In a message to staff, the college announced today: “Dear colleagues, it is with deep sadness that we announce the death of John Callaghan, former principal of Solihull College and University Centre, following a short illness. John died peacefully this morning.
“John led the college for nearly eight years and was highly respected and valued by his colleagues, students, the local community and further education sector. He will be greatly missed.
“We offer our sincere sympathy to his wife Michelle and family and respect their wishes for no contact at this time.”
Callaghan was ‘exceptional, incredibly committed principal’
Tributes have been paid by sector leaders and colleagues.
Mike Hopkins, principal of Solihull’s neighbouring South and City College Birmingham, said Callaghan was “one of the most straight talking honest and trustworthy people I’ve known in FE”.
The two had known each other for going on two decades and Callaghan “has always been larger than life in every respect,” Hopkins said.
When Callaghan decided to apply for a principal’s job, Hopkins spent a lot of time helping him, “not that he needed it, as he knew everything”.
The pair celebrated Callaghan’s move to Solihull with a burger and a Guinness, with Hopkins joking: “I came to realise that was what he lived on.”
The move was a “turning point” in their relationship, as the two began to speak openly and seek informal advice from one another, especially during “difficult times” – both saw through mergers with other colleges following FE Commissioner area reviews.
The news of Callaghan’s illness rendered his friend “speechless,” but Hopkins came to be in awe of how he handled the disease.
“John was an exceptional, incredibly committed principal and did whatever was needed for his college, his staff and his students, and he will be missed.
“I will really miss our chats our lunches, the casual support.
“Above all else, I’ll miss him.”
‘Sad day for us all’
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes, who knew Callaghan for 20 years, said he was “sad and shocked” at the passing of someone who had a “fantastic passion and commitment” to students, learning and inclusion.
Hughes recalled how Callaghan would offer support and contribute to meetings with the association with a sense of humour which “I really liked”.
David Hughes
He added that “lots and lots of people in the sector will miss him, as clearly will his family and friends. It’s a sad day for all of us.”
Callaghan had a 33-year-long career in the further education and skills sector, but started his career with Birmingham City Council in 1977, where he trained as a software specialist.
He joined Tamworth & Lichfield College in 1988 and worked as vice principal, during which time he was seconded part time to the Learning and Skill Council for a period.
Derby College was his next job, serving as vice principal before a short spell in the private sector.
He re-joined Derby College in 2006 as deputy principal before taking up a principal’s post with North East Worcestershire College in 2010.
June 2014 was when he became principal of Solihull College and University Centre, where he successfully saw through a challenging merger with Stratford-Upon-Avon College in 2017 after the Coventry and Warwickshire area review.
Callaghan also served as president of the Solihull Chamber of Commerce and was the FE principal’s representative for the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.
Claire Barker, Assistant principal for employer engagement and skills, Telford College
Start date: September 2021
Previous job: Head of service for skills and employability, Entrust
Interesting fact: She started her career as a mental health nurse and continued to work part time as a nurse to keep her registration status until three years ago.
Matt Telling, Group director of business engagement and partnerships, Middlesbrough College Group
Start date: July 2021
Previous job: Head of business development for the north east, NRL
Interesting fact: His hobbies include coaching football and playing cricket.
Marc Gillham, Vice principal for data and funding, Bradford College
Start date: October 2021
Previous job: Director of funding, MIS and IT, Milton Keynes College
Interesting fact: He once featured on a French language tape despite only knowing a handful of French words – he hopes to one day “significantly” improve his foreign language skills
Research shows that the transferable skills your learners need include adaptability, creativity and problem solving[1]. LifeSkills offers a range of resources to help learners of any age with developing these skills and more.
But how do these skills help an individual as they move into work?
Adaptability
Indeed recently reported that adaptability can make an individual:
A focus on adaptability can be a valuable way to support your learners’ journey through education or retraining, and job seeking.
“LifeSkills gave me a framework which I was able to adapt to help me with answering questions in my interview.” – Apprentice
Regardless of what type of work your learners aspire to, it’s likely there will continue to be changes to how that job is performed as the world of work evolves. This would mean the skill of adaptability remains relevant for your learners throughout their careers.
For younger learners (16-24), you can access the Adaptability lesson plan, which includes interactive activities suitable for a group in the classroom, and a short introductory video on the skill can be found on the same webpage.
For adult learners, we have developed flexible modules that can be delivered one-to-one or in small groups. Learners will be encouraged to set actions within a do now, do soon, do later framework. For example, in Overcoming Setbacks, learners will think about how they can improve and adapt next time they face a challenge and how this could have a positive impact on their future.
