Latest news from FE Week | FE Week

This is how I brought Swedish ‘fika’ to FE in England

If staff are skipping lunch and only talk about work, they and their principals need to hear about fika, writes Victoria Grimberg

Having lived in both Sweden and England, I have seen many notable differences in work culture first-hand. One that has really struck me is the difference in staff stress levels.

According to the ‘OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey’ in 2018, 40 per cent of UK teachers say they commonly experience stress in their profession. That’s double the 20 per cent of Swedish teachers who made the same claim.

This became evident to me when I moved to England, and FE colleagues of mine, who get a 30-minute window for lunch, were so stressed that they often did not have lunch all.

“I don’t have time!” would be a common midday exclamation by the time they had walked to the office, checked their next lesson, printed any last-minute resources and squeezed in a toilet visit.

I am sure many reading this recognise themselves in this lunchtime routine.

‘The importance of fika’

But in Sweden, the Working Hours Act states “the employer shall organise work so that employees are able to take pauses from work as necessary […] Pauses are included in the working time”.

These pauses actually have a much-loved name in Sweden. You may have heard of hygge in Denmark, meaning a mood of cosiness and contentment. But have you heard of fika?

Fika are breaks that are a deeply established part of Swedish life and work culture. They usually come with coffee and cake and are at least 15 to 20 minutes long (but can go on for longer) and occur twice daily: one in the morning around 10am and one in the afternoon around 3pm.

Various studies show that taking a break and stepping away from your desk makes you feel more energised which, in turn, helps reduce stress levels, improves staff wellbeing and increases workplace productivity.

Management and staff are encouraged to fika together (yes, it’s a verb as well as a noun) regardless of power and position. Above all, it is a social gathering where you are advised specifically not to talk about work.

Many Swedes consider it essential to make time for fika every day. You may be astonished to find out that employees are encouraged or scheduled to take two fika breaks per day, on top of their lunch break.

Research shows Swedes fika for about 227 hours per year, the equivalent of 7.5 working days.

Maybe that is partly why Sweden was seventh on the World Happiness Report in 2020, while the UK was thirteenth. Might there be a correlation between the happiness of Swedes and fika culture?

‘Staff appreciated college pilot’

I decided to introduce fika to South Devon College.

After meeting our now vice principal for a chat and being given the opportunity to share a presentation about fika for health and wellbeing, it was decided that we would host a drop-in fika session for three hours.

Staff were encouraged to come and share a hot drink with Swedish chocolate cake I made from my grandmother’s recipe.

The successful drop-in was followed by a month of fika in January 2020. Students and staff could go to different venues to escape the day-to-day cycles of work.

Colleagues of mine really took it to heart. One said, “I enjoyed taking part in fika and I was glad that there was encouragement from my supervisor to do this.”

Another said it was a “welcome addition to allow time away from the stressful day”.

Perhaps you recognise yourself in this final comment: “I’m the classic ‘tied to my desk’. I break at my desk, lunch at my desk, so it was great to take a bit of time to chat to colleagues. I definitely felt more positive and productive when I went back to work.”

The college is encouraging staff to take time for a fika without feeling guilty and it’s even a part of the South Devon College people strategy.

With wellbeing under greater strain than ever with Covid, could you encourage your staff to fika?

Victims of county lines gangs easily go under the radar in colleges

Creating a non-judgmental space for victims to discuss gang involvement in county lines would make a big difference, writes Teresa Carroll

The increase in gangs selling drugs to our communities served by the further education sector is startling.

The National Crime Agency’s analysis suggests there are more than 1,000 county line drug lines in operation across the country. This refers to the exploitation of vulnerable adults and children to move and deliver drugs, usually from cities to rural areas.

Victims include children and young people, both girls and boys, aged between 15 and 17. However, as county lines is often a hidden form of abuse, the age of victims may be even lower.

Many victims are recruited as children, with exploitation continuing into early adulthood.

Last month, Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, warned that there were around 27,000 children aged between 10 and 17 at high risk of gang exploitation, with these numbers likely to increase because of Covid-19.

Statutory guidance across the UK highlights it is the responsibility of educators to safeguard young people from all forms of abuse and criminal exploitation. The government’s Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance from September is clear that county lines is a safeguarding issue.

In September 2018 the Home Office published updated guidance, called ‘Criminal Exploitation of Children and Vulnerable Adults: County Lines Guidance’.

