Do we need LEPs after all?

With government funding for skills advisory panels ending and the future of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) hanging in the balance, the landscape for regional skills oversight is shifting. Jason Noble assesses the impact if both are lost for good.

For the last decade, local enterprise partnerships have been at the forefront of local and regional economic development across England.

Launched in the early 2010s to replace regional development agencies, LEPs were designed to take responsibility for local growth and play a role between central government and local businesses.

But with devolution deals promised for every region in England that wants one by 2030, and the government in the spring budget indicating that it was “minded to withdraw central government support for LEPs from April 2024”, is it already over for LEPs?

It would appear the writing has been on the wall for some time. LEPs were frozen out of bidding to become employer representative bodies for the new local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) being developed across England, although it should be noted that mayoral combined authorities were also curbed from taking control of those too.

And this month, the Department for Education published the final funding allocations for skills advisory panels – groups bringing together employers, providers and other key stakeholders, many of which are led by LEPs, to gather local data and evidence to inform local skills policies.

The DfE has confirmed there will be no further funding of SAPs, with the 2022/23 cash set at £55,000 for each of the 34 areas – £20,000 less than the £75,000 the year prior.

The DfE said the reduced allocation reflected the smaller ask of SAPs from previous years.

A spokesperson said: “We want to ensure that we are putting employers at the heart of local skills systems to help people to develop the skills they need to get good jobs and increase prospects.

“That’s why we are rolling out the employer-led local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) across the country, which the skills advisory panels supported in development by sharing analysis and data of the local skills system.”

The SAPs could still exist within the new employer representative bodies forming the LSIPs, but that will be down to the individual areas and will not attract any more central government funding, the DfE said.

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities department told FE Week: “Our intention is for the functions of local enterprise partnerships to be delivered by democratically elected local leaders, where this is appropriate and is not already delivered by combined authorities.”

Mark Livesey

A consultation on the future of LEPs is currently underway – the 38 LEPs are in a four week window to complete a questionnaire that evidences where they add value, with next steps likely to be unveiled in the summer.

But what will the potential loss of LEPs and SAPs mean for local skills functions? Mark Livesey, chief executive of the LEP Network which champions the 38 LEPs across the country, is unequivocal.

“You won’t miss the benefits until they’re gone because LEPs play such an integral role in local skills provision – they’ve worked hard to build local partnerships between local business and providers,” he said.

“Local authorities simply don’t have that scale of business contact and the deep understanding of local labour markets which LEPs have built up over the last decade.”

He described it as a “retrograde step at a critical point,” pointing out that as apolitical bodies, LEPs did not have the same political wrangling which elected authorities faced.

Nationwide, LEPs have secured more than 3,500 business professionals in volunteering as enterprise advisors in schools to deliver careers sessions for the Careers and Enterprise Company.

Many help facilitate apprenticeship levy transfers from larger to smaller employers, and have a key seat on SAPs which have generated some of the evidence that has informed LSIPs.

Furthermore, many are involved in key government programmes such as Kickstart, Restart and skills bootcamps, and have been involved in dishing out investment funds locally.

Chris Starkie

Indeed, bootcamps is one area where the LEPs say they could add more value.

Chris Starkie, chief executive of the New Anglia LEP covering Norfolk and Suffolk, said the LEP significantly exceeded its wave 3 bootcamps target of 240 by achieving 310 learners, and could deliver twice as many learners this year had it been given the funding to do so.

It bid for £2.7 million for wave 4 bootcamps, but was given just £1.4 million.

He pointed out that some mayoral combined authorities struggled to hit their targets but received much larger allocations – at a time when the chancellor said he wants to drive up bootcamp starts with ambitions of another 8,000 bootcamp places in 2024/25 announced in the budget.

“We are just disappointed that while some parts of the country are struggling to get learners and struggling to get providers, we have just completed a procurement process where we will have to turn away providers and turn away learners because our settlement is much lower than MCA areas,” Starkie said.

Starkie says that LEPs have given further education providers “a real stake in local economic development – with an influential role in the work of LEPs, including seats on LEP boards”.

