Learning & Skills Policy Update
- Introduction
- Tackling the training divide
- Implementing the Leitch Review
- Skills Pledge
- The collective approach on skills
- Unionlearn research reports
- Young people
- Skills priorities for public services
Introduction
This newsletter is intended to keep you abreast of policy developments in learning and skills and the TUC/trade union view on them as well as keeping you up-to-date on a range of union learning initiatives. If you have any suggestions about either the content or the design of the newsletter, please contact Iain Murray: imurray@tuc.org.uk. The newsletter is available on the main TUC website www.tuc.org.uk/skills along with more policy briefings. For much more detailed information on union learning, you should go to www.unionlearn.org.uk (the unionlearn website). You can register for email alerts on either or both of these websites.
There are some useful government email briefings on learning and skills policy that you may also wish to subscribe to. You can register for regular email alerts from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) website at www.lsc.gov.uk/News/lscwebalerts. The Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) also publishes a monthly policy newsletter and a weekly newsletter about sector skills initiatives. To subscribe to these two email briefings, go to www.ssda.org.uk/ssda/default.aspx?page=18
It should also be noted that the following acronyms are used in this newsletter for the key Government departments covering skills: DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills), DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) and BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform).
Tackling the training divide
In the run-up to Congress 2007 the TUC published a new report highlighting the extent of the training divide in UK workplaces, in particular regarding access to training based on an individual's level of educational achievement. Using the latest government figures, the report (Time to Tackle the Training Divide) shows that 41 per cent of graduate employees recently participated in job-related training compared to only 12 per cent of employees without any qualifications.
The slight narrowing of this training divide in recent years (respective figures for 1995 were 43 per cent and 8 per cent) is partly attributable to the range of policy initiatives introduced by the Government to support employers and trade unions to help more employees without qualifications to take the first step back into learning. However, the scale of ambition on skills set out by Lord Leitch will require a much greater step-change in access to work-based training by employees with few or no qualifications in the coming years.
The report also includes an analysis of recent OECD date showing that the UK performs poorly when it comes to offering job-related training to employees without a level 2 qualification. Out of 18 OECD countries for which these statistics were available, the UK came an embarrassing 12th when comparing the total amount of training that such employees would expect to receive over their working lives.
The report concludes that if the new Skills Pledge is really going to bite, there will have to be a very significant increase in the number of these employees accessing workplace training. The TUC and unionlearn are supporting the pledge and trade unions are already beginning to work closely with employers to make it deliver in the workplace (see below for more details).
However, the report stresses that 'the Government needs to make it absolutely clear to all stakeholders that if the pledge does not lead to a major discernible change in employer behaviour and culture in the coming years, a decision to implement a statutory approach must be taken in 2010.' Otherwise there is little prospect of virtually eradicating low skills by 2020 as recommended by Lord Leitch and subsequently endorsed by the Government in the Leitch implementation plan. The report is available at: www.tuc.org.uk/skills
Implementing the Leitch Review
On 18 July the Government published its detailed response to the recommendations of the Leitch Review of Skills in the document, World Class Skills: implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England. The TUC welcomed the implementation plan and in particular the noticeable change in tone as regards the importance of meeting the skill needs of individual employees as well as giving employers a bigger say on skills. A detailed TUC briefing is available at: www.tuc.org.uk/skills
The TUC welcomed the implementation plan, saying that it would 'do much to tackle the problems that low skills create for both employers and individuals'. It also identified a welcome nuanced change in tone with the skill needs of individuals and employees being more centre stage than in recent policy statements. In particular, the TUC welcomed the vision of a demand-led skills system highlighted in the introduction of the document, as follows: 'What all our reforms have in common is that they are trying to put the customer - in this case, adult learners and employers - first. We call this our 'demand-led' approach'.
The TUC also welcomed the decision to 'bring forward new legislation to strengthen the current funding entitlement for adults to free training in basic literacy and numeracy skills, and to achieve their first full level 2 qualifications'. While this entitlement will not immediately create any new obligations on employers, it does go beyond the proposal by Lord Leitch to review the need for a new statutory right in 2010. In principle it prepares the ground for the introduction of a full legal right to training in three years time if employers fail to support enough employees to access training up to level 2 by supporting the Skills Pledge.
The Government has announced that the above entitlement will be included in an Education and Skills Bill, which will be introduced sometime during the next Parliamentary session. This Bill will also raise to 18 the minimum age at which young people can leave education or training and will bring in other legislative changes needed to implement key elements of the implementation plan (e.g. changing the arrangements for implementing training levies at the sector level when employers and unions agree to this).
The TUC continues to have concerns about the extent to which the employer-led approach on skills is being strengthened and will continue to press the Government to give employees and trade unions a significant voice in the new institutional skills framework, in particular via the new Commission for Employment and Skills. It is also particularly important that the workforce, through trade union representation, is able to have a significant influence on the new powers that Sector Skills Councils are to be given around the design and approval of vocational qualifications.
Skills Pledge
Before publication of the implementation plan in July, the Government had already made it clear that it endorsed Lord Leitch's key recommendation to establish a Skills Pledge to encourage employers to voluntarily upskill employees to a level 2 standard. According to the implementation plan, 'as a minimum, that means supporting all employees who need them to gain literacy and numeracy qualifications, and work towards achieving first full level 2 qualifications'. In addition, 'in return for their commitment, employers making the pledge will have access to Train to Gain, including the support of the brokerage service and literacy, numeracy and first full level 2 training for their staff.'