More recently the Ministry of Justice also published practical advice for frontline practitioners on safeguarding, signs of exploitation and referral pathways, called ‘County Lines Exploitation Practice Guidance for YOTs and Frontline Practitioners’.

But more needs to be done to raise awareness of county lines in FE providers and schools.

‘Signs not always obvious’

Young people and adults more at risk include those who are economically vulnerable, have a special educational need or disability, are in the care system and who have been excluded from mainstream education.

But colleges need to remember the signs are not always obvious. Take Patrick (not his real name), who was an academically gifted and talented 17-year-old footballer when his family started to notice changes in his behaviour.

He began refusing to attend college and skipping football practice. He was soon repeatedly arrested on drugs-related charges, sent to prison, and released after serving his 12-month sentence.

He is just one of many examples of a young person who was groomed and exploited by a county lines gang.

Victims are often recruited face-to-face, including in FE institutions, special educational needs schools and homeless shelters, as well as on social media. Some children are groomed through family members.

‘Look out for clues’

We must ensure that all our children and young people have access to an education that provides a clear line of sight to an independent life, with employment that will sustain them.

County lines gangs can take advantage of young people who feel they have no prospect of getting an education or a well-paid job. As one victim said, there is a need for money, and county lines is a “way of making good money”.

So, what can colleges and FE providers do?

County lines is a ‘way of making good money’

Firstly, it’s important to recognise that learners will rarely report county lines exploitation. This is a hidden crime and many victims easily go under the radar.

Educators need look out for clues, such as missing classes, unexplained acquisition of money, clothes, mobile phones or behaving in an unusual way.

The County Lines – Children’s Society toolkit for professionals offers guidance on vulnerabilities and indicators. Robust procedures need to be in place when these are flagged.

Staff must also listen closely to young people who have been affected.

To gain a better understanding of young people’s experiences, this week the ETF presented the critically acclaimed production Bullet Tongue Reloaded by The Big House, an organisation that works with those from the care system to produce plays.

In a Q&A session with the young cast, many said colleges and schools listening to them in a non-judgmental way would have helped them escape gang culture.

County lines gangs could exploit the uncertainty created by Covid to prey on more vulnerable young people.

Therefore, education and training that has a clear line of sight to a decent job with a successful career pathway has never been more important.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 346

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

Lizzie Beale

Youth member of board, The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021
Concurrent job: Charity and community partnerships manager, Heathrow

Interesting fact: She has debated in the House of Commons twice as an elected Member of Youth Parliament.

Asif Khan

Head, Blackburn Sixth Form, Blackburn College

Start date: May 2021

Previous job: Senior leader and director of e-learning, St. Marys College

Interesting fact: He used to teach Chinese Kickboxing alongside teaching computer science at Bolton Sixth Form College.

Sydney Samuels

Youth leadership team, The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021

Concurrent job: Founder and managing director, Loop not Luck

Interesting fact: She won Dragons Den at 11-years-old and Peter Jones invested in her first business idea – an over-the-shoulder utility bag called a Funky Strap.

Andrew Webster

Education sector manager (further education and skills), The Careers and Enterprise Company

Start date: March 2021

Previous job: Area education manager (West), The Careers and Enterprise Company

Interesting fact: He has climbed the mountain Snowdon (pre-lockdown) and hopes to get a few more big hills, small mountains in soon.

‘Absurd’: Small employers blocked from apprentice cash incentives

Small employers are being blocked from the government’s apprentice cash incentives due to a “bonkers” cap on starts, an FE Week investigation has found.

Under the terms of the bonus scheme for hiring new apprentices, employers can only make claims through the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s digital apprenticeship service.

But non-levy-paying businesses have been capped on the number of apprentices they can put through the portal since January 2020 – starting with a limit of three before increasing to ten in July – to ensure the overall apprenticeships budget is not overspent.

Ministers are now under pressure to lift or extend the cap as some small employers have already met the limit and cannot put any new starts through the service. This means it is impossible for them to claim the cash incentives.

The bonuses were first introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in August to help get people back into work following the pandemic. He announced last week they will double from April to September 2021, allowing employers to receive £3,000 for every apprentice they take on, regardless of their age.

One non-levy-paying business that has reached the starts cap told FE Week they want to take on ten new apprentices and are therefore set to lose out on £30,000. They described the situation as “absurd”, while training providers have said it is “frustrating” and “counter-intuitive”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency told FE Week it was monitoring the impact of the reservations cap and will “very shortly” confirm how it will operate from April 2021, from which date all apprenticeship starts must be put through the digital apprenticeship service.