For Clare Hayward, chief executive of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP, the convening powers of LEPs are among the most important – and will be key to skills provision in the future, not just for the present.

Hayward said: “There isn’t really anybody else that plays that collaborative, catalytic role in bringing all of those voices together when it comes to skills.

“You might be able to understand what our current landscape is by using data and evidence, but also because we have those relationships with our businesses and business representative organisations, we can say what are the future skills.”

A push for business involvement in post-16 education has been clear for some time: Ofsted now measures colleges for their contribution to skills needs, and the watchdog often comments on how much apprenticeship providers work with firms to design their curriculum.

LSIPs add to this by bringing employers into wider local and regional planning and not just individual courses.

Clare Hayward

Ewart Keep, emeritus professor at Oxford University’s department of education, said that the new LSIPs will need to develop further still.

“The model seems to be employers sit down with chambers of commerce and write a letter to Santa saying ‘these are the skills I need from local colleges and providers,’” he said.

“If this model is going to have any long-term impact employers need to go on to a second stage – ‘this is what we the employers can contribute to the development of those skills’. You move from a wish list to co-production and employers accepting a greater responsibility.”

LEPs are understandably keen to shout about their work but local authorities will feel they can perform just as well.

A spokesperson from the Local Government Association said that the chancellor’s plans to transfer responsibilities from LEPs to local authorities by April 2024 “provides a helpful timeline for councils and combined authorities”.

But it warned that “this needs to be supported by a commitment from government that transfers of responsibility are matched by sufficient funding and a commitment to work with the sector to identify any capacity issues some areas may face”.

Hayward concluded: “There is a realism that structures are changing, the writing has been on the wall for a little while now. What’s really important is that we don’t lose some of the business voice, the independent voice, the strategic voice in the shift and the restructure. It may not be called a LEP but actually what is required is the capabilities and the skills of a LEP to be able to deliver.”

Ofsted reports discomfort at ‘blurred boundaries’ between UTC learners and staff

Ofsted has reported instances of racist language from students and learners’ discomfort from “blurred” boundaries between staff and pupils at a university technical college in Reading.

UTC Reading, run by Activate Learning Education Trust, was rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors in a report published today following a visit in February – its first visit in eight years because of the exemption from routine inspections as a result of its previous ‘outstanding’ rating.

The watchdog reported that “the boundaries between staff and pupils are blurred. Pupils describe staff as ‘more like friends than teachers’. Some pupils told inspectors that this makes them feel uncomfortable.”

It continued: “Several pupils made serious allegations about staff directly to inspectors during the inspection. Too many pupils told inspectors that they had not felt able to report them to school staff. Pupils told inspectors that, in one case when they did report serious concerns to staff, these were dismissed.”

Elsewhere, inspectors found that in class “many pupils talk over their teachers” which goes unchallenged, and said that not all students felt they could report serious safeguarding concerns because “they have little confidence staff will act”.

The education watchdog said that teaching was inconsistent which resulted in gaps in students’ learning.

Ofsted said that attendance for sixth form students was too low, explaining that while leaders have set out consequences for those not attending many students were not on board.

Inspectors reported use of racist language from some pupils, with staff not always taking effective action on inappropriate behaviour.

However, Ofsted said that trust leaders had a clear vision and were beginning to support the 14-19 UTC well having identified that standards were slipping, albeit acknowledging this was very recent.

It said that the chief executive and chair of trustees had made some immediate changes to tackle weaknesses but said that until the inspection leaders and governors had not realised the extent of those problems.

A spokesperson from the Activate Learning Education Trust – the schools arm of Activate Learning which runs the UTC – said the trust was disappointed with the result but accepted the report’s findings and “take full responsibility for the shortcomings identified”.

The trust apologised to students, parents and the wider school community and pledged regular updates on its improvement efforts.

The spokesperson added: “The safety and wellbeing of our students is our top priority, and we have taken swift and significant action, including appointing a new executive principal, to address the issues as a matter of urgency.

“We recognise this news may be concerning, however we want to reassure everyone that we are taking the feedback serious, and are absolutely committed to ensuring that UTC Reading is, once more, recognised as a good and high-performing school.”

