CHAPTER 2 National skills strategy

1. Learning and Development L&D CHAPTER 2 National skills strategy

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER To explain and explore national vocational training policy, strategy and in initiatives in ways that will help you to understand their significance for employers and L&D practitioners. • KEY THEMES • NVET policy: getting to the heart of the matter • A new era – England’s first national skills strategy • The 2006 Leitch Review • Implementing Leitch • Life after Leitch? • Key tasks for L&D practitioners

3. THE UK ECONOMY: PRODUCTIVITY AND SKILLS – contrasting viewpoints (1) Government viewpoint For over 60 years the UK economy has suffered from significantly lower levels of productivity than those achieved by most competitor countries Over one fifth of the difference is due to the UK’s lower skills base, especially at levels 1–3. There is a direct link between levels of accredited skills in an economy and its levels of innovation, quality and productivity. Employers’ viewpoint During that period firms have suffered fromunpredictable market conditions and reducedprofit levels. SMEs account for 52% of UK’s total turnover.They are the most vulnerable to uncertaineconomic conditions, and to poaching ofstaff holding accredited training qualifications. Accredited skills are not the only kind thatenable firms to be productive and achieve innovation, etc, but employers have not been given the chance to acquire a strong voice in articulating their future skill needs.

4. THE UK ECONOMY: PRODUCTIVITY AND SKILLS – contrasting viewpoints (2) Government viewpoint The UK skills gap has widened in recent years. One serious problem is an increasingly ageing workforce, requiring urgent upgrading of skills. Training is associated with greater productivity gains than wage increases and can also improve morale, engagement and promotability of employees. Employers consistently fail to invest adequately in workforce training and development. Employers’ viewpoint NVET policy has been dominated by governments’ interpretation of the skills gap, its causes and how to tackle it. But it is not only accreditedtraining that holds the key here. Employers do try to invest adequately in forms of learning that increase employees’ upskilling and proficiency. But 40% of that investment relates to non-accredited learning activity and so is not accounted for in Government statistics.

5. SIX STEPS IN AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH • 1 Frame the fundamental research question • 2 Identify relevant external and internal sources of information • 3 Assess the likely accuracy of the information • Assess the relevance of the information to organisational context • 5 Assess the feasibility of options for an intervention, given organisational context • Determine whether there is adequate reliable information for sound decision-making

6. ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF INVESTMENT IN ACCREDITED TRAINING (1) •What has been the level of investment in accredited training in my organisation over the past year – and how certain am I that my information here is accurate? •  Has the level changed in the last few years? What information sources will give me reliable data on this? •  What reliable internal organisational evidence do I have to explain our recent and current investment levels? •  What external factors have influenced our investment levels, and how powerful is that influence? If I don’t know, how can I find out? •  What seems likely to happen to the level of investment in the future, and on what evidence do I base my predictions here? • How does our level of investment compare with that of other organisations in our sector? What information sources will give me reliable data on this?

7. ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF INVESTMENT IN ACCREDITED TRAINING (2) • Should our investment level be a cause for concern? What evidence can I obtain that will provide me with a reliable answer here? • If sound evidence suggests there is cause for concern, what does external evidence from research and good practice suggest I should do in this situation? • If the evidence strongly suggests that I should intervene in some way, what action would be feasible, given contextual factors in this particular organisation – and what factors should I take into account here? • If, after thorough analysis, I decide to press ahead with my proposed intervention and it unexpectedly backfires, what sort of damage might that cause? And is the risk of incurring unintended negative consequences worth taking? • If I decide to press ahead with the intervention, how will I evaluate its outcomes?

8. THREE PRIMARY TASKS FOR UK SKILLS STRATEGY • To ensure through lifelong learning policies that all adults have basic employability skills • To help employers rethink their business and organisational strategies around more ambitious high-performance/high value-adding goals that, to be achieved, will require them to invest in more highly-skilled workforces • To adopt a far more demand-led approach to NVET provision, with employers and individual learners in the driving seat.