Problem solving
Problem solving was shown to be one of the four most in-demand core skills found across roughly 142,000 job advertisements in a 2020 study[3]; LifeSkills has identified six stages of problem solving that can provide a framework for tackling the next problem that gets in your students’ way.
If you’re working one-on-one with a learner, explore this module that will assist learners to feel more empowered when facing challenges and to take appropriate action to find effective solutions.
If you’re in a classroom, you can teach the six stages via our Problem Solving lesson which also encourages reflection on past problems to help learners develop an adaptable approach to solving them.
Self confidence
For learners on a job seeking journey, it might help them to understand that it’s normal to have self-doubt and fear when faced with doing something new or challenging.
When people step out of their comfort zone, like attending a job interview, this threat response can be activated, and it is normal for this to also trigger insecurities, fear or anxiety and override positive feelings.
Use this module to explain and discuss these feelings and equip your learners with strategies to manage negative thoughts. You’ll also help them to identify key behaviours that will help them, such as planning ahead, sticking to a routine and making a good first impression.
For younger learners, our Self Confidence lesson contains activities suitable for a classroom, as well as learners working independently or remotely.
Financial capability
The Financial Conduct Authority has shown that three in eight adults (38%) have seen their financial situation overall worsen because of Covid-19[4]. The same survey shows that 30% of adults felt they had low knowledge about financial matters in October 2020.
Help your learners to feel more in control with this financial capability module that demystifies payslips and helps them have a better understanding of their income, including from work and other sources such as benefits.
In the classroom, select from these resources for learners 16+, including materials specifically targeted at care leavers, which cover topics from fraud, budgeting, understanding payslips and living independently.
“LifeSkills resources teach me what working life is like and also important things like managing money, which I think is very beneficial.” – FE student
Getting started
As educators, you know adult learners will have different starting points and different existing skills and knowledge. When deciding where to target your support, the LifeSkills Wheel can help you identify what skills a learner could focus on. It’s a simple online assessment tool that provides a snapshot of areas where your learner already feels confident and where change could have the biggest impact for them. The wheel then suggests a personalised journey for that learner. What’s more, you can see all of your learners’ wheels any time you log in by clicking the wheel icon in the website menu.
The LifeSkills modules have been specifically designed to provide an opportunity for adult learners to develop the transferable skills they need and are short, relevant and flexible. They are discussion and reflection based, brought to life through real life case studies. Learners will be encouraged to set actions within an accessible and practical do now, do soon, do later framework. Covering topics including all those above and more, our modules will help you motivate your learners to reach their potential.
For an overview of the range of resources LifeSkills offers for adult learners, check out our film which takes your through all the interactive tools, activities and modules available on our website. If working with younger students, explore lessons, tools and worksheets via the lesson filtering page.
A scheme to boost FE teacher recruitment by bringing in unemployed but “highly skilled professionals” is being considered by the Education and Training Foundation.
The foundation published a tender last week for a supplier to identify programmes that help the out-of-work into employment sectors and to see if a similar approach would work for FE.
It comes amid a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention for the sector, acknowledged by the Department for Education in its skills for jobs white paper, which said the sector faced “significant difficulties” in this space.
The foundation’s national head of initial teacher education Howard Pilott said the FE and training sector faces “well-documented challenges” recruiting staff for a “number of technical disciplines”.
Recruiting more teachers a ‘priority’
DfE surveys of college staff, cited in the white paper, show more than half of principals find recruitment difficult and teaching vacancy rates in “crucial” subject areas such as engineering and construction were as high as five per cent.
Filling gaps in teaching staff is a “priority,” Pilott said, adding that the ETF has been working to encourage qualified individuals to consider careers in FE.
Howard Pilott
It does this through such programmes as Talent to Teach, which encourages final year undergraduate and postgraduate students to consider teaching FE as a career by giving them mini placements covering classroom experience, team meetings and wider college activities.
Talent to Teach has been “positively received”, Pilott says, with the foundation reporting 190 individuals completed the placement with 71 per cent saying they would consider a career in FE teaching. Figures on how many took up a teaching career were not available.
“There are many talented individuals out there who have much to offer,” Pilott said, so offering them the chance to explore “how they could put their talents to use in FE through a similar programme has the potential to encourage them into the sector”.
