More than 1,000 Skills Funding Agency staff are facing an uncertain future after workers were warned of job cuts in response to the “Civil Service Reform Agenda”.

The agency is planning to “restructure” in two phases, initially losing at least 17 members of its 44-strong senior team.

As part of our response to the Civil Service Reform Agenda and the changing landscape in the funding of adult skills we are restructuring the agency,

The first phase is expected to be finished by January, when the reduced senior team will then “design” the structure for the rest of the organisation — leaving the agency’s 1,200 staff uncertain of their jobs.

“At this stage no firm decisions have been made as to the scope and scale of phase two reductions. This will be confirmed during 2014,” an agency spokesperson told FE Week.

The agency, which delivers £4.1bn of skills training through contracts with more than 1,000 providers, is based in Coventry. It has 13 offices around England.

Industrial officer for the Public and Commercial Services union Tony Conway said: “They’re [the agency] saying to us they’re not planning to close offices because the leases are not up for renewal until 2015 and later. They’re saying they will be flexible if offices do close in how people work, but it’s very early days.”

However, he added: “We’re not totally convinced the agency can deliver with that size of staff reduction.”

The announcement was made to staff on Monday (September 23) through a weekly communication and was discussed further at the agency’s annual all-staff meeting two days later.

“As part of our response to the Civil Service Reform Agenda and the changing landscape in the funding of adult skills we are restructuring the agency,” said the agency spokesperson.

“We have told staff and just started the process to reduce the agency’s senior team by more than 35 per cent. This should be completed by January.

“Once this new, smaller senior team is in place they will then design the structure for the rest of the organisation (phase two) and this should be completed in time for the start of the next spending review (2015-16).”
The Civil Service Reform Agenda, launched in July 2012, is the government’s plan to reorganise the civil service, making it “more skilled, digital and unified”.

“Many areas of the civil service are moving towards digital access [through IT systems] and that’s happening at the agency,” said Mr Conway.

“They’re saying they don’t need to talk to people directly, over the phone or face-to-face. They’re saying they can do it digitally and follow-up any questions by phone calls.”

He added: “You end up with faceless bureaucrats.”

In November 2011, FE Week reported how more than £17m would be spent on voluntary redundancy packages for hundreds of agency staff in a bid to cut long-term costs.

And in April, Business Secretary Vince Cable wrote to the agency warning that its administration budget, which includes salaries, was expected to drop £8m, to just under £85m for 2014-15.

Previous grants funding letters show that from 2012-13 to 2013-14 there was a drop of nearly £9m, to almost £93m.

Labour’s Skills Taskforce, chaired by Chris Husbands, has today published a report on apprenticeships: A revolution in apprenticeships: a something-for-something deal with employers.

Describing itself as a “strategy to dramatically increase the number and quality of apprenticeships in England” the report says: “to protect the apprenticeship brand, level 2 training should be renamed as a traineeship or similar.”

“A universal gold standard for apprenticeships would reduce much of the low quality provision that is of no value to either employers or learners, and would minimise‘deadweight’, where public funds are spent on training that would have taken place anyway.

“To remedy this situation, Labour should work towards a situation whereby all apprenticeships:

• Are level 3 or above, which is the norm in Germany and other countries with strong
apprenticeship systems;
• Last a minimum of 2 years for level 3 (equivalent to A level) and 3 years for level 4
(university level);
• Include at least a day a week (or the equivalent) of off-the-job training, ensuring that
young people receive the broader theoretical training that underpins mobility and
progression in the labour market alongside work-based training; and
• Are focused on new job entrants rather than existing employees”

The report goes on to say: “However, given that two-thirds of all apprenticeships in England are now at level 2, these measures would inevitably lead to a dramatic fall in apprenticeship numbers if introduced suddenly.

“Employers and providers should therefore be given time to improve the quality of their apprenticeships over an agreed period. It is also vital that young people achieving at level 2 are able to progress to higher levels, so level 2 apprenticeships should be redesigned, as well as renamed, to ensure courses provide a platform for progression to a level 3 apprenticeship.”

Today (Sunday 22) at 18:30 FE Week is holding a free to attend fringe event at the Labour Party Conference about the future of apprenticeships (for more click here) 

Ed Miliband, the Labour Party leader, has announced plans to force firms to take on an apprentice every time they employ someone from outside the EU in the UK.

A BBC report says that Mr Miliband has told the Sunday Mirror:  “I want a high wage British economy, not a low wage brutish economy, and we’ve got plans to make that happen to drive up skills.

“So we’re going to say to any firm who wants to bring in a foreign worker that they also have to train up someone who’s a local worker, training up the next generation.

“We think that can create up to 125,000 new apprenticeships over the course of five years. And that is a massive boost in skills for our young people and that is really important.”

Gordon Marsden, Shadow Skills Minister, told FE Week: “This plan is in line with our strong overall pledge to make a radical difference to home grown skills and widen the range of apprenticeships.”

FE Week understands the scheme would apply to employers with 50 or more staff hiring migrants under “Tier 2” of the points-based system, where migrants are recruited to plug specific skills gaps and that the apprentice requirement would not need to be a like for like matching of the position being filled.

UPDATE : At 15:00 on Sunday 22, the Skills Minister Matthew Hancock tweeted from @matthancockmp “I have been advised by government lawyers that legislating to require hiring British apprentices would be contract law.” And “To be compliant the legislation would need to say the firm had to take on EU apprentices, not just British ones”

 

Labour’s Skills Taskforce, chaired by Chris Husbands, has also just published a report on apprenticeships. A revolution in apprenticeships: a something-for-something deal with employers. Read more about the report, and the call to end level 2 apprenticeships here.

On Sunday 22 at 18:30 FE Week is holding a free to attend fringe event at the Labour Party Conference about the future of apprenticeships (for more click here)