CBI report reveals basic skills deficit

Employers remain dissatisfied with school and college leavers’ basic skills according to a report by CBI.

Around a third of employers said that young people lacked the necessary skills for work – the same amount as a decade ago.

CBI, a business lobbying organisation, found that 42 per cent of businesses had to provide remedial training for school and college leavers.

At the launch of the report, Keith Attwood, chair of CBI’s education and skills committee and chief executive of e2v technologies, said: “The education and training of our current workforce and future recruits to our workforce is central to economic recovery. It’s their skills and their creativity that will be at the heart of the recovery process.

“Long term economic success is inexplicably linked to a nation’s standard of education and skills.”

This was supported by Rod Bristow, the president of Pearson, which sponsored the survey. He said: “Nothing is more important for the future of economic success in our country and the lives of young people than education.”
The president said that higher expectations needed to be set for literacy and numeracy, but employers were also finding insufficient life skills. Young people lacked initiative and the problem solving capabilities needed to thrive in employment.

“Even the best performing nations say that the number one issue is to better equip school leavers with the broader skills needed for working life,” he said.

The number one issue is to better equip school leavers with the broader skills needed for working life”

The education and skills survey found that of the 542 firms questioned 61 per cent said school and college leavers had not developed the self-management skills needed for work.

Mr Bristow spoke about the importance of businesses engaging with schools and colleges. Over the past year, one third of businesses increased their engagement, but the president said this was “still no way near enough”.

The report said the survey “paints an encouraging picture”, with 81 per cent of employers planning to increase or maintain levels of investment in training. The number of firms that said they were going to reduce investment, however, increased from 2011 from 8 to 19 per cent.

Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg highlighted the importance of careers guidance.

“Employers see the quality of careers advice for young people as not good enough by a remarkable balance of minus 68 per cent,” he said.

“That is neither a surprising finding to me nor one that we can afford ignore.”

“I am very worried that when government policy is moving away from an emphasis on face-to-face careers guidance that already very stark and negative figure might only get worse.”

AELP Conference 2012 Special Edition

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Richard Review interview

Entrepreneur Doug Richard is to lead an independent review into the future of the apprenticeship programme in England.

The former Dragon’s Den investor has been commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Education (DfE) to look at how the government can build on the record number of new apprentices.

Mr Richard, speaking exclusively to FE Week, said he had been chosen to lead the review because of his extensive history working with small businesses.

“I’ve been asked really to take a forward look at the role of apprenticeships in society,” he said.

“As you can imagine it’s all changing terribly quickly, so I think the value that I bring is just my point of view.

“ I’m to the benefit of – and from the perspective of – small businesses, that’s where my life’s work is and I think that that happened to be something that is important to (the government) at this point in time.”

The ‘Richard Review of Apprenticeships’ will look at what the core components of an apprenticeship should be in the future, considering the needs of the ever-changing economy.

It will also consider how best to ensure every apprenticeship delivers a high amount of quality training, looking at the qualifications and skills which they provide employers
“I think there is a zeal for apprenticeships,” Mr Richard told FE Week.

“Any area where the government is either growing the economy and growing jobs or creating ladders for success, I think they look at and say what more can we do?”

Mr Richard said he is “very open to consultation” and is already drawing up a list of the key stakeholders he wants to hear from.

“I’m putting together a small brain trust of people who I think can bring some innovative thinking, and I’m going to be looking to them to work with me for framing what the potential for an apprenticeship could be,” he told FE Week.

Mr Richard said he hopes to publish the report in October.

Business secretary Vince Cable said: “To build a prosperous economy we need a skilled workforce.

“The apprenticeship programme has been a real success, not only boosting chances for young people, but also helping businesses to address their skills gaps.

“However in the past vocational youngsters have been let down by weak courses and our competitors have stolen a march.

“To keep pace it is vital that we build on our initial success and continue to look at how apprenticeships can adapt to meet our future needs in the fast-evolving global economy.”

Mr Richard is the founder of School for Startups, a social enterprise teaching new entrepreneurs how to start and run a successful businesses.

He also produced the ‘Richard Report’ in 2008, a document which investigated the British government’s support of small businesses.

Michael Gove, secretary of state for education, says Mr Richard is a “proper entrepreneur” and will help “get apprenticeships right”.

“It’s great that the numbers taking up apprenticeships has grown, but there are still serious issues,” he said.

“There is still too much bureaucracy getting in the way of small firms taking people on, too much money appears to be going to middle men and the quality of some vocational qualifications taken by apprentices is still not good enough.

“Doug will help us get that right.”