Wayne Edwards, principal at the ‘good’ rated UTC Heathrow which the trust also runs, is UTC Reading’s new executive principal, and had served as the college’s vice principal for four years until July 2017.

The UTC, which opened in 2013, had 499 learners on the school’s roll, of which 298 were sixth form students at the time of the inspection. It has a capacity of 600 learners.

Simon Connell, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust which supports UTCs said it was working with UTC Reading to address the “disappointing outcome”.

“We are reassured that swift and decisive action is being taken to address the concerns raised in the report. In particular, Wayne Edwards’ appointment as executive principal of UTC Reading, following his success at UTC Heathrow, gives us confidence that the safety of pupils is a top priority.”

He said that three quarters of UTCs had been rated at least ‘good’ since the pandemic, stressing that UTC Reading’s report is “very much an exception”.

Apprenticeships: Employer engagement is key to widening access

Skills and apprenticeships minister, Robert Halfon grabbed our attention during his speech to the Annual Apprenticeship Conference when he told delegates: “To every young person I meet my message is that no matter who you are, or where you’re from, or whatever career you want to do, an apprenticeship will open doors for you.”

With 42 per cent of London Design and Engineering UTC’s learners eligible for pupil premium and 55 per cent speaking English as a second language, we understand the importance of helping young people from a range of backgrounds seize the opportunities that are out there for them.

My impact report on the school’s careers strategy reveals several interesting findings about the UTC’s employer engagement and offers some insights into how other practitioners can open the doors to apprenticeships, further education and employment to all their learners.

Quality and quantity

The report, carried out with the support of LDE’s leaders and its employer partners, found that our 569 students received an average of 19 encounters with employers during 2020/21. The target under the Gatsby benchmarks is just one.

The tremendous work of staff to achieve this has rightly been recognised. Employer engagement manager Janice Tricks’ work bringing employers and students together was cited three times during an Education Select Committee hearing last November.

But more than quantity, it’s the breadth and depth of that engagement that is the real key to success. Skanska ran mental health and wellbeing sessions for years 12 and 13. National Grid embedded power engineering sessions in year 9 science lessons. With CVB, the Costain Vinci Construction Grands Projects and Bachy Soletanche JV, Tideway, which is building the ‘Super Sewer’ under London, offered advice and support about job roles where A level students could apply their maths skills.

More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of learners agreed or strongly agreed that they had met a whole range of employers at the school.

A culture of engagement

The essential ingredients of a UTC also produce results. Associate principal, James Culley told the report students are “part of a professional working environment”, allowing them to “slowly develop confidence” and their employability skills on a day-to-day basis.

This is achieved through work experience opportunities, but also by the UTC keeping office hours rather than traditional school hours and by students learning on industry-standard equipment with expert teachers.

Ninety-four per cent of learners agreed that they were given information on apprenticeship vacancies at the UTC. The same proportion of our school leavers said that they had been given good advice on how to apply for apprenticeships and other opportunities.

One of LDE’s alumni, who now works as an apprentice site engineer, gave us a brilliant illustration of the importance of believing in our learners and presenting them with opportunities beyond the curriculum. In the report, he was glowing about having had the chance to meet ministers and take part in radio and TV interviews as one of our student ambassadors.

Getting started

Our research has led us to several recommendations for how employers, learners, and providers can create a more effective engagement programme.

For employers, governorship roles can provide valuable insights into a provider’s potential and how their projects can fit with the provider’s curriculum. Bringing employers on in this way can also help to create a sense of mutual endeavour.

For learners and families, tracking employer engagements is a powerful measure of how much they are creating opportunities for themselves. It’s also an important addition to their CV. Work experience opportunities are out there, and directing them to sites like LinkedIn is a great place to start.

For colleges and training providers, maintaining long-term employer relationships is key. To make the most of those relationships, leaders should support employers to develop projects for students and support staff to use employer engagement across the curriculum.

Perhaps the best piece of advice is from our apprentice site engineer: “You’ve got to want to do things”.

We all want what Robert Halfon wants: Apprenticeships that deliver opportunity for all. Now, we have the tools to make it happen.

