Boris Johnson Announces Training and Skills Transformation

TRAINING - Facing mass unemployment with large job losses being announced daily, the government is announcing large scale funding to help people retrain.

The Prime Minister will today set out plans to transform the training and skills system, making it fit for the 21st century economy, and helping the country build back better from coronavirus.

Adults without an A-Level or equivalent qualification will be offered a free, fully-funded college course – providing them with skills valued by employers, and the opportunity to study at a time and location that suits them.

This offer will be available from April in England, and will be paid for through the National Skills Fund. A full list of available courses will be set out shortly.

Higher education loans will also be made more flexible, allowing adults and young people to space out their study across their lifetimes, take more high-quality vocational courses in further education colleges and universities, and to support people to retrain for jobs of the future.

These reforms will be backed by continued investment in college buildings and facilities – including over £1.5 billion in capital funding. More details will be set out in a further education white paper later this year.

The coronavirus pandemic and changing economy is why the Prime Minister is developing a long-term plan to ensure that, as work changes, people can retrain, upskill and find new well-paid jobs.

In a speech on Tuesday, the Prime Minister is expected to announce a new Lifetime Skill Guarantee. He will say:

As the Chancellor has said, we cannot, alas, save every job. What we can do is give people the skills to find and create new and better jobs.

So my message today is that at every stage of your life, this government will help you get the skills you need.

He will add:

We’re transforming the foundations of the skills system so that everyone has the chance to train and retrain.

Apprenticeship opportunities will also be increased, with more funding for SMEs taking on apprentices, and greater flexibility in how their training is structured – especially in sectors such as construction and creative industries where there are more varied employment patterns.

In 2000, over 100,000 people were doing Higher National Certificates and Diplomas, but that has reduced to fewer than 35,000 now. Those doing foundation degrees has declined from 81,000 to 30,000.

As a result, only 10% of adults hold a Higher Technical Qualification as their highest qualification, compared to 20% in Germany and 34% in Canada.

This is despite the fact that five years after completion, the average Higher Technical Apprentice earns more than the average graduate.

That is why the government is committed to making higher education more flexible to facilitate lifelong learning, and to make it easy for adults and young people to break up their study into segments, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.

This new arrangement will provide finance for shorter term studies, rather than having to study in one three or four year block.

The government is also committing £8 million for digital skills boot camps; expanding successful pilots in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands and introducing programmes in four new locations.

From next year, boot camps will be extended to sectors like construction and engineering, helping the country build back better and support our refreshed Industrial Strategy.

Earlier this year the government launched its free online Skills Toolkit, helping people train in digital and numeracy skills. This is being expanded today to include 62 additional courses.

£2.5 billion is also being made available through the National Skills Fund to help get people working again after COVID, as well as giving those in work the chance to train for higher-skilled, better-paid jobs.

ABC Note: The UK workforce currently totals around 33.0 million, of which …

… around 16.7% (5.5 million) work in the public sector, of which …

… only around 1.4% (459 thousand - around 8.3% of public servants) are in the civil service.

The number employed by the civil service is now 11% higher than its minimum in 2016, but still 20% down on its most recent peak in 2005. 

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s speech on adult learning and skills, Professor Julia Buckingham, the President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University London, said it could benefit millions of adults:

“We have long campaigned for changes to student funding to better support flexible, part-time and adult learning. Today's announcement is an initial step in the right direction. There is a strong economic imperative to improve flexible learning, and we are pleased that the government has recognised the role that universities can play in addressing skills shortages and upskilling existing employees.

“There has been a marked decline in adult learning in recent years, and as the nation looks to recover and rebuild from the impact of Covid-19, now more than ever we need fresh thinking and policy change to help people of all ages and backgrounds to reskill and retrain.

“Many universities are ready to scale up alternatives to the traditional three-year degree, and give more people chances to study elements of a course in a ‘bitesize’ learning model. This would allow people to develop skills in areas such as digital, entrepreneurship, business and public sector management, which will all be likely to benefit the UK’s recovery and boost local economies. It would also help those out of work in certain sectors – such as construction, engineering, and aviation – which have been hit hard by the pandemic.”

ABC Note: “According to the Prince’s Trust, at least one in three young people have abandoned their job aspirations for the year ahead due to the COVID-19 crisis. More than a third of 16 to 25-year-olds also feel they will ‘never succeed in life,’ the research shows.”

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