9. NATIONAL ADULT SKILLS TARGETS, 1991 AND 2003 National education and training targets for foundation and lifelong learning, 1991 1 By 1997 at least 80% of all young people to hold by age 18 an NVQ/SVQ at level 2 or its academic equivalent (level 2 is equivalent ot five good GCSEs or similar) 2 All young people who can benefit should be given an entitlement to structured training, work experience or education leading to NVQ level 3 (intermediate level) or its academic equivalent 3 By 2000 at least 50% of that age group to be qualified to at least level 3 or equivalent 4 By 2000 50% of the employed workforce to be qualified to at least level 3 or its academic equivalent National skills objectives, 2003 1 At least 28% of 16- to 17-year-olds to start on a Modern Apprenticeshipin 2004 (tied to level 2 skills attainment) 2 By 2010, reduction by at least 40% of the 7 million adults who lack NVQ level 2 or equivalent qualifications 3 Working toward this, at least 1 million adults already in the workforce to achieve level 2 between 2003 and 2006

10. 2003: Twenty-First-Century Skills– AIMS OF THE THREE SKILLS STRATEGY TARGETS • To raise informed demand by: • Improving management, leadership and HR strategies in organisations • Stimulating the development of high-performing work organisations • Encouraging innovative workplace learning • Reforming the national qualifications framework • To meet demand by: • Promoting flexible funding mechanisms and QA measures • Devolving more purchasing power to consumers of education and training • To ensure effective partnership-based delivery by: • A new deregulated structure to replace the TECs system

11. 2001–3 NATIONAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY POLICY Policy-making government departments DfES in partnership with Dept. for Work and Pensions and Dept. for Trade and Industry Key responsibility for monitoring implementation of policies Adult Learning Inspectorate (2001) Health and Safety Executive Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit Workplace basic skills network Some key documents 2001 In Demand, Part 1 2001 White Paper Skills for Life 2002 In Demand, Part 2 2003 Learning and Skills Council report Skills In England, 2002 2003 LSC report The National Employers’ Skills Survey 2003 Twenty-First-Century Skills (Government strategy paper)

12. 2001–6 NATIONAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY SYSTEM Key elements of delivery system Learning and Skills Council (2001) LSC Development Agency (2001) working in partnership with LAs and RDAs (1999) Skills for Business Network (2001, incorporating the new SSCs) JobcentrePlus and Connexions Service Union Learning Reps (2000) UfI/learndirect (1999) LSC-funded training providers and FE colleges Some initiatives to promote workforce and workplace development Employer Training Pilots IiP Standard Apprenticeships S/NVQs

13. Building an ‘employer-led’ VET system: THE LEITCH PROPOSALS • To achieve ‘employer-leadership’ and the substantial upgrading of skills, employers must: • invest more at NVQ levels 3 and 4 • redesign qualifications as relevant • deliver ‘the pledge’ on basic skills and qualifications to level 2 for all employees by 2010 • commit to 2020 targets and the development of world-class skills at all levels • They must also: • relate their proficiency needs and learning activities to top-down national targets • propose meaningful national targets derived from their needs

14. Building an ‘employer-led’ VET system: PROBLEMATIC ISSUES • Can employers clearly define ‘what they want’? • Can SSCs work in partnership well enough to stimulate the necessary changes? • How can employers train better in relation to organisational development and competitiveness when uncertain about skills and behaviours they will need, and how to tie soft skills to vocational qualifications?  • How to accurately identify long-term skill needs when faced with: • rapid technical change • greater labour mobility within Europe • ageing workforces and fewer young people entering employment • the likelihood of a lengthy global recession?  • Government is preoccupied with upgrading accredited skills to NVQ level 3, but how much evidence supports the need for this? And what about the need for a parallel raising of performance? • Employers invest heavily in workplace learning, yet Government’s view of it is a narrow one – what is known about WPL’s content and impact on competitiveness?

15. Building an ‘employer-led’ VET system: SOME SUGGESTIONS • National skills pledges, targets and funding should recognise and encourage experiential learning and non-standard provision where it meets organisational need.  • Providers should develop training and vocational education better tailored to needs.  • The Government should encourage employers to identify what works, rather than external providers ‘picking winners’ or pushing ‘one size fits all’ packages. • Ensure that SSC agreements lead to consideration of skills and performance issues at the level of individual organisations, supply chains and smaller organisations.   • Judge SSCs by appropriate indicators of success including sector productivity. • Learn lessons from the UK’s increasingly diverse learning policies across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.