High level skills strategy

The plans to ensure universities and employers work together more closely are part of an attempt to achieve the government target of equipping 40 per cent of the workforce with graduate-level skills by 2020.

Party response: Conservative

David Willetts, shadow innovation, universities and skills secretary, said: "The government's strategy on higher education is going stale. Ministers have made virtually no progress on their promise of getting more young people to university and their cuts to second chance education and science undermine their stated ambition to widen access.

"Far from being a grand new vision for higher education, the latest strategy document gives the impression of a government that is fast running out of ideas."


Stakeholder response: GuildHE

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Alice Hynes, chief executive, said: "We have much relevant experience and views to contribute, and so we will play a full and active role in the consultation process and the search for ways to make the aspirations a reality.

"The sector has been pushed to achieve significant expansion and good economies of scale, which is why full-time education is still at the heart of what most institutions do. Finding new ways to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of employers and employees must either be properly paid for, or be part of some radical realignment of resources which may run counter to other widening participation agendas for the 14 to 19 age group.

"The exciting factor for GuildHE institutions is that these are environments they are familiar with, and that connection of theory and practice is at the heart of the kind of education they have shown how to deliver.

"Stretching the staff in our institutions four ways as teachers, researchers, and active practitioners in their own right, as well as playing a part in the local and regional communities, is already making high demands.

"Addressing this new strategy will mean colleagues will have to find different ways to juggle their work. It will mean employment-led courses will have to move from being an extra to a core funding stream, placing much more market forces into the HE income mix."

David Baker, GuildHE chair and principal of University College Plymouth St Mark and St John, added: "It is extremely important to maintain and develop the links between skills and scholarship, if the government is really serious about ensuring that it is a high level skills strategy it is talking about."