The cost-of-living crisis is becoming a cost-of-learning crisis

During the Industrial Revolution in the UK, education underwent a transformation. Introduced in 1870, a series of reforms collectively called The Elementary Education Acts enabled children to obtain an education.

Before, many of these children were sent to work in the most dangerous parts of factories, where injury was common, all for small change that their families needed to survive. Thanks to these acts and other social reforms that continued into the 20th Century, children could access schooling for free and, armed with an education, go on to careers that lifted them and their families out of poverty.

Now, as the effects of the cost-of-living crisis truly manifest, we are beginning to see regression. Our students are having to make choices under a pressure they should never be subjected to in their teenage years: Do they learn and starve, or earn and survive?

In any other decade, such a claim would have been dismissed as hyperbole – and understandably so! If it wasn’t for seeing it first-hand and talking to those involved in FE and the local community, I would hardly believe it myself.

I first noticed the change last year. Learners who had been attentive and bright at the start of the first term were missing classes or turning up late. When they did attend, their excuse on arrival was always the same: they had been offered an extra shift and taken it.

Companies could be accused of being complicit in this, but from their side an increase in overheads means that employing 16-year-olds works out nearly £5 cheaper than employing a member of staff in their 20’s.

This year, things are worse. Despite my college pulling as much funding into its bursary and free meal schemes as it can, more and more learners are asking, some as their first question at enrolment: “Can I skip classes to take a shift if I promise to catch up?”

FE has become a last line of defence

Our vice principal, Carole Todd agrees that it is a growing concern for the college and the country that learners are forced to make this hard choice between learning and earning. Few would disagree that a strong vocational education opens doors to well-paying, non-exploitative careers while entry-level jobs often start and end on the minimum wage and zero-hours contracts.

But the reality is that last year in the construction department alone a few dozen learners across the trades left the college half-way through the course, lured away by promises of quick cash-in-hand work. It is the families that often make this choice for them. Financial hardship and cultural poverty mean they need their children to be earning and lack the guidance themselves to advise their children to seek out training courses such as apprenticeships or T Levels that would allow them to learn and earn at the same time.

In the community, there is evidence of this change as well. Speaking to my local councillor, Sajna Ali, I discovered that teenagers are recruiting other teenagers to jobs with poor hours and worse pay for a little kickback of their own. “Often,” Sajna told me, “these poor kids are being offered cash-in-hand work in restaurants owned by friends of the family miles away from the town. They are picked up mid-afternoon and returned after midnight, and for what? £25? How can they learn when they are so tired from such shifts?”

This decade will be defined by the situation we’ve called the ‘cost-of-living crisis’, but if we fail to act on behalf of our learners it will soon become a ‘cost-of-learning crisis’ that will damage the workforce for years to come.

FE has become a last line of defence between a life of skilled success and one of below-the-breadline suffering.

We need to be more vocal about the horrible choices our learners are forced to make. And we need a plan to mitigate the cultural poverty that inhibits families from seeking the right sorts of help, as well as plans to feed and support these learners economically.

And we need this before they stop even turning up for enrolment to ask the question.

Competition is healthy if it’s done in the right way  

Home to arguably two of the leading football clubs in the world, we are no strangers to sporting competitions here in Manchester. What is less known is that we also have a strong track record in winning medals in skills competitions.

Alongside eight other colleges in the region, Trafford College Group takes part every year in the Greater Manchester Skills Competitions. Run by a dedicated group of ‘champions’ from each college, these competitions also serve as a feeder for the WorldSkills UK Competition programmes. In 2021, the Greater Manchester Colleges Group dominated the leader board at the WorldSkills UK national finals in skill areas ranging from graphic design to mechanical engineering CAD, with Trafford College Group winning two bronze medals, for IT support technician and confectionary and patisserie.  

Participation at a national level with WorldSkills UK has helped develop the professional and technical skills of our learners and has had a positive effect on their ambition and aspirations for their future careers. In addition, I have found that working with WorldSkills UK also delivers tangible benefits to teaching staff in three key areas, and I would encourage everyone to get involved.  