Similar schemes to recruit teachers from other professions have been less successful: the DfE’s offer in 2018 of £40,000 bursaries to armed forces veterans to teach in schools, the so called Troops to Teachers programme, attracted just 22 people.
Pilott stressed there are no confirmed plans for a programme and the tender is only for a scoping exercise, as part of research the foundation is conducting into redundancy-to-work programmes for the DfE.
College principals, former ministers and sector leaders are clamouring for the relaxation of funding restrictions on people looking to retrain, ahead of the new lifelong loan entitlement being rolled out.
The Department for Education is being pushed to rethink the equivalent or lower qualification (ELQ) rule, which since 2007 has meant anyone qualified to level 4 cannot access government loans or grants to study a qualification at an equivalent or lower level.
Sheffield College principal Angela Foulkes (pictured top), whose college trains around 10,000 adults a year, told FE Week the rule may mean “adults keen to retrain in construction, digital or engineering, who studied three A-levels a decade ago” cannot access public funding.
This, she argued, “denies learners the opportunity to reskill and go further in a new career where skills are in demand”.
While the college did not provide examples of where the rule had stopped learners from retraining, Foulkes called the ELQ rule a “barrier” to the college working with local employers to deliver training in “priority sectors” that support the city and communities.
Rule could be relaxed for lifelong loan entitlement
According to the Office for Students, there are exemptions to the ELQ rule if it is for a qualification in a public sector profession, such as medicine, nursing, social work or teaching; or if the student is studying for a foundation degree or receiving a disability student allowance.
Mayoral combined authorities with devolved adult education budgets have begun to move away from the ELQ rule.
West Midlands Combined Authority is running a pilot offering fully funded care management qualifications at level 3 and 4 to black, Asian and minority ethnic women, regardless of their prior attainment.
The new lifelong loan entitlement will come into place in 2025, meaning learners will be able to access funding for four years of study between levels 4 and 6, either in full years or as modules.
It could lead to an end to the ELQ rule, with the skills for jobs white paper revealing the DfE is considering relaxing the restriction for courses funded through the entitlement to “stimulate provision” and “facilitate retraining”.
With trials of loans-funded modular provision, intended to help in the development of the entitlement, set to start as early next year, more and more bodies have been calling for ELQ reform ahead of the entitlement rolling out.
Rethinking ELQ could be ‘immediate first step’ to retraining
Awarding body Pearson last week released its Spotlight on Workforce Skills report, which found providers and employers believe the rule has “contributed to the inexorable decline in part-time study”.
The report says that by 2018/19, fewer than one in six of all undergraduates studied part-time compared to just under half in 2003/4.
Contributors to the report said the rule is likely to be a barrier for many learners accessing the new lifelong loan entitlement.
As such, it recommended the rule be amended so, for instance, a learner could use the entitlement for an undergraduate degree, then a level 4 course to reskill later in life.
The entitlement was recommended by Philip Augar’s review of post-18 education, which also proposed scrapping the “complex” ELQ rule for learners taking loans to study levels 4 to 6.
From left to right: Helen Marshall, vice-chancellor, Salford University; John Penrose MP; Chris Skidmore MP; Diana Beech, chief executive, London Higher; David Latchman, vice-chancellor, Birkbeck
This week, the Lifelong Education Commission, chaired by Conservative MP and former universities minister Chris Skidmore, proposed that the DfE “reassess” the rule.
Its Pathway to Lifelong Education report, launched at this week’s Conservative Party conference (pictured), said looking again at the rule would be an “immediate first step” to support retraining.
In response to the government’s consultation on the national skills fund, which closed for responses last month, adult education provider network HOLEX called on the DfE to remove the rule so learners could apply for part-time maintenance loans to reskill.
DfE could ‘quickly’ help providers address skills shortages
These calls take place amid a supply chain crisis which has affected retailers and businesses, caused by a shortage of skilled workers in areas such as HGV drivers and butchers following Brexit and the pandemic.
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said employers were “crying out for people to fill skilled and semi-skilled jobs”, while at the same time, 600,000 fewer people were in work than before the pandemic.
“In that context, the ELQ rule is an obstacle which the post-18 review recommended should be removed when the lifetime loan entitlement is implemented.”
The lifetime skills guarantee ought not to be limited to first qualifications, the AoC also believes. As University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady similarly said, in response to the national skills fund consultation, the lifelong loan entitlement “needs to be widened to ensure that older people who hold existing level 3 qualifications can retrain in different fields”.
