The Commons Education Select Committee has issued its last report on post 16 skills and learning - a bit like the Curate's Egg, some bits are highly insightful and will therefore probably be forgotten or ignored, as it was published in August when Education is on holiday!
The BBC report on it intrigued me into reading the whole report. The BBC story on "Skills scheme restrictive - MPs" did the usual stuff on highlighting potential bureaucracy for learners and expressed concern at Train to Gain. I am probably not the biggest fan of Train to Gain, due in part to the focus on employed status learners, when all adults could use some support for learning. However I am aware that employers, particularly in smaller private sector businesses, could use some help when training their staff. The Audit Commission said that some of the employers benefiting from Train to Gain would have done the training anyway - perhaps true of the large public sector employers, but less likely to be true of the private sector as every minute away from work and every penny spent paying a training provider has a direct impact on the bottom line.
So what were the things that impressed me? One of them was actually something that in the BBC report, made me see red, until I read the full version. Basically the report doubted the direct link between qualifications and prosperity unless those qualifications were linked to overall business development and the needs of the business. This is a clear message that Investors in People has been about for years - invest in your people to make sure they have the right skills for the business today and tomorrow, and is therefore as much about business planning excellence as people development excellence.
A second key message - the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills must not become dominated by Universities, but must also keep the Skills part of its agenda firmly in the public eye and in the core of its activities. Well, Amen to that, but it is probably a lot more prestigious to hobnob with Professors at Oxford or Cambridge than get down to real issues with the local college of Further Education.
A third key message - qualifications and skills are not necessarily the same thing. The credit framework is not quite there yet, but employers do not want to buy full qualifications if half or more of the content is irrelevant to them, and learners may not want to learn the whole qualification if they can see no point in some of it. It does raise the question of whether the national Qualifications Framework is really fit for purpose currently, but that is another issue.
A fourth key point - the importance not just of getting the skills supply side right, but actually building the demand for skills and learning. It is difficult but it is a key activity.
A fifth key point (it really was a good report) - the issue of funding ESOL. Sadly the BBC report was borderline illiterate at this point, so I urge you to read the real thing, but it is something I know I have spoken to clients about and have muttered about in previous postings - funding is being cut, or rather refocused, so those learners that need ESOL teaching are less likely to get it in future.
However, the Commons Education Select Committee is no more, so it will take a while for the two successor select committees to find all of this out for themselves once again. In the meantime I hope the skills campaign works in terms of increasing the demand for skills out there among individuals and employers.
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