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Queen’s honour’s list recognises peoples’ work with WorldSkills

For the first time the Queen’s birthday honour’s list has recognised people’s work with WorldSkills International.

Seven people received a CBE, OBE or MBE partly because of their involvement with WorldSkills.

David Beresford Cragg, who was the deputy chairman of WorldSkills 2011 and has an OBE, was appointed a CBE. Aidan Jones, who was the chief executive of WorldSkills London 2011, was given an OBE.

The following were awarded an MBE for their role at WorldSkills London last year: Jenna Bailey, was a workshop supervisor for beauty therapy, Keith Nicolas Chapman, was an ambassador for landscape gardening, Eugene Incerti, was a director of skills competitions, Adam Peirson, was an ambassador for cooking, and Richard Sagar, was an ambassador for electrical installation.

Chris Humphries, the chairman of WorldSkills London 2011, said: “We will only see growth return to our economies through an era of skills and entrepreneurship and that’s why it’s so important that our work continues. WorldSkills London 2011 was a potential watershed in changing public attitudes about the value of skills in the UK.’’

The former WorldSkills competitors to be honoured are thought to be amongst the youngest on the honour’s list. Mr Sagar, 25, a WorldSkills ambassador who started his own electrical business following a gold medal win in electrical installation at Calgary in 2009, said:

‘‘I am determined to continue to deliver the high standards of skills that I have learned through WorldSkills. Being involved in skills competitions helps me to constantly improve my business as I am able to compare and contrast different techniques. I really hope it inspires other young people and shows them what can be achieved if you put your heart and mind into something that you love to do. This is a tremendous honour and a once in a lifetime opportunity – I will treasure it forever.’’

Squad selection for next year’s WorldSkills Leipzig competition is kicking off this week. You can find out more details about the event in next week’s paper.

It’s a disaster for workplace learning

I am a huge advocate of Functional Skills. I believe it represents our best chance in a decade to address the skills crisis in the UK, highlighted only a couple of days ago by the latest CBI/Pearson survey which showed that four out of ten companies are now carrying out remedial training in maths and English for school and college leavers who join them.

It has therefore come as a very unpleasant shock to providers operating in this field to learn that the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) intends to reduce the level of funding for Functional Skills. Organisations delivering the standalone qualification in the workplace will receive 40 per cent less compared with the existing Adult Basic Skills qualifications. This move seems to lack any sense of logic.

So, the government introduces a fantastic new set of qualifications to address this issue and then immediately shoots itself in the foot by cutting the funding rate by 40% “

Everyone accepts that Functional Skills will take longer to deliver than Skills for Life. Since it will almost certainly require more contact time between learner and tutor, it would seem only fair that the funding for the new qualification is at the very least on par with that offered for Skills for Life.

The implications of this news are potentially disastrous. We now know from the government’s own figures that over 5.1 million adults are functionally illiterate and that a staggering 16.1 m adults (nearly half the adult working population) lack functional numeracy skills. So, the government introduces a fantastic new set of qualifications to address this issue and then immediately shoots itself in the foot by cutting the funding rate by 40% for adults who seek these qualifications through the workplace as opposed to college training?

For many providers in this field, most of whom rely on this funding as their main source of income, the cut means that delivering Functional Skills will become impossible. We all have to tighten our belts in these difficult economic times, but no organisation can sustain a drop of 40 per cent in revenue and remain economically viable without a huge reduction in their level of service. As a consequence, it seems almost certain that many highly successful and reputable training providers will move out of an area which is absolutely vital to the future success of the UK economy.

I don’t believe that someone from the SFA has simply woken up one morning and said “Let’s cut Basic Skills funding in the workplace by 40 per cent”. More likely, the SFA simply haven’t thought through the implications of their actions. In attempting to set a uniform rate across the whole FE landscape, they have ignored the huge differences between workplace training (with intensive one-to-one support for individual learners) and the classroom scenario where larger numbers of learners can be taught within a single group.

That’s my theory. We can speculate on the reasons why, but what is clearly not in dispute is the devastating impact of these new funding guidelines on organisations who specialise in Basic Skills training in the workplace.
Of course, the use of technology can provide savings and efficiencies. At MindLeaders we have developed a full distance-learning solution for Functional Skills which we are delivering successfully to many organisations across the UK.

But I don’t believe that government funding strategy should be set on the basis that the only way to deliver Functional Skills cost-effectively is to fully utilise technology. I would therefore urge the SFA to review this decision. There are still a couple of months remaining before the introduction of Functional Skills and this is a U-turn which I believe is essential if we are going to tackle the skills crisis in the UK.

Roger Francis,
Services and HR Director, Mindleaders

Click here for Roger Francis’s blog.