They added that ESFA analysis of non-levy demand in 2020-21 shows that a cap level of ten is “sufficient for 99 per cent of smaller employers”.

The digital service was launched in April 2017 but was only for levy-paying employers to manage and spend their apprenticeship funding.

Since January 2020 employers who do not pay the levy have been able to create accounts and were initially capped at three starts before this increased to ten in July. Small employers have been able to start more apprentices through procured non-levy contracts held by training providers, but these end for new starts next month.

The cap was imposed owing to concern that the amount of money not being spent by levy payers wouldn’t be enough if the government allowed small employers to have as many starts as they wanted.

But in the past year starts have dropped dramatically across England because of the pandemic.

Take-up of the financial incentives has also been low. The Treasury originally budgeted for up to 100,000 incentive payments for new apprentice hires, but latest Department for Education data shows that 25,420 employers have submitted claims for the bonus.

‘Until the limit is removed the apprentice cash incentives are useless to us’

Debbie Gardiner, a well-known FE consultant who works with a number of training providers, said it “feels like the right arm doesn’t know what the left arm is doing”.

“My instinct is that the Chancellor didn’t even know about the cap issue when announcing the incentives,” she told FE Week.

“The cap was there to initially test the system and ensure there is a budget control. We don’t need this level of control any more because we have had a pandemic and apprenticeship numbers are nowhere near where you’d expect them to be.”

She added that one of her training providers estimates this will negatively impact them by around 100 apprentice starts, mostly in childcare, between now and July.

An employer feeling the direct impact of the cap is Katey’s Nursery & Pre-School – a nursery group with five sites in London.

Its finance director, Janet Firmston-Williams, told FE Week that they have started ten level 3 early years apprentices through the ESFA’s digital service over the course of the past year. And despite two dropping out, they are still being blocked from putting any more starts through the service, even though they want to employ ten new apprentices.

“Until the limit of ten is removed the incentives are of no benefit to us,” Firmston-Williams told FE Week.

“In an industry that desperately needs to attract workers, how absurd is all this? £30,000 will be lost. For a nursery business, that is key.”

She added: “The government is trying so hard to be seen to be encouraging employment of apprentices but ultimately the incentives do not work.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers told FE Week it understands the cap will stay in some form for the “foreseeable future” but that it could be increased come next month.

Its chief policy officer Simon Ashworth said the current cap is “counter-intuitive” and “a bit bonkers”, considering the drop in starts and expected apprenticeship budget underspend.

The ESFA pointed out that funds transferred from levy-paying employers to smaller employers through the apprenticeship service do not require the receiving employer to reserve funds. They can therefore use this system to exceed the ten cap and claim incentives.

Revealed: The most popular Skills Toolkit courses

The government has for the first time revealed the most popular courses being taken through its “Skills Toolkit” – but questions may again be raised about the data’s accuracy.

Figures published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency show 162,320 “registrations” and 30,254 “completions” on the courses offered for free by 12 providers as of January 24.

Sitting at the top of both tables (see below) is the Good Things Foundation’s “Learn My Way” programme – a collection of resources to help visitors use the internet, such as “how to use your computer or device” tutorials.

The second most popular is a web page called “Learn For Everyday Life” by Lloyds Bank, which features a series of downloadable videos and PDF resources to help with digital skills, organisation and finance like “improve your CV”.

And in third place is a course offered by technology company Cisco which teaches people to learn to code in Python – a programming language used by small companies and tech giants.

The toolkit’s “platform” was launched in April 2020 at a cost of around £1 million and directs visitors to free online content which aims to help build their skills during the coronavirus outbreak.

But as previously reported by FE Week, significant overcounting has already led to revised estimates of “registration” claims in the official statistics which continue to include web hits and could be coming from anywhere in the world.

The “completions” data is brand new and how these are recorded varies by each course. For some, learners need to reach a pass mark, but other courses simply consider the time a learner actively spends on the content.

For example, FE training provider Corndel offers a course called “Organisational Financial Management: An Introduction” – a web page featuring a series of videos and PDFs – which is reported as having had 9,975 registrations and 178 completions.

Corndel told FE Week that a registration is triggered when users click on at least one learning asset and that a completion is recorded when the user spends at least three minutes on a continuing professional develop component of the course.

