Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has reiterated Skills England’s role in boosting the domestic pipeline to reduce reliance on overseas workers in a list of priorities for the new body.
Phillipson’s letter comes a day after the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education officially closed, with its powers and functions transferred to the Department for Education.
Skills England, which is an executive agency within the DfE rather than an independent body like IfATE was, has now moved from being in “shadow form” to a fully established body.
The full board of Skills England was revealed last week, and includes a range of leaders from business, FE, unions and local government.
Today’s letter sets out the “priorities” for Skills England in its first year.
‘Data driven’ annual skills assessment
Skills England’s chiefs have been told to work with partners “across government and beyond” to provide the “single authoritative voice on the country’s current and future skills needs, so our skills strategies and policies can work together to meet them”.
An “annual skills assessment” will be produced by the new body, according to the letter, which will enable government departments to “make informed decisions on labour market policy and sectoral/regional priorities”.
Central to Skills England’s work will be to use “data and insights” to inform national and regional skills needs. This will include “co-creating and refining” the occupational standards underpinning a set of qualifications and training products with employers and other partners, to ensure that employers are driving the training required to meet labour market and economic need and deliver our missions”.
Phillipson mentions the first foundation and shorter apprenticeships in this section, which are set to be available from this autumn.
‘Simplifying access’
Another broad priority for Skills England is to “bring together the fragmented skills system, helping people take up technical education and apprenticeships, and employers access the skilled workforce they need”.
The body has been instructed to provide a “high-quality employer experience”, and use “insights and experiences with stakeholders to enable the department to improve the wider skills system too, tackling bureaucracy and duplication”.
‘Reduce reliance on overseas labour’
Skills England will also draw on data and insights from employers, unions, FE providers and experts to advise government to “enable responses to skills gaps”, including continuing to reform the apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy offer which funds other forms of training.
Reducing reliance on overseas labour is mentioned twice in Phillipson’s letter. She tells Skills England to “drive progress” in government’s Labour Market Evidence Group, working with the Migration Advisory Committee, Industrial Strategy Council and Department for Work and Pensions to “boost the domestic pipeline of skilled workers in priority areas, reducing our reliance on migration”.
Local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) also get a mention, with the education secretary telling Skills England chiefs the plans must be “consistent”, “high quality”, and include a “clear role” for FE and HE provision to respond to national priorities and local labour market needs.
Phillipson has also tasked Skills England with attracting “significant internationally mobile investors”. This will involve the body working across government to “develop a service to help investors navigate the UK skills offer, providing access to skills and talent development through convening key partners”.
The education secretary signed off the letter by stating that this agenda is “urgent and central to the government’s missions”, and added: “I know you will build on the momentum from Skills England’s time in shadow form to firmly establish the organisation at the centre of our national skills landscape.”
House building should only be carried by our UK workers. If this slows down house building then that is OK because we will need less houses if there is less immigration.