The AELP autumn conference was an interesting opportunity to hear from decision and policy makers in the sector. The lead speaker was Jacqui Smith, the current Labour Skills Minister. Now she was reasonably honest, albeit still able to skirt around a few of the major concerns, but the key takeaways seem to revolve around a lack of funding being available and employers being squeezed to contribute towards professional level training.
Considering the impact of an incoming employers NI hike, the question was quite rightly raised to establish how, this increase, on top of already contributing 0.5% of their wages bill (for the larger employers), will work. The skills Minister was quick to answer that the NI increase won’t affect those apprentices under 25 and not earning above the threshold, and it was primarily the level 7 qualifications that employers should be funding. But there was no answer for those many employers needing to upskill their over 25’s workforce. The workforce is, by their measure, educated to a lower level (level 5 or less), than other countries, yet there is no desire through levy funding to raise this (well, if you are over 25 anyway).
The current government are very much keen on education for young people in “key and growing” sectors but seem to have dropped the idea of supporting lifelong learning. The workforce above age 25 still equates to the largest proportion of workers contributing to the economy and will continue to do so for up to 45 years beyond the age of 25. So why do we not want to invest in them?
Kate Ridley-Moy of the Department for Education (DfE), was quick to support the current government thinking, stating that 80% of the workforce require a qualification at a lower level than a degree.
So, what have we learnt? Well, it highlights more than ever that good quality higher level training is likely to become an employer’s burden. It drives my passion even more to ensure that Unitas continues to offer a wide range of courses in Youth and Criminal Justice to best support the needs of employers to gain an appropriately qualified workforce at a very cost-effective price.
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