Briefing: Apprenticeships and Learning Bill

---

ePolitix.com outlines the key provisions of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill.

The Bill subsumes the draft Apprenticeships Bill, and Children, Skills and Learning Bill.

It was tabled to strengthen apprenticeships, to establish the Young People's Learning Agency for England, the office of Chief Executive of Skills Funding, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and the School Support Staff Negotiating Body; to make provision about the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; to make provision about schools and institutions within the further education sector; and to make provision about student loans.

What organisations will be set up, dissolved or renamed?

Bodies Established:
The Young People's Learning Agency for England
The Chief Executive of Skills Funding
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual)
School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB)

Bodies Dissolved:
Learning And Skills Council for England

Bodies Renamed:
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

What will the legislation do?

Part 1 – Apprenticeships, Study and Training
This part creates apprenticeship certificates, sets out requirements for the certificates and deals with apprenticeship frameworks which are high level curricula for an apprenticeship in a specified career.

Part 2 – Local Education Authority (LEA) functions
This sets out the requirements for LEAs to provide learning difficulty assessments for those under 25. It also deals with requirements for training provision for those under 19 and requires transport to be provided for those groups. It also requires authorities to co-operate with various skills bodies including the Chief Executive of Skills Funding. They will also be required to provide training for Young Offenders.

Part 3 – Sets up the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) for England
The YPLA will support and enable local education authorities to carry out their new duties. It will carry out research, intervene in failing authorities, develop assessment of training schemes and secure funding for schemes.

Part 4 – Sets up the Chief Executive of Skills Funding
The Chief Executive, with his or her staff, will constitute the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and will take on responsibility for funding post-19 education and training. This includes the task of providing enough appropriate apprenticeship places.

Part 5 – Dissolves the Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
The LSC is a non-departmental public body which began work in 2001, taking over the roles of the former Further Education Funding Council and Training and Enterprise Councils.

Part 6 – The Sixth Form College Sector
This is a small part concerned with giving colleges a legal identity.

Part 7 – The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
The Bill plans to reform the regulation of qualification and tests in England by legislating to set up a separate independent Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual), with QCA becoming a Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA). Ofqual takes responsibility for assessing and maintaining standards in exams from the QCA.

Part 8 – The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA)
As mentioned above, this is the renamed Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). It will “no longer exercise any regulatory functions”.

Part 9 – Children’s Services
This part includes additional arrangements to promote co-operation and information transfer between various parties responsible for looking after children and establishes Children’s Trust Boards. Ensuring there are enough children’s centres

Part 10 – Schools
This part covers the handling of complaints and how schools causing concern are dealt with. This is also potentially one of the most controversial parts as it contains the recommendations covering the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB), complaints made against schools and interim reports on schools from Ofsted.

Part 11 – Teacher powers
Members of staff gain the right to search pupils, and requirements are placed on them to record and report on the use of force.

Part 12 – Miscellaneous
This part contains various additional information including provisions for devolved administrations and information provision. Vew a table detailing the England, England and Wales, and UK-wide provisions in the Bill.