Enhancing curriculum

There is sometimes a misconception that putting learners forward to take part in skills competition programmes will result in a lot of extra work. In truth, while there is some additional preparation in the initial set-up of the assignment or activity, this allows greater scope for creativity in teaching and learning.

For example, my department has introduced projects that involve cross-departmental working. The Art Department have been using clay to create 3D model characters and the games design department have been using photogrammetry to capture 360 images that they can load into games engine software to animate. What better way to prepare learners for the commercial settings that await them? And for me, the variety in teaching is a great motivator.

An ear to the ground

The Greater Manchester and the WorldSkills UK competition programmes are designed by industry professionals. As a result, you receive exposure to the latest trends in industry. This provides an excellent form of engaging CPD for our teachers, ensuring we are providing our learners with up-to-date information and skills that will help them gain employment. 

It’s also meant that we have built stronger relationships with industry partners, creating more opportunities for our learners. This level of commitment shows our learners that these competitions aren’t simply a nice thing to be involved in but are a crucial part of them finding employment. Indeed, many employers who judge the competitions use the process as a talent-spotting exercise.

A global outlook

As part of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence programme run in partnership with NCFE, we are working with coaches who have captured valuable lessons from their involvement in the international WorldSkills competition. We are learning to embed these global best practices in our classrooms, helping our students and apprentices perform to higher standards of excellence.

But the focus isn’t just on technical skills; mindset training is also a key part of this CPD programme.  I’ve learned new techniques to support my learners develop positive mental and behavioural skills, including teamwork, communication, time management and working under pressure. This is not only helping them excel, but me too. The reflective practice element of the training offered by WorldSkills UK is crucial in that.

Ofsted recognises the role of skills competitions in stretching learners, but I think the best way to understand how competition activity can drive forward a college is from the learners themselves. One of our students, Daisy Wheeler recently told me she feels involvement is preparing her for industry, “where I will compete for jobs and contracts”. She also particularly valued “having industry professionals as teachers and guest lecturers”.

It’s sometimes hard when you’re watching your football club to remember that it’s not always the winning or losing that matters most. But with skills competitions, it really is about the taking part – and everyone gains from that.   

‘Growing our own’ can help plug gaps in recruitment

The challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers at all levels is becoming increasingly acute, exacerbated in FE due to the sector’s substantially lower pay scales. That is the troubling backdrop for the country’s colleges as they strive to return to pre-Covid staffing levels, and it is no surprise that the services that were worse affected by the pandemic are now struggling.

Rising to a double challenge

FE providers are feeling the bite harder than most since they face an extra, double challenge: namely, the lower levels of pay they can offer due to underfunding and the fact that many of the technical and vocational lecturers they need can earn more within their chosen industry.

A report published by The Lifelong Education Commission and Chartered Institution for Further Education in February showed that average FE teacher wages were around £10,000 lower than those of school teachers – and even further behind universities.

The same document suggested that staffing in FE may have fallen by one-third in the past 10 years, and that the vacancy rate at colleges averaged about eight or nine per cent – double the pre-pandemic level.

In the several decades that I have been working in FE, I’ve never seen teacher recruitment problems as bad as this. Part of the difficulty for institutions like ours, which provides higher education (HE) provision for Luminate Education Group’s FE colleges, is that we’re the ‘poor relation’ in terms of our pay scales.

A homegrown approach

But colleges are finding innovative ways around this problem, including by adopting a ‘grow your own’ approach through their initial teacher education (ITE) provision. Introduced in 2018, ITE offers a non-traditional, apprenticeship-based route into the profession.

Here, ITE has provided a way for us to home-grow our FE teachers for our campuses in Leeds, Harrogate and Keighley to address the problem. We are basically talent-spotting as we train, and have had success stories in a number of fields including computer games and business doing so.

For those aiming to teach in FE in skill shortage areas such as maths and STEM, we also offer ITE bursaries to make the option more financially viable. And, as a widening participation (WP) institution, our teacher training is designed to fit around students’ commitments. That means we attract many people from industry who want to retrain and whose experience is so valuable for teaching.

Of course the ‘home-grown’ route can only do so much, and it is only a valid choice when your ITE provision is of a high enough quality.