Hughes believes removing ELQ and broadening the guarantee could be fixed with amendments to the skills and post-16 education Bill currently being passed into law by parliament. “So the DfE has the vehicle to change this and quickly help education address skills shortages while supporting people to level up.”
ELQ rule is ‘complex and unusual,’ ex-minister says
Another former universities minister, Jo Johnson, now a member of the House of Lords, has proposed an amendment to the skills Bill which would make the lifelong loan entitlement available to anyone “regardless of prior qualifications”.
Introducing his amendment to the Lords in July, Johnson called the ELQ rule “complex and unusual” in higher education, when other countries such as Canada and New Zealand did not have an equivalent restriction for their HE systems.
He expressed concern the Treasury will “put up a valiant attempt” to keep the ELQ rule. But Johnson, who chairs the independent provider Access Creative College, contended that “any savings which the exchequer might make from retaining it are outweighed by the broader economic costs incurred by making it so difficult for students to retrain for new careers”.
A DfE spokesperson said it was “vital” adults are “able to get the skills they need for good jobs, no matter where they are from”.
They highlighted how the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, including the loan entitlement, is “are supporting adults to embrace lifelong learning”.
The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill reaches a critical stage in the House of Lords next week. Shane Chowen looks at what might change…
The government’s landmark Skills and Post-16 Education Bill is nearing the end of its journey through the House of Lords. Unusually, the government decided that this bill’s journey should start in the Lords before reaching the House of Commons. It’s usually the other way around.
The stages a bill has to go through to become a new law are broadly similar across both houses.
On Tuesday, the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill will begin its “report stage”. This is the point at which any member of the House of Lords can add, change or remove parts of the bill through an amendment.
All amendments are then grouped together and debated. If there’s a chance that the amendment has majority support, it’ll go to a vote. If not, amendments are a good way to make sure an issue gets raised before it’s then withdrawn. House of Lords authorities have decided that the bill will have two days of report stage debates, Tuesday October 12 and Monday October 18.
The government can also take advantage of report stage debates by making changes to their own legislation – sometimes because they’ve changed their mind or want to clarify something, and sometimes for political reasons, such as a high likelihood of losing a vote.
It’s worth remembering that the Conservative Party falls far short of commanding a majority in the House of Lords. Of the Lords’ total 788 members, there are 262 Conservative peers.
In this session of parliament, which began on May 11, 2021, the government have so far been defeated 17 times on the floor of the House of Lords.
While this means that peers on the opposition benches have a good shot at changing the Skills Bill, it doesn’t necessarily mean those changes will be permanent because the Conservative-dominated House of Commons will ultimately get its say on the bill later this year.
How are Lords hoping to change the bill?
At the time of writing, 52 amendments have been submitted. More are expected. Here’s a summary of some of the main amendments.
Careers advice ̶ A ‘strengthened’ Baker clause
In the last major piece of skills legislation, the Technical and Further Education Act 2017, we got the Baker clause. Lord Kenneth Baker successfully added a clause that said schools must ensure there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to have access to pupils “for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships”.
Baroness Barran
Speaking to FE Week in June, Baker said he wanted to amend the Skills Bill so that there would be a stronger “legal duty” on schools so they could be taken to court if they fail to comply.
The government did promise a three-point plan to enforce the Baker clause in its January 2021 skills white paper, Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth. The announcement earlier this week, the government believes, satisfies point one of its three-point plan which is to create a “specific set of minimum legal requirements for provider access.
Religious sixth form academies
Nearly all sixth-form colleges have been able to convert to academy status, but those with religious character have as yet not been able to do so and maintain their religious character designation.
A government-backed amendment to the bill will change the rules so that when the department next seeks to create new 16-to-19 academies, it will be possible for organisations to apply to set one up with a religious character. It will also be possible for existing 16-to-19 academies to apply for religious character designation, should they wish to do so.
Criminalising contract cheating
A series of government-backed Skills Bill amendments will criminalise the advertising and provision of so called “essay mills”, which are online platforms that complete work for a student, who then submit it as their own.
According to the Office for Students, the rise in online learning during and following the pandemic has led to a rise in students using this form of “contract cheating”. While this is largely an issue seen in higher education, the Department for Education acknowledges that there is evidence that essay mills “also target post-16 students”.
If passed, and it almost certainly will, these new offences will come into force two months after the Bill receives royal assent. The first prosecutions are expected in 2023.
LSIPS ̶ Climate change and net zero
The bill gives the education secretary powers to designate “employer representative bodies” to lead the development of local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) and places duties on providers to “have regard” to the plans once they’re developed.
