Association of Colleges

23 July 2010

 

The Skills Minister John Hayes yesterday (23 July) invited Colleges, training organisations, employers and businesses to share their ideas on the future of the Government’s skills policy.The consultation document, Skills for Sustainable Growth, outlines the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ vision for a skills strategy and invites views on the full range of Further Education and skills policies to help Ministers make difficult choices on public funds including:

• how to further simplify the BIS system
• how to develop higher level apprenticeships
• how to ensure training leads to skills not accreditation
• how to develop enterprise education
• whether the current entitlements-based approach should be changed
• how to ensure the right qualifications are funded
• whether learning accounts have a role
• how to encourage businesses to invest in learning
• how to hold colleges and training organisations to account

John Hayes, Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, said: “Skills are vital for our economy but they also help to build stronger communities and empower individuals. Only by seeing learning as a single whole, not a series of separate compartments, can we ensure that it takes its place at heart of both business strategy and community life. Delivering future priorities will involve making difficult choices about the use of public funds.  I believe that we can deliver more and save money. But we will only achieve cost effectiveness by challenging the orthodox assumptions about what skills are for, how they are funded and what role Government should play.

"I am determined to ensure our decisions are the result of proper consultation so that policy reflects real priorities. I therefore welcome responses to the questions in this paper. By acknowledging the value of learning we can begin the task of re-evaluating our priorities, rediscovering craft, redefining community learning, rejuvenating apprenticeships, rebalancing the economy and building a big society."

Martin Doel, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “AoC is glad of the opportunity to work with Government on devising the future course of policy on skills and Further Education. We share the ambition to increase private and employer investment in skills and vocational education.

“There will inevitably challenges along the way but we think Colleges have an absolutely critical contribution to make to training apprentices and helping people to get the skills they need in growing sectors of the economy or to improve the quality of their lives.”

Skills for Sustainable Growth will inform a skills strategy to be published after the autumn Spending Review which will outline the Government’s principles for the skills system and a set out a policy framework for the next five years.

Responses to this paper need to be in by 14 October 2010.
 
The consultation and the BIS skills consultation is available at www.bis.gov.uk/skills-consultation and The Further Education and Skills Funding document is at www.bis.gov.uk/FE-funding-consultation  A copy of John Hayes’ speech is available at http://web.mercury.hosting.eduserv.org.uk/news/speeches/minister/john-hayes

 

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