Don’t believe the hype – Skills England isn’t doomed to failure

After much debate and scrutiny, the legislation dissolving the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has passed through Parliament and the process of moving its functions to Skills England has officially started.

I have read a lot of articles arguing Skills England will have no teeth, that it does not possess the resources to make a difference and that, as an executive body of the Department for Education, it will not be able to make use of statutory powers as IfATE did, something that those with an understanding of constitutional law and process will know is not true.

This week the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) highlighted the narrative that Skills England will “feed into” and “inform” policy rather than having teeth. The Financial Times reported that a shrinking vision and lack of “clout” would lead to an agency that would, to all intents and purposes, be stillborn.

With so much talk about the “significant headwinds” Skills England already faces, it is worth taking a moment to consider the ways in which this period of change offers opportunities to the education sector, as well as industry.

This is a chance for us to really shape and inform its development to ensure we get what we need. Skills England will need educators, employers and representatives of industry to be effective in the current challenging fiscal environment, where every arm’s length body will have to justify its value to the public purse. So, what can we do?

Mobilise as a cross-sectoral group

Our greatest strength as providers and employers is the way in which we have established close working relationships to understand the capabilities and needs of one another. We have long undertaken the activities at a local level that Skills England seeks to coordinate and streamline. We need to demonstrate this to Skills England as it establishes itself. By entering the conversation as a united front, we can help to shape the way in which Skills England operates, engages and supports the solutions we need.

Lend our expertise

We need to demonstrate our support for Skills England by offering to aid its mission in any way we can. As specialists in the areas in which we operate, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really show the government what is needed to make the skills system work, to ensure it is a system that ‘enables with us’ rather than ‘does to us’.

Supporting Skills England to meet our needs

Skills England has been criticised for a narrow focus on industry priority skills, but it has a much more critical role to play in speeding up qualification approval and revision, bringing clarity over funding, and providing a focus on innovation in delivery and meaningful FE/HE integration. We need to ensure these matters remain high on the list of priorities and are not lost in the surrounding noise.

Be the solution

Linking to our expertise, we have the opportunity to show Skills England the solutions that work, the methods we have tried, those that have succeeded and those that have failed. Radical new action is not necessarily what’s needed here. Instead we need to double down on the things that do work, especially as content and mode of learning is reformed to meet oncoming technological and societal challenges.

A call to action

Industry and educators must work together to shape how Skills England evolves, and support the translation of national priorities in regionally contextualised action that can be delivered locally within our communities. As City & Guilds CEO Kirstie Donnelly said last year when speaking about the new body, we have an opportunity to really come together to influence and build something great.

I have heard too much talk of Skills England being a divisive tool that will not effect change. Together we can change the narrative.