Essentially, the plans will have a big role in determining what the local post-16 technical education landscape should look like to meet employers’ needs.
The government is itself proposing to amend its own legislation on LSIPs. The first of its two amendments clarifies that LSIP duties will only apply to English funded post-16 education and training.
The second government amendment on LSIPs is more substantial. If passed, it would mean that LSIPs must consider and include how it contributes to the government’s net-zero target and feature jobs relating to climate change.
Peers for the Planet, a cross-party group of 120 peers dedicated to urgent political action on climate change, had submitted its own amendment forcing similar requirements around climate change and net-zero in LSIPs.
Baroness Hayman, co-chair of Peers for the Planet, told FE Week: “I welcome the government amendment, which follows calls from peers on all sides of the House to embed consideration of climate change and environmental goals on the face of this important bill. This sends a strong signal that LSIPs must plan ahead for the green jobs of the future. A cross-party group of peers is also calling for a national green skills strategy to link up local skills development with the UK’s key strategic priority of net zero by 2050.”
Lifetime skills guarantee ̶ Subsequent level 3s
The lifetime skills guarantee launched in April is essentially a list of government-approved level 3 qualifications that can be taken, for free, by any adult providing they don’t already hold a level 3 qualification. This related to the government’s controversial “equivalent or lower qualifications” (ELQ) rule which bans public funding for courses at or below the highest level of qualification they already hold.
The ELQ rule has been widely criticised by peers from all parties in Skills Bill debates so far, including by Tory big hitters such as former chancellor Ken Clarke, now Lord Clarke of Nottingham.
An amendment from Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Labour’s education spokesperson in the Lords, would add a new section to the bill that would give people who already hold a level 3 qualification access to the lifetime skills guarantee.
Lord Johnson
In more subtle, but nonetheless equally interesting amendment, the prime minister’s brother, Lord Johnson of Marylebone, has tabled an amendment that would require the secretary of state to publish an annual report that “must in particular examine the impact of restricting funding for those who wish to pursue a qualification at a level equivalent or lower than the one they already hold.”
In other words, if this amendment passes, Lord Johnson is making sure here that the issue of ELQ funding eligibility isn’t going away.
Withdrawing approval for L3 courses
Lords Lucas and Watson take aim at the government’s plans to withdraw funding from some level 3 courses that overlap with T Levels. If passed, their amendments would prevent the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education from withdrawing funding approval for level 3 courses for four years.
Their aim is to ensure that T Levels are “fully embedded and acceptable to students, employers and universities” before competing qualifications are defunded.
This amendment is expected to gather “significant” cross-party support over the coming days, which will be welcome news to the coalition of organisations, colleges, students, teachers and parents involved in the Protect Student Choice campaign.
LSIPs ̶ In partnership with local authorities and FE providers
A cross-party amendment, expected to be successful, would require employer bodies that are developing an LSIP to work in partnership with local authorities, mayoral combined authorities and FE providers so that the needs of learners, as well as employers, are considered.
Lord Storey
Lord Watson (Labour), Lord Storey (Lib Dem) and Lord Lucas (Conservative) are behind this amendment.
Speaking to FE Week, Lord Storey said that the localism agenda had created “very powerful” mayoral structures in parts of the country that are “increasingly important to the economic success of their sub-regions”. By including these figures, Storey continues, “skills plans would benefit from real strategic knowledge which can only come from the mayors.
Lifelong loan entitlement
From 2025, the government plans to provide student loans for HE and FE courses and, crucially, modules at levels 4 to 6. The aim is to encourage greater participation in learning throughout life and to help reverse the decade-plus decline in adult participation in education and training.
Much in the same way as he did with the lifetime skills guarantee (see above), Lord Watson is also seeking to remove ELQ funding exemptions from the lifelong loan entitlement to “facilitate career changes”.
Government-backed amendments to the Skills Bill are set to lay the regulatory groundwork for modules to be legally accepted, for example, by providing definitions for “module” and “full-course” provision. The government has, however, said that it will now not go ahead with plans to include tuition fee limits for modular courses eligible under the LLE in the bill until there has been a consultation.
A consultation on the entitlement is expected later this year.
In our second episode, Shane is joined by exams board guru Kirstie Donnelly, from City & Guilds Group, and policy director Simon Ashworth, from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.
So – what did the Conservatives have to say on skills? What are the Lords planning to do to the Skills Bill? And have exams had their day?
Listen to episode two below and hit the subscribe button to get the latest updates on the podcast.
