Why the white paper reminds me of the Oasis reunion

By Darren Hankey, Principal of Hartlepool College of Further Education

For many, 2025, and the summer in particular, will go down as the year Oasis reformed and toured again after a 15-year hiatus due to a family estrangement. The Gallagher brothers’ Mancunian swagger was back - although I did not try to get a ticket as, being of a certain age, I saw them three times "back in the day". This annoyed my kids and underlined my ‘boomer*’ status in their eyes.

That said, I glowed in self-righteousness as I avoided endless hours online trying to get a ticket as well as a new phenomenon, dynamic pricing, which led to some tickets exchanging hands for the equivalent of a small country’s national debt. To be honest, I did enjoy the content which flashed up on social media at the time of their gigs where Liam, Noel and thousands of folk belted out classics like Supersonic, Wonderwall and many, many more.

In many respects, the launch of the latest Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper has many parallels with the Oasis reunion – the classics have been replayed and lots of folk are wanting more - especially when it comes to clarity and detail. Let me explain.

The first classic in the white paper is that of targets. Every white paper or attempt to boost the nation’s skills in recent decades has featured targets, whether it be 50% of folk to progress to university or recent attempts to ensure the civil service takes on more apprentices. This white paper rolled this classic with the new metric of getting two-thirds of young people in the UK go to university or study a technical qualification after leaving school, and got much air time.

The next classic focuses on structures and this is also a mainstay of white papers and skills strategies gone by – see National Colleges, University Technical Colleges and the area review process for details. As with targets, structures featured in the white paper but was also prominent in the Labour Party manifesto leading to the 2024 election and has already begun to be rolled out. Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) are the new show in town with the aim of providing skills for several of the sectors which feature in the Industrial Strategy and the government’s wider Plan for Change initiative.

The final classic to feature in the latest white paper is the tried and tested tweak to qualifications. I am fortunate enough to have worked in our wonderful sector for just over 30 years and have seen an alphabet soup of qualifications come and go – GNVQ, AVCE, CLAIT and T Levels to name but a few. Once again, this classic is belted out in the latest white paper and this time in the form of V Levels - new vocational qualifications which aim to fill the void of APQs (applied general qualifications – keep up at the back) which have a short stay of execution in terms of being defunded. Stepping stone GCSE English and maths qualifications as well as new level 2 pathways and apprenticeship units also make their bows.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these FE policy classics are wrong – the alphabet soup of vocational qualifications does need greater clarity and I hope V Levels bring this. My point is, these classics are the levers policymakers have pulled for decades, if not longer, always with the aim of making things better but largely falling short. For me, they also miss the main skills issues the country has - namely, the need to raise the demand for, utilisation of and investment in skills.

Demand, utilisation and investment did get a mention in the white paper – for example, it was great to see a section on the decline of employers’ investment in skills over the last two decades. But this, for me, is where the white paper is a little light on detail: how will the government ensure firms invest more in their workforces when the economic conditions are tight and the lack of investment is well entrenched? Will sector jobs plans cut it and have strategic authorities got the capacity and powers to support this? Some places have had devolution for years and the decline in employer investment in skills has continued unabated. Additionally, investment featured in the white paper and this is always welcome. But we can be rest assured that the investment coming the sector’s way will take us nowhere near where it was in real-terms back in 2010. By way of a reminder, the Institute of Fiscal Studies highlights investment in 16-18 education is about 10% less in real-terms compared to 2010 and for adult education the figure is closer to 40% less.

So, like this summer’s Oasis concert goers, the white paper leave those in the FE & Skills sector wanting more – more detail and more clarity especially around stimulating the demand for, utilisation of and investment in skills. Detail and clarity is also required with regards to some of the new initiatives and the direction of travel. I’m sure policymakers will be popping the champagne (supernova) corks, but for those of who work so hard in the sector, we’ve just to look forward, roll with it and not look back in anger.

*I’m Gen X not a boomer.