Professor Becky Francis’s interim curriculum review confirms a truth that every employer in the UK would agree with: too many young people are leaving education without the skills they need for life and work.
Beyond the ability to communicate, the skills that provide the greatest benefit in the workplace and for driving social mobility are functional numeracy and financial literacy.
It’s reassuring to see that “applied knowledge and skills, such as finance and budgeting” are likely to be given more weight under the proposed reforms.
This welcome ray of sunshine came in the same week that the education committee’s consultation into improving vocational and skills-based learning and qualifications received feedback from FE leaders.
With a number of changes to the skills landscape being announced or consulted on, it’s vital that we remain focused on the outcomes we’re trying to achieve.
We need to ensure that everyone has practical skills relevant to their daily lives and that these skills break down barriers and open doors to successful and fulfilling careers.
Decades of failure to align functional maths with applied finance in schools has come at a price. A significant proportion of adults still struggle with financial literacy – anywhere between a third and four-fifths of the population, depending on whose research you read and what level of understanding you measure.
That’s a significant proportion of the workforce not equipped for the challenges they face in the workplace or indeed in their home life.
Providers of further education and adult skills training are the natural partners to deliver the retraining and upskilling that the workforce needs to deliver on the government’s growth agenda.
The opportunity is to give adults of all ages the functional skills they need to kick off their careers, get back into work, to retrain into in-demand occupations – such as accounting and financial services – or even start their own businesses.
But with a 6 per cent cut to adult skills funding looming, the last government’s Multiply scheme ending this month and concerns that funding settlements for post-19 education will be limited, it’s getting harder to see how the upskilling that is required can be achieved.
The lifelong loan entitlement is a welcome signal that the government remains committed to the upskilling and reskilling agenda despite budget challenges. However, at present it only offers financial support for modular and flexible learning for qualifications at levels 4-6. Making lower-level qualifications available, particularly those which lead directly to employment or higher technical education, would help young people aged 19 to 24 not in education, employment or training, take their first step into their future careers.
Flexibility of funding is also essential: the modular funding approach within the lifelong loan entitlement has been shown to work, and a similar modular approach could be delivered effectively for lower qualification levels.
Another consideration is how to better incentivise employers themselves to invest in financial and digital training for their employees.
At a time when many employers are feeling a squeeze from a rise in the National Living Wage and employer’s national insurance contributions, particularly for employees on lower pay brackets, it’s not a good time to ask them to shoulder the burden.
The benefit, however, is a workforce with an expanded skills base, equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern economy.
One thing is certain: basic finance and numeracy training must be protected from cuts to the adult skills funding budget. Focusing on embedding real-world skills will benefit people regardless of job role or their level of previous education, and ensure we have a labour market to support the government’s growth mission.
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