Leading the way

University Centre Leeds has just been given a ‘Good’ rating by Ofsted for its offering; the first provider in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber to achieve this under the new inspection framework. Most of our trainees undertake their placements with Luminate Education Group and go on to gain employment at one of the group’s colleges, which is a sure sign we’re doing something right.

The Ofsted report highlighted how our trainees are fully embedded as members of staff within their teams; they’re not ‘visitors’ but valued colleagues. The inspectors also commented on the strength of our mentoring, and we make sure that the support network is there for trainees to link what’s happening in the education classroom with actual practice in the workplace.

Much more has to be done if we’re to successfully tackle this national crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Targeted government funding is definitely needed to close the gap between the pay the FE sector (and its HE providers) can offer and what schools and universities can. An awareness-raising campaign is also needed to educate people about how much we need people with real-world industry experience to enter teaching.

Both of those matters, sadly, are out of our control. What we and our fellow post-16 education providers can do, for now, is ensure that we continue delivering quality ITE to provide a crucial pipeline of high-calibre new teachers to help us weather this storm.

We know how to fix FE’s staffing shortages. It’s time college leaders did it

Staffing in further education has reached crisis point and now workers are fighting back.

Employers’ own data shows 96 per cent of colleges have difficulty recruiting, with an average 25 posts per college remaining unfilled at the start of the academic year.

Staff know why there is a recruitment crisis: Pay is too low, workloads are too high and far too often college employers fail to treat them as the skilled and experienced professionals that they are. 

The University and College Union (UCU) estimates that the salaries of college teachers have fallen behind inflation by 35 per cent since 2009,  while the pay gap between school and college teachers stands at £9,000. Employer body, the Association of Colleges (AoC) also admits 98 per cent of English colleges use ‘flexible employment contracts’. This is code for precarious employment practices such as term-time only, hourly-paid or even zero-hours contracts.

When UCU negotiate nationally with the AoC over things like pay, employment conditions and workloads, employers can choose to just ignore the outcome of those negotiations. For example, the AoC makes pay recommendations every year, yet in the main, colleges do not award any pay increase at all.

Low pay is having a devastating impact on the lives of our members. Last summer, we surveyed over 2,700 workers from more than 200 colleges across England. We found that the vast majority of college staff in England are financially insecure. Eight in ten said their financial situation is harming their mental health, and a shocking amount reported being forced to skip meals and restrict hot water use to save money. Seven in 10 said they will leave further education unless pay and working conditions improve.

Workloads are also through the roof. On average, college staff do two extra days of work unpaid per week and more than nine in ten staff (93 per cent) say their workload has increased over the past three years. 

We know the money is there to pay staff fairly

A situation like this doesn’t just harm staff, but students too. A college workforce which is exhausted, precariously employed, struggling on low pay and crushed under brutal workloads cannot be expected to deliver the best for students. We can do better, and we must. 

Last November, further education was reclassified as part of the public sector. UCU welcomes this step but it should not be seen as an end itself. It’s now time to negotiate a new settlement that respects our professionalism, rewards staff in line with other teachers and strategically invests in the future. 

We know the money is there to pay staff fairly. National funding for 16- to 19-year-olds has increased by 8.4 per cent this year, and UCU members are refusing to sit by and let the situation deteriorate.

Already this academic year, over 4,000 UCU members across England have downed tools – the biggest strike wave ever to hit the further education sector. Together, they won improved pay deals at over 20 colleges. And just last week, in an indicative ballot, 87 per cent of voting members said they are prepared to take strike action to secure an above-inflation pay rise, the introduction of binding national bargaining structures and an agreement on fair workloads. This could pave the way for coordinated strike action across over 200 colleges in England. 

Our special sector conference is meeting imminently to decide the union’s next steps, but it is clear that employers are risking unprecedented industrial unrest unless they address pay and workloads, and agree to enter into binding national bargaining agreements. 

It won’t do for college leaders to keep saying their hands are tied when what increases in funding there have been have not been shared with staff. The recruitment and retention crisis will not be solved by looking the other way to in-work poverty across the sector and hoping for an ever-willing supply of new lecturers to fill the gaps.