Elsewhere, the Good Things Foundation’s “Learn My Way” course triggers a completion when a learner clicks on either a “next course” or “back to course start page” button when they get to the end of one of the resources.

For other courses, visitors have to register through a portal and submit assessments upon which a decision is made regarding passing and completion.

The Learning Curve Group offers a business and customer awareness course whereby learners sign up to an online platform. A completion is recorded when the learner has submitted their assessments and reached a pass mark of 75 per cent.

FutureLearn, which is part of the Open University, operates a similar system to Learning Curve. On all 23 of the courses it offers through the toolkit, visits must mark over 90 per cent of course steps and attempt all test questions, achieving a score of over 70 per cent.

‘The Skills Toolkit further confirms the value of online flexible courses’

The take-up of the free content was welcomed by the course providers.

Hannah Brindle, managing director of the Virtual College, said: “Supporting people to focus on personal growth and development in a time of uncertainty and worry makes a huge difference to mental health and overall wellbeing. Hopefully through this initiative people have been able to feel a sense of control over some aspect of their lives and futures, by keeping their minds optimistic, curious and open to learning new things.”

Harminder Matharu, director of government partnerships at FutureLearn, added: “The popularity of our selected digital and workplace skills courses further confirms the value of online flexible courses that are available to anyone, at a time that suits them, enabling people to learn those critical basic and digital skills that employers look for.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson and skills minister Gillian Keegan have often celebrated the impact of the skills toolkit, claiming it has had a “transformational impact” on those looking to retrain during the pandemic despite having no system in place that tracks learner destinations.

The Department for Education also previously refused to release the names of the organisations given funding to develop the toolkit’s platform and conduct user research.

But the DfE has reluctantly now told FE Week the names of the firms through a Freedom of Information request. The companies that shared almost £1 million were: Contracts Online Ltd; eSynergy Solutions Limited; Leidos Innovations UK Ltd; Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited.

Ex-skills minister criticises lack of T Level targets

A former skills minister has criticised the Department for Education for moving away from T Levels student recruitment targets.

Sir John Hayes, the Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings who held the skills brief between 2010 and 2012, said numerical goals are essential to making new programmes “credible”.

He said targets are vital to “gauge success” and that he’s “never bought the argument” that you cannot focus on both quality and quantity when rolling schemes out.

The Department for Education had originally set student number “estimates” for the first three T Levels but has since claimed they have no fixed targets.

Documents for a T Level awarding body tender from 2018 show the department estimated there would be 900 learners on the education and childcare pathway, 400 on construction and 1,200 on digital in the first year of the rollout in 2020/21.

An updated T Level action plan published by the DfE in January showed that, as of October 2020, 650 students were enrolled on the education course, 250 on the construction pathway, and 400 were on the digital.

Hayes was speaking at a Westminster Education Forum event this week during which Sue Lovelock, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director for professional and technical education, said the government chose not to “dilute” the quality of T Levels by setting targets.

She said: “One of the lessons that we learned from looking at previous reform programmes is that actually, if you have a sort of very numbers focused approach on ‘we need X number of providers, we need X number of students’, then you almost by consequence dilute the focus on quality.

“We’ve really tried to put quality at the forefront of all of our planning. So, we haven’t set targets for how many providers we want or how many students we want on particular courses.

“We want to work with providers that are really keen to meet our quality bar and for them to think about the number of places that they think are right for their institution as we roll out T Levels in the early phases.”

She added that this was a “conscious decision to put quality rather than quantity at the front of all of the work that we’ve been doing on T Levels”.

But Hayes, who chaired the event, hit back. “I’ve never bought that argument, Sue, because when I was the minister, we put into place for the first time statutory standards for apprenticeships,” he said.

“We got rid of programme-led apprenticeships. And yet at the same time, we massively boosted the number. I’ve never bought the argument that there’s a trade-off.”

The former skills minister added it was “absolutely right” that reforms have “rigour” but warned “unless you have coverage they won’t be embedded in the consciousness of learners, of potential learners, of providers, of parents, of everyone else”.

He continued: “You have to have numbers in order to make the programme credible, it seems to me. I take your point about policy ̶ I just don’t think there’s a simple trade-off.”

In response, Lovelock conceded: “That’s completely fair.”

Asked whether the enrolment numbers had increased since October, Lovelock said: “I don’t think the number has changed significantly.”

The two awarding bodies delivering the first three T Levels – Pearson and NCFE – later confirmed to FE Week that there has been no big change in the numbers since October.