The TUC is supporting the Skills Pledge but only on the basis that the Government remains clearly committed to introducing a statutory right to training if the pledge does not lead to a sufficient rate of improvement in investment in training by employers (Lord Leitch had recommended that this should be reviewed in 2010). On this point the implementation plan says the following: 'If we do not make sufficient progress toward our world class skills ambition for 2020, we will consider creating an entitlement to workplace training for employees in England lacking a first full level 2 qualification. We will ask the UK Commission to maintain an overview of progress towards our ambition, and in 2010 Government will review whether introduction of an entitlement is necessary and appropriate.'
The unionlearn website has a new section on the Skills Pledge and a range of leaflets are already available, including a mini-guide to the pledge aimed at ULRs. For more information, go to: (http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/policy/index.cfm?mins=150). The Government's implementation plan has highlighted that 'Union Learning Representatives play a vital role in helping employees to develop their skills and gain new qualifications' and that it is envisaged that they will build on this role by working with employers to draw up action plans for delivering the Skills Pledge and helping more employers and employees access Train to Gain provision. The TUC and unionlearn will be supporting this enhanced role for ULRs over the coming months.
The collective approach on skills
The TUC has continued to support policy reforms to strengthen collective approaches to learning and skills in spite of the Government's decision last year to rule out, for the time being, including training as a collective bargaining issue in the statutory recognition procedure. In addition, the TUC has pressed for a statutory procedure to underpin the drawing up of learning agreements and the monitoring of such agreements by workplace learning committees. Two recent research reports commissioned by unionlearn have highlighting the benefits of collective approaches on skills (see below for more details).
When the Government rejected the calls by the TUC for a statutory collective approach on skills last year, it did however give a commitment that it would work with stakeholders to develop best practice on workplace dialogue on training. To take forward this commitment the TUC, CBI and two Government departments - DIUS and BERR - are currently working on a joint project to produce best practice guidance which includes a number of case studies. The aim is to publish the guidance in the autumn and more information about the project is available at www.tuc.org.uk/skills
The TUC, in collaboration with DIUS, is also currently taking forward a pilot project to develop Collective Learning Funds. The CLF model is designed to optimise employer and employee contributions to broad workforce development that falls outside the direct responsibility of employers (e.g. job-specific training) or Government-subsidised provision (e.g. Skills for Life, Skills Pledge, Train to Gain). The CLF proposal was included in the 2006 FE White Paper following lobbying by the TUC. During 2007, unionlearn in the North West, supported by DIUS, have been taking forward a pilot project to develop CLF models in the region. An interim evaluation report is expected in autumn 2007 with a final report to follow in summer 2008.
Unionlearn research reports
During 2007 unionlearn has published five new research papers commissioned from universities and research institutes. These include two papers published in June which focus on highlighting the benefits of the collective approach on skills from a qualitative and a quantitative perspective (Research Paper 3, A Collective Learning Culture: a qualitative study of workplace learning agreements. Research Paper 4, Training, Union Recognition and Collective Bargaining: findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey). Another recently published paper traces the history of union involvement in training over recent decades and the policy implications that can be drawn from this (Research Paper 5, From Voluntarism to Post-Voluntarism: the emerging role of unions in the vocational education and training system). All these research papers can be downloaded from the unionlearn website: www.unionlearn.org.uk.
Young people
In June the TUC submitted a response to the Government's consultation: 'Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post 16'. The TUC welcomed the overall ambition, agreeing that if young people are to be given the best chance of succeeding in the world of work, it makes sense for them to remain in education or high quality training until they are aged 18. However the submission also highlighted some reservations and recommended a shift in focus, including that the TUC was uncomfortable with the compulsory approach being proposed on the grounds that it could result in young people being forced into learning or being penalised via the criminal justice system. The TUC submission proposed that the primary focus should be on support, encouragement and an attractive learning and skills offer for young people. The full submission is available at: www.tuc.org.uk/skills.
Skills priorities for public services
The Public Services Forum (PSF) Learning and Skills Task Group was established in summer 2006 and given a remit by the PSF to look at the following issues:
- Scope out the major long-term skills priorities for public services in the context of workforce development and the overall aim of improving public service;
- Address a small number of key strategic public sector skills issues on a cross-sector basis; and
- Develop an action plan for employers and trade unions to take forward and that would influence the LSC's remit on skills
(The PSF itself is a body that facilitates dialogue on issues affecting public services and its membership is drawn from public sector employers and trade unions. It is chaired by a Cabinet Officer Minister).
The Learning and Skills Task Group comprises a number of PSF members plus a number of co-opted members and it is supported by a secretariat comprising officials from the Cabinet Office, Learning and Skills Council and TUC (working closely with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills). The Task Group is co-chaired by Frances O'Grady (TUC Deputy General Secretary) and David Amos (Director of Workforce, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).
Over the past year the Task Group has met four times and in May 2007 the Co-Chairs presented an interim Progress Report to a full meeting of the PSF, setting out a 5-point Action Plan focusing on the following policy areas: (i) Skills Pledge (ii) Young People (iii) Leadership & Management (iv) Maximising the impact of investment in training by Government and employers (v) A case study in adult social care to 'reality test' these new approaches. At the PSF meeting it was also agreed to extend the life of the Task Group for an additional year in order for it to work with a range of partners to take this Action Plan forward. The interim progress report is available at www.tuc.org.uk/skills.
Newsletter (2,400 words) issued 11 Sep 2007