Employers are growing disillusioned as Kickstart, traineeships and apprenticeships all compete, writes Sharron Robbie
The announcement on Monday by the chancellor of the exchequer at the Conservative Party conference of a £500 million jobs support package has had a mixed response from training providers across the West Country.
In the main, the extension to the employer apprenticeship incentives until January 2022 is seen as a positive move, and will hopefully encourage more employers to offer apprenticeship opportunities.
Any support for employers in closing the skills gap is welcomed. The extension of the incentives and Kickstart will inevitably help thousands of employers and employees alike.
But many providers are concerned at the impact the Kickstart programme is having on apprenticeship and traineeship starts.
One local provider commented, “We are seeing more young people choosing an option that could be seen as a short-term solution, Kickstart, rather than a long-term, career pathway option, an apprenticeship.
“We are struggling to fill vacancies, and employers are becoming very upset that they cannot attract a young person into taking up an apprenticeship with them.
“Are we missing a golden opportunity to wed these two programmes together for the benefit of all?”
One aspect of the current slew of initiatives, which has caused animated discussion across the many video calls I attend, is the fact that Kickstart provides a salary to the participant, whilst traineeships are unpaid. This is seen as giving the Kickstart option an unfair advantage.
Training providers are wondering whether to engage in the recent 16 to 18 traineeship procurement at all. That’s because they see Kickstart as directly affecting their likelihood of achieving the numbers they’d need.
Providers are considering whether to engage in the traineeship procurement at all
This is a real shame, as traineeships are an excellent way for young people to experience a sector or job role, or to gain much-needed confidence within the world of work.
It is difficult to understand the government’s traineeships and apprenticeships targets, given this insistence on offering competing programmes and pathways. It is directly impacting our national flagship programmes.
There are currently hundreds of unfilled apprenticeship vacancies on the Find an Apprenticeship website and there is high employment across the south west.
Competing government programmes are creating real challenges in the apprenticeships space, leading to more and more disillusion and disappointed employers.
Employers are desperate to fill skills gaps and this is particularly pertinent to the health and social care sector, one of the key priority sectors across our region.
Kickstart could have been used as a vehicle to encourage interest in the sector, and of course progress on to apprenticeships and employment – but this doesn’t seem to have been the case.
The Devon & Cornwall Training Providers Network has been working closely with a large gateway organisation to support individuals on the Kickstart programme with wraparound support and training.
To date we have supported more than 150 employers across a range of sectors, but have yet to see any from the health and social care sector engaging with the Kickstart programme.
In an area where the lack of people entering health and social care is of real concern, we would have thought that employers would have been coming forward in their droves.
If we are to support employers in filling skills gaps, while also giving young people access to industry-standard training, then there must be coherence and parity of funding across these competing programmes.
It is also vital that the learner is not forgotten in all this. Are skills being gained? Is there progression?
One worry is that once the scheme ends, there will be young people without a recognised qualification and no job offer. This can’t be right.
We need a huge push from the DWP, colleges, independent providers and employers to convert as many young people on these different programmes into apprenticeships. Win win!
Just days after ministers announced they are to “strengthen” Lord Baker’s landmark clause on careers education in schools, the man himself is set to hit back with his own stronger law.
The Department for Education announced on Tuesday that it would use the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, currently working its way through the House of Lords, to “give equality to technical education in career advice in schools, so all pupils understand the wide range of career routes and training available to them, such as apprenticeships, T Levels or traineeships”.
The skills white paper promised a three-point plan to enforce the Baker clause back in January 2021. Point one of the plan was to introduce specific minimum requirements, which it believes it achieved through the announcement made this week.
The government has messed up the Baker clause. It’s not being forcibly administered
Lord Baker
The government’s amendments state that pupils should expect two mandatory visits from providers of technical education and apprenticeships over the course of their secondary education. However, the government has reserved the right to specify further details in secondary legislation.
This, according to Lord Baker, makes the government’s attempt “inadequate”.
Speaking to FE Week, Lord Baker said determining the detail around career advice rules through secondary legislation would weaken its intent because the detail “can’t be debated or amended”.
“The government has messed up the Baker clause,” he adds. “It’s not being forcibly administered.”
Peers can expect to see a new Baker clause next week when they come to debate the Skills Bill. Baker’s new amendment will “oblige” schools to organise three mandatory encounters with technical education and training providers over the course of their secondary education.
“It will be the duty of schools to do it,” he adds, “and that means that if they do not do that activity, they could be legally obliged to do so”.