Turing scheme opens for bids

Colleges and training providers can now apply for funding to send students and apprentices to study or work internationally under the government’s new Turing scheme.

The programme, named after the famous mathematician, is intended to create 35,000 placements in 2021/22 and is replacing the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme.

As revealed by FE Week last week, Ecorys, the co-delivery partner with the British Council for the Turing scheme, has said the funding available will total £105 million: £35 million will go to further education; £60 million will go to universities; and £10 million to schools.

The Department for Education said today that the scheme will actually total £110 million, which is “inclusive of the costs of administering the scheme”, such as outreach and communications work.

The programme’s focus on social mobility and value for money will open up more opportunities for international education and travel

Ministers are promoting the potential for disadvantaged students to take advantage of the scheme, with prime minister Boris Johnson saying the project “seeks to help students of all income groups from across the country experience fantastic education opportunities in any country they choose”.

To promote Turing, schools minister Nick Gibb and skills minister Gillian Keegan are planning to visit areas which have previously not benefited from Erasmus+, the DfE said.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has urged colleges, schools and universities to put in applications.

“The programme’s focus on social mobility and value for money will open up more opportunities for international education and travel to all of our students, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” who, Williamson said, were “less likely to benefit from the previous EU scheme”.

The idea that Erasmus+ did not help disadvantaged learners has been challenged, however. A spokesperson for Ecorys told this publication last week that one-fifth of vocational placements on Erasmus+ went to disadvantaged students.

The Turing scheme’s placements will last between two and 12 weeks and are due to start in September.

Learners can also use the funding to partake of international skills competitions, which can last between one and ten days.

If a learner has special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), placements can start from five days, as long as that is justified in the provider’s application.

Providers that are successful in their applications will receive funding to administer the scheme while the students will receive grants to help cover living, tuition and travel costs.

FE and vocational education and training (VET) students will receive up to £1,360 for travel costs.

Living costs are being broken down into three groups: group one for a high cost of living, group two for a medium cost and group three for a lower cost.

So for living costs, FE and VET applicants will receive:

To group one destinations: £109 per day for the first 14 days, £76 per day after the 14th day
To group two destinations: £94 per day for the first 14 days, £66 per day after the 14th day
To group three destinations: £80 per day for the first 14 days, £56 per day after the 14th day.

FE and VET participants from disadvantaged backgrounds will receive actual costs for additional travel expenses, including for visas, passports and health insurance. 

“We see this as crucial because travel-related expenses can often be a deterrent to potential participants,” the scheme’s website reads.

Learners with SEND will receive funding for up to 100 per cent of actual costs for support directly related to their additional needs.

Colleges looking to apply have been told to visit www.turing-scheme.org.uk

The Department for Education said bids will close on April 29 and it expects to issue funding decisions in July.

Revealed: Complex allocations for the ‘targeted level 3 adult offer’

Just over £118 million has been set aside to pay for the new “targeted level 3 adult offer” across England – but the cash will come from two different education budgets.

From next month until the end of July 2022, “core funding” of £100 million will come from the new National Skills Fund (NSF) along with £16.25 million to pay for an “uplift” for learners aged 24 and over.

The remaining £2.5 million, to pay for an “uplift” for learners aged 19 to 23 will not come from the NSF but will instead be funded from the adult education budget (AEB).

The uplifts are £150 extra for short qualifications (less than an indicative 360 hours) and £600 for long qualifications (360 hours or more).

The level 3 adult offer was first announced by prime minister Boris Johnson last October and forms part of the “lifetime skills guarantee”.

It will fully fund around 400 short and long qualifications at level 3, making them free to learners aged 19 and over who do not already have a first full level 3 qualification.

The Department for Education has so far refused to say how much funding has been allocated for providers to deliver the new offer.

But the total NSF and AEB budgets for the level 3 adult offer were revealed in a letter sent by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The letter, dated February 3 and marked “official sensitive”, has been published on the Greater London Authority website.

It explains how the complex budgeting arrangements filter through to an even more complex set of funding allocations for providers in both non-devolved and devolved areas.

The funding will be routed through the AEB funding formula and rates, but all the NSF funding is “ringfenced” and will be clawed back if not spent on the “level 3 adult offer”.

For learners aged 24 and over, their level 3 adult offer core funding and uplift would be funded from the NSF in this way.

But the letter reveals for the first time that it is much more complicated for those aged 19 to 23.