We know why this crisis is happening, and it’s time to fix it.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 421

Rachel Quinn

Director, East Midlands Institute of Technology

Start date: March 2023

Previous job: Head of People and Skills, D2N2 LEP

Interesting fact: Rachel is also a ceremony officer – essentially a celebrant registrar – which means she spends her weekends conducting weddings, civil partnerships, citizenship and civil baby naming ceremonies.

Charlotte Bonner

CEO, EUAC – The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education

Start date: February 2023

Previous job: National Head of Education for Sustainable Development, Education and Training Foundation

Interesting fact: Charlotte is a self-professed train geek and enjoys long distance overland travel. The furthest she’s got without flying (so far) is Tokyo, Japan.

The Lifelong Education Institute stands ready to SAVE OUR SKILLS NOW

There have been a lot of talking shops and ideas swapping sessions about skills over the past 4 years. My friend and sister-‘grande dame of FE’, Ruth Silver refers to them as a ‘constellation of commissions’. But where’s the action? Where is the sector’s rightful and angry cry? Who is listening? Who is taking notice of the clear and impartial evidence? Who is doing something about it? 

The nation’s skills crisis is as critical as the climate emergency. This is no grandiose fantasy. I was a climate change campaigner in the 70’s when, as a member of Greenpeace, I turned vegetarian and went on demos to cave the whales. That’s also when I began my career in FE. If my 70-year-old elderly knees weren’t beginning to creak with arthritis, I’d do a Greta Thunberg – sit down in silent solo vigil outside parliament with my placard bearing my slogan: SAVE OUR SKILLS NOW

Instead of the pavement, I’ve taken to the podium by agreeing to become inaugural independent chair of the Lifelong Education Institute, the sector-wide, apolitical body set up by Res Publica to take forward into action the work of its lifelong education commission, chaired by former universities minister, Chris Skidmore MP.

The Lifelong Education Institute’s vision is to use the its influence to turn ideas and insights into implementation. With backing from so many members and partners from adult, further and higher education, the LEI is a powerful ‘coalition of the willing’ to amplify workable policy ideas on which there is common accord.

We need momentum to make sure that what we know works (as all the commissions have shown) is made to work. With a shared vison of where the country and the sector need to be in ten years’ time, with policy co-created with the ‘teachers and the taught’, and with a properly funded and championed sector, we can SAVE OUR SKILLS NOW.   

The LEI is a powerful ‘coalition of the willing’

The current skills crisis is one whose causes are a long time in the making, and for which the solutions have to take an equally patient and far-sighted view. What we are really dealing with is an interlocking trio of crises: social fragmentation as large tranches of our population fall victim to marginalisation and inequality, decline in our prosperity as our productivity puzzle continues to go unsolved, and neglect of our cardinal virtues as opportunities to flourish and develop are closed to many.

Lifelong education can help address all these crises. It can strengthen the bonds of inclusion by supporting those who have fallen behind. It can overturn a decade of stagnation and restore the UK to growth. And it can give everyone the chance to find new avenues of discovery and meaning.

To achieve all of this, we need to develop new models of teaching and learning that help all of us cultivate the knowledge, skills, experience, and character we need throughout our lives.

We find ourselves on the cusp of a new era of remarkable transformation in further and higher education. The centre of gravity is shifting towards helping learners move seamlessly between education and work, and towards upskilling and retraining as required by a new world of work with more flexible demands.

This raises new expectations on colleges and universities, businesses, and government to work together to provide the funding and frameworks for a new generation of training approaches and qualifications.

To meet these expectations, we have to craft new forms of radical thinking around skills and education. That is the mission of the Lifelong Education Institute, providing a forum to bridge the barriers and boundaries that have shaped the skills and learning landscape up to now.

The LEI will place the needs and experiences of lifelong learners at the heart of the policy agenda and leverage our sectors’ collective potential to put all forms of learning from technical training to academic study within the reach of all. We will help bring together all those with a stake in upskilling the British workforce in a new portfolio of education partnerships and we want to channel the best insights from home and abroad to build the world-leading education system the UK deserves.

Through advocacy and action, the LEI stands ready to SAVE OUR SKILLS NOW.