. The development of a national strategy for equality and diversity in Apprenticeships is very welcome. There is a lot of evidence that particular levers could be used to ensure that equality and diversity is at the heart of the Apprenticeships system. Levers could include how procurement policy is developed. It is also important that the strategy leads to practical measures and models for developing equality and diversity within Apprenticeships. Over the long term this strategy should be given a high profile.

37. While welcoming the planned expansion of Apprenticeships, the TUC has argued that this must be on the basis of both quality and equality. Further it is crucial that the expansion of Apprenticeships does not mean a move away from employment based Apprenticeships to those which are college based. Employer engagement in Apprenticeships is therefore central to any planned expansion. Reforms such as strengthening the remit of Sector Skills Agreements are important levers in taking this forward. There are particular equality implications as young people from black and minority ethnic communities are over-represented in college-based courses and less likely to end up in employment at the end of their Apprenticeship.

38. The TUC called for the removal of the upper age limit on apprenticeships in submissions to the development of the skills strategy, and t he recent commitment to expand Apprenticeships for Adults is welcome. This provides an excellent opportunity to build equality and diversity, particularly as older women are more likely to make non-stereotypical choices, which in turn could also help men choose areas usually dominated by women. However equality and diversity must be explicitly built into the development of Apprenticeships for Adults. Further, it is important that sustainable funding is secured for this programme and that non-traditional recruits are effectively supported, including providing childcare, transport and mentoring.

Changes to ESOL Funding

39. On Wednesday 18^th October 2006 the Minister of State for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning announced that the existing universal entitlement to free ESOL training up to level 2 was to be removed. The implications of the changes included that for many people with ESOL needs, the cost of paying for courses will shift from the public purse to individuals, unless employers make a contribution.

40. Unions have campaigned strongly on this issue. Efforts include the 'save ESOL' campaign and lobby of parliament organised by UCU and an Early Day Motion from USDAW. The unionlearn Board made a delegation to the Minister for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, and in January 2007, a union focus group was held as part of the Race Equality Impact Assessment (REIA) process.

41. The TUC and unions had argued strongly that expecting employers to pay, however desirable the general principle of employers paying, was unrealistic without mechanisms in place for this to occur. We had also argued strongly that only a tiny minority of migrants and other people with ESOL needs actually received the benefits to which they were entitled. Many would be deterred from applying for benefits by the length and complexity of benefit application forms - and because of their poor English. We therefore pressed strongly for use of alternative evidence such as payslips showing benefit eligibility (recognising that administration staff should not be placed under additional pressures and should receive detailed guidance and support).

42. On 26 March 2007, alongside the publication of the REIA, the Minister for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning announced a number of further revisions to ESOL funding policy. This included asking the LSC to develop guidance encouraging providers to work locally with Government agencies and to support learners in evidencing entitlement to fee remission and reinstating eligibility for further education for asylum seekers without a decision after 6 months. The TUC welcomed the Government's positive response to the concerns of the TUC, unions and other campaign groups. Government has stressed that they do not wish to 'cut' ESOL provision, simply curb the increase in its funding and encourage employers to pay. However it is important that these changes are kept under close review so as to ensure that those most in need continue to receive free ESOL.

Reforming the Supply of Skills

43. The TUC was broadly supportive of the White Paper Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances, published in March 2006. However a number of concerns were raised, including the need to ensure the social role of colleges is maintained in the context of limited funding. Concern was also raised over the introduction of competition in relation to aspects of new provision, and the potential for this to destabilise the FE system.

44. The TUC strongly disagrees with the assumption in the consultation document that 'the further education system needs to operate in an open and competitive market, driving up quality and delivering innovative provision' (para 7.2.1). The TUC would like to know the basis of this assumption. There is no evidence that transfer of services from the public sector to the private sector has a positive impact in terms of quality, cost or value to learners. A skills market place may also lead to perverse incentives and distractions from core business. This approach particularly has the potential to undermine equality objectives.

45. The TUC has recently responded to the DFES/LSC consultation 'Delivering World Class Skills in a Demand Led System'. The TUC response to this consultation is attached, and also available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/skills/tuc-13135-f0.pdf. The TUC is not convinced by the assumption that demand led funding approaches will effectively articulate needs of learners.

Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)

46. The TUC agrees that the role of Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) is important in supporting equality. However it is disappointing that the key role of workplace IAG was not recognised within the consultation document. In particular, Union Learning Representatives play a key role in providing support to learners and potential learners in the workplace, including women, people from black and minority ethnic communities and disabled people.

47. The TUC believes it is important that effective IAG is available to all learners. The TUC has supported the focus of guidance services for people with basic skills needs, people without an NVQ level 2 or equivalent and young adults up to age 30 not in higher education. However the range of priority groups is somewhat limited. This has important implications for equalities. Other groups of learners may need guidance, for example people from different black and minority ethnic communities, women returning to the workforce, disabled people and people who have been out of employment for longer periods of time, regardless of the level of qualification they have reached.

48. The TUC would like to ensure that in any revised system of IAG following the Leitch Review, any target groups are expanded to other groups of learners that may have a particular need for effective IAG to ensure equality of opportunity. Particular attention should be paid to inequality on the grounds of gender, race, age, and disability. Further, the issue of multiple disadvantage should also be addressed.

Preparing for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics

49. We welcome the ODA commitment to the promotion of equal opportunities within the procurement strategy. We would add that this will only be effective if the right employment and skills approach is taken by contractors. This means that not only is a commitment to equal opportunities important but a similar commitment to direct employment and work placements and/or apprenticeships that lead to portable qualifications is required of contractors. Construction in particular is an example of an industry where insufficient workplace learning and the use of extended supply chains and sub-contracting leads to a lack of access to employment and training opportunities for the workforce. This is particularly the case for women and black and Asian workers who might be excluded from informal recruitment networks and a lack of work placement opportunities. This employment situation poses a high risk to the equality impact of the Games and should be acknowledged as such in the document.

50. The equalities evidence and issues section of the consultation is quite weak regarding disabled people (paragraph 5.7.9). There should be reference to how the Olympics skills and employment programmes can be used to tackle unemployment and labour market disadvantage among disabled workers, rather than just promoting a positive view of disabled people.

51. Effective job brokerage, alongside skills initiatives are key to ensuring that local people benefit from the Games. It is important that all contractors engage with the Local Employment and Training Framework, City Strategy Pilot and other supply side and job brokerage models that have been developed around the Games. Unwillingness or inability of contractors to engage effectively with public sector supply side initiatives is another risk to the equality objectives of the Games.

Investors in People

52. The TUC has supported Investors In People since its inception in 1990 as a mechanism to increase opportunities for job-related development for all staff.

53. The TUC supports the inclusion of diversity into the Investors in People standard in the upcoming review. It is a shame that the Government rejected the Women and Work Commission's recommendation to support Investors in People in developing their work on equality and diversity.

54. The TUC also believes that the standard would further benefit by recognising the emergence of the union learning agenda, and in particular by including reference to Union Learning Representatives in the standard. Further, the TUC would also like to see Basic Skills incorporated in the next review of the Standard.

Conclusions

55. The TUC supports the approach within the Government's skills strategy to focus on the low skilled as the main priority for government funding. However there are a number of areas of policy that are of concern. The TUC's consultation response sets out a number of recommendations for change that would boost the equality and diversity outcomes for the Government's skills strategy.

---

[1] TUC (2005), Workplace Training - A Race for Opportunity

[2] Making a real difference. Union Learning Reps: a survey, unionlearn, October 2006

Report (4,800 words) issued 22 May 2007