If a 19-to-23-year-old chooses a qualification “that is included in both the level 3 adult offer and the 19-to-23 level 3 legal entitlement” then both the course and uplift funding is not ringfenced and comes from the AEB budget and not from the ringfenced NSF.

In this example, just the £150 and £600 uplifts would be funded from the £2.5 million set aside for this purpose.

But, if a 19-to-23-year-old chooses a qualification “on the level 3 adult offer list that is not included in the 19-to-23 level 3 entitlement, then the funding for the course and the uplift will come from the ringfenced NSF funding”.

‘The department is allocating this amount at its own risk’

The letter also says £23.75 million of the £118 million relates to April and July 2022 which “falls outside the current spending review period and the department is allocating this amount at its own risk.”

These highly unusual and complex budgeting arrangements are expected to be “transitional”, coming after publication of the FE white paper – but before a consultation on the new NSF.

Last week, on an FE Week webcast, Keith Smith, the DfE director of post-16 strategy responsible for the FE white paper, said the NSF consultation would be published in the spring.

The FE white paper promises “simplification and streamlining of funding” but Smith conceded that introducing programmes with brand-new funding rules and methodologies do add further complexity to an already complicated system.

As reported in FE Week he also said: “Please don’t take anything that happens in the short term as any sort of indication of where the future intent will be.”

FE white paper: Employer casts doubt on chambers of commerce leading role

Chambers of commerce are “not close enough to industry” to play a leading role in the skills system as set out in the FE white paper, an employer has warned.

Flannery Plant Hire director Paul Allman made the remarks at an FE Week webcast (watch below) on the Skills for Jobs white paper, which announced the creation of new “local skills improvement plans” when it was published in January.

These plans, which will force colleges and providers to align the courses they offer to local employers’ needs, are set to be piloted in a number of currently unknown trailblazer areas this year, with chambers and other business representative organisations leading the work.

The government is even intending to legislate to put employer leadership of the plans “on statutory footing”.

I don’t think they’re close enough to what industry needs

But FE Week understands chambers are still in the dark about what their exact role will be under the reforms, despite the government promising to announce the pilot areas in “early 2021”.

And Allman, whose company has helped develop apprenticeships as part of a trailblazer group, expressed his doubts about how effective the chambers would be in leading employer engagement.

“I don’t really see the chambers as being a good route to solving these problems,” he said. “I don’t think they’re close enough to what industry needs, particularly not in the construction sector. They don’t fit into the space, to be honest.”

Chambers ‘expected to play their part’

Education secretary Gavin Williamson’s foreword in the white paper said that local business organisations, chambers of commerce specifically, will “place employers at the heart of defining local skills needs”.

It is part of Williamson’s attempts to model England’s technical education system on that of Germany, where chambers provide a “one-stop shop” to register apprentices, supervise training, assess trainers and conduct examinations, the white paper says.

Membership of the chambers is compulsory for German employers, but this is not the case in England and there are no plans to change this.

There are 43 chambers across England which comprise groups of local businesses, with varying levels of staff. They typically offer their members opportunities for networking as well as advice on legal matters, health and safety and tax.

In response to Allman’s remarks, Jane Gratton, head of people policy for the British Chambers of Commerce, said the place-based, business-led chambers have the ability “to convene employers of all sizes and sectors, together with a wide range of skills providers and economic stakeholders, to discuss and agree local priorities”.

Gratton said they “look forward” to further announcements from the Department for Education about how the Local Skills Improvement Plans policy will be “brought to life” but are yet to have those conversations with ministers.

“We expect chambers across England will step forward to play their part in ensuring more people can train and retrain for new and emerging jobs in their local communities.”

Key organisations need to ‘focus’

Allman also warned that there is “a lot of apathy” from employers about getting involved in the skills sector that could dampen the government’s ambitions.

He said there should be “a drive within our sector to get the key organisations together and really focus on how we can work closely with the FE colleges to actually develop something that is fit for the purpose of what we need”.

Responding to the concerns, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want a wide range of businesses of all sizes and from all sectors to feed into local skills improvement plans so that technical education and training meets their needs.

“We therefore expect the business representative organisation leading the development of a local skills improvement plan in a trailblazer area to engage effectively with other relevant business representative organisations and sector bodies in the local area as part of their engagement with key local stakeholders.”

The DfE added that it will be running an open process to select the trailblazer local areas and that further information will be announced in the “near future”.