Leitch review of skills
Wednesday 18th July 2007 at 12:12 AM
ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the government's response to the Leitch review on skills.
Under the plans, the government intends to help over four million adults learn new skills and improve existing ones over the next three years.
Government response: DfIUS
Secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills John Denham said: "Britain is changing.
"Increased global economic competition and rapid technological development are posing new challenges to our businesses, and to individual citizens.
"Skills are the answer to these challenges. For our citizens, better skills are the path to sustained employment, career progression, and increased income.
"Skills are the key to greater social mobility, with talent and hard work, not background, determining individuals’ success.
"For our businesses, a more highly skilled workforce is the path to higher productivity, competitiveness and profitability.
"Increased skills will also contribute to the delivery of better public services."
Party response: The Conservative Party
Shadow secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills David Willetts said: "Raising skills means more powers to colleges, employers and, above all, learners themselves.
"Instead, Labour gives us more central control, targets and quangos.
"Lord Leitch rightly said that we are facing a ‘formidable’ skills challenge. I agree, but sadly, the government has ducked that challenge and produced a very thin report which just repeats what Gordon Brown has announced in previous Budgets.
"Meanwhile, the number of young people not in education, employment and training goes up while the number of adult learners goes down.
"What is the point of a whole new department if that is all they come up with?"
Stakeholder Response: The ATL
To send a comment to the ATL, click here
Dr Mary Bousted, Association of Teachers and Lecturers general secretary, said: "We fully support the need to improve skills in the UK.
"But the government’s proposals reinforce the current over-emphasis for all education in the UK to be focussed on what employers say they want.
"While people need to have work-based skills it is important to recognise that the skills being sought by employers today will not necessarily be those in demand in 10 or 20 years time.
"And it is also important that adult learners are allowed to learn other skills – practical, social, cultural - which will enhance their lives.
"The needs of adult learners should not be lost in the current obsession with employers’ needs.
"Adult learners have family and job responsibilities which might dictate how and where they can learn, and these need to be taken into account.
"The government also needs to allow colleges and universities to continue carrying out research and development."
Stakeholder Response: e-skills UK
To send a comment to E-skills UK, click here
Karen Price, CEO of E-skills UK, said: "The Leitch review published in December 2006 set out the magnitude of the skills challenge we face to remain a leading player in the global economy, and highlighted the urgent need for change in the UK’s approach to skills.
"We very much welcome this development into a tangible plan of action.
"The IT and telecoms sector makes a vital contribution to the UK’s success as a globally competitive knowledge economy.
"Technology underpins innovation, productivity and long term prosperity and it is essential that we have the skills to make the most of it.
"We are delighted that the government has responded to the recommendations of the Leitch review by placing employers at the heart of skills development; introducing a demand-led approach to skills that focuses on aligning learning with employer needs and includes a commitment to direct funding to the qualifications that best meet those needs.
"We look forward to working with employers and partners to take this forward for IT and Telecoms.
"We welcome the emphasis on the development of economically valuable skills. IT skills are critical in today’s increasingly technology-enabled world – and e-skills UK is committed to ensuring that everyone is able to develop the technology-related skills they need for successful careers and lives, whether they are an IT professional, a business leader or someone who uses IT in their everyday job.
"We also support the plans to extend the involvement of Higher Education in the development of the existing workforce, in partnership with employers. "
Stakeholder response: The CMU Universities Group
To send a comment to CMU Universities Group, click here
Professor Les Ebdon, chairman of the CMU Universities Group and vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, said: "This will require a huge cultural change and responsive learning programmes which our universities can undoubtedly deliver.
"There is also a link between graduate skills, innovation and knowledge transfer which the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) needs to understand and foster.
"Universities should be incentivised to deliver without the student unit of resource or total student numbers being cut. The Commission (for Employment and Skills) should also consider those workers who want to upgrade to graduate level skills or retrain but find themselves ‘in hock’ to unwilling employers when they review the merits of a statutory training entitlement in 2010.
"However, 70 per cent of the 2020 workforce has already left education.
"If there was increased public investment in older learners and those studying on a part-time and flexible basis for HE qualifications, ‘study’ tax breaks for employers and a statutory entitlement to study leave which extended to HE qualifications and offered more support to those currently outside the workforce to access higher education qualifications, we would usher in a new era and build the higher level skills base which our universities can certainly deliver and upon which the future economic prosperity of Britain will depend."
Stakeholder response: Chartered Management Institute
To send a comment to CMI, click here
Mary Chapman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, said: "The government’s response clearly indicates that leadership and management skills have a vital role to play in increasing productivity and prosperity across the economy, so it is disappointing that management skills barely feature in the detail of the report’s recommendations.
"The report states that the majority of government funding for adult education will be focused on the lowest skill level and least qualified individuals.
"Yet, at the same time it is important not to neglect the management population, a significant proportion of which is under-qualified.
"Such a low level of management skills is untenable, given the expected growth in professional and managerial occupations and the UK’s ambition to grow its high skills, high added-value economy.
"It is also a concern that the government intends to pilot the development of new qualifications on offer from employers and private training providers.
"Employers already find the number and range of qualifications confusing and individuals need a simple framework with qualifications that are easily transferable.
"We should, therefore, be focusing on achieving more qualified employees, rather than a greater number of different qualifications.
"Moving forward, it will be important that the Sector Qualifications Strategy for Management and Leadership, developed by the Management Standards Centre and SSCs, provides a framework to ensure that all management qualifications are accessible, portable and credible among managers and their organisations.
"It is, after all, the skills and abilities of those individuals who are leading organisations that determine how people are employed and whether resources are invested effectively.
"Despite a move in the right direction, unless government prioritises management skills for current and future leaders, there is a real danger that we will not be able to make the right management decisions to advance the UK's international competitiveness."
Related Stakeholders
Related News
- Report slams 'unsatisfactory' speech treatments
- Balls backs secret exams
- Ministers accused of faith school 'witch-hunt'
- Balls 'to take forward diploma plan'
- Poorer students 'under-represented' at university
Discuss this article via video now
