Key role for BIS as Government vows to get the young into work

On 12 May Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg set out the Coalition Government’s commitment to getting more vulnerable young people into work.

They announced a series of measures to prioritise youth employment including a £60m commitment to getting more vulnerable young people into work, a boost to Apprenticeships and radical reforms to transform vocational education. The package is designed to ensure young people have the opportunity to get work to support economic growth, to advance their career prospects, encourage social mobility and help fill some of the 500,000 vacancies currently in the job market. Specific BIS measures to improve and support vocational training include:

• Making it easier for employers to take on Apprenticeships, with a pilot project led by BT, TUI Travel and McDonalds;
• Introducing a new Access to Apprenticeships pathway within the Apprenticeships programme to benefit up to 10,000 vulnerable young people;
• Launching this August sector-based work academies giving people on benefits the opportunity to spend up to six weeks undertaking training and work experience, followed by a guaranteed job interview; and
• Publishing the Government’s response to the Wolf Review of Vocational Education

Click here to read the full story and download the Supporting Youth Employment document (pdf). Employers wanting to find out more and get involved can contact their local Businesslink service.  

Proposals to get prisoners into jobs and out of crime

The Government has launched a report outlining radical plans to break the cycle of reoffending, by developing a stronger link between learning in prisons and the vocational and employability skills that employers demand.

Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Minister John Hayes said:

“Our goal is to make sure offenders understand there are viable alternatives to criminality. Rehabilitation through education works best when there is a strong link to meaningful work. I want to ensure that, for as many ex-offenders as possible, release is not followed by re-arrest, but by employment and re-integration into law-abiding society.”

Click here to read the full story, download the report and view the Minister’s speech
 

Adult Learners Week

Adult Learners’ Week has been underway with thousands of events being held across the country to inspire adults to learn something new. Organised by NIACE, Adult Learners’ Week is now in its 20th year with the week-long festival of learning taking place in workplaces, libraries, cafes, prisons, museums and colleges across the country.

Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes, spoke at the National Awards Ceremony on 16 May to celebrate the success of the winning learners (pictured below) in categories such as Senior Leaner of the Year, Apprentice of the Year and Community Learning Champions. In addition, he presented the new Learning through Craft Award and thanked Alan Tuckett, who is stepping down as NIACE Chief Executive, for his contribution to adult learning at NIACE since 1988.

Secretary of State Vince Cable spoke at the event and presented Sir David Attenborough with the first ever Outstanding Contribution to Adult Learning Award. Vince Cable said:

"I'm delighted to be able to present this award to Sir David Attenborough. Throughout his long and illustrious career in broadcasting he has brought a passion and a wealth of knowledge about the natural world into all our homes and inspired many to pursue further learning."

Vince Cable also writes about Adult Learners Week in his new blog and discusses how learning has the power to transform lives.

For more information, visit the Adult Learners’ Week website and explore ideas for getting involved in next year’s campaign. Or check out the variety of recent online articles promoting adult learning. 

Review of informal adult and community learning

The review of informal adult and community learning (IACL) announced in the Skills for Sustainable Growth strategy, is making progress. The £210m per year Adult Safeguarded Learning budget – the main source of Government funding for IACL – was protected in last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Now, the review will inform a reform of IACL so it can support the development of the Big Society and help the most disadvantaged people in our communities to learn and progress.

To date the review has:

• established a Stakeholder Reference Group
• hosted a series of seven roundtable meetings on all aspects of IACL, attended by front-line practitioners and representative bodies
• met with officials from other Government departments and other key organisations
• commissioned a comprehensive evidence base.

This summer the review will seek the views of wider stakeholders in a formal consultation. The reforms will be published in the autumn so that implementation can begin in the 12/13 academic year.
 

Review of Basic Skills

BIS has set up a new project board to review and reform literacy and numeracy provision, which met for the first time at the end of March 2011 under the chairmanship of Susan Pember, BIS Director of FE & Skills Investment. The project objectives have been agreed by John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, who said, "The review will be underpinned by robust research. I do not want to reinvent the wheel, but to recognise existing good practice that we can build upon".

The board's work is underpinned by a practitioner group and an academic group and will draw on the experience and expertise of a range of partners, stakeholders, academics and learners. It will also draw upon the findings of a baseline Literature Review (final report expected late May), Ofsted's reports on Literacy and Numeracy, NIACE Committee of Inquiry on Adult Numeracy and the NIACE Independent Inquiry into Adult and Youth Literacy led by Lord Boswell.

The Board intends to publish a position statement in late summer which will report on progress, identify any interim findings and describe future planned work.
 

VQ Day 2011: Wednesday 22 June

VQ Day 2011 is fast approaching and the organisers would like to remind colleagues there are lots of ways to get involved this year:

• Posters and leaflets for your organisation are now available to order free of charge from the website Place your order today and let everyone know that you’ll be celebrating the big day.

To make the event as exciting as possible, the organisers are on the look-out for performers. If you know of an outstanding dance troupe, band, choir or any other group who would like to showcase their talents in front of an audience, please get in touch and let the VQ Day team know about them.

Finally, as always the VQ Day team is encouraging colleges, businesses and learning providers all over the UK to hold their own events on 22 June to recognise vocational achievement. The new 2011 action pack has lots of ideas for making your event a success - http://www.vqday.org.uk/get-involved

If you’re holding an event, please let the team know by contacting vqday@bbpr.com or calling them on 020 3451 9498.
 

Pre-Employment Training update

On 11th May BIS Minister John Hayes and DWP Minister Chris Grayling held their second forum with key stakeholders on training for unemployed people. Colleagues from the business, skills and employment sectors were represented, including the Federation of Small Businesses, Jobcentre Plus, the CBI, the Skills Funding Agency and the Association of Colleges.

Discussion focused on the importance of forming strong local level working relationships to improve work outcomes for unemployed people, as well as to meet the skills needs of employers. The good practice discussed included excellent local engagement between colleges and training providers to deliver better tailoring of provision for this client group, through to the importance of using the career service to offer timely advice and guidance. Both Ministers and participants agreed on the usefulness of the discussion and agreed to follow up with another forum in a few months time to review progress.
 

Family Learning positive outcomes

In a partnership with BIS and the Skills Funding Agency, the Department for Education (DfE) funded a three-year, £30m family learning programme from 2008 to 2011.

The Family Learning Impact Funding (FLIF) programme was an exciting initiative that developed new approaches to family learning and increased take-up, achievement and progression amongst those families most in need. The objective was to reach and recruit families at risk and deliver high quality learning for both parents and children through the following programmes: Early Years Foundation Stage, family numeracy, financial capability, digital families and wider family learning, linked to Every Child Matters outcomes. It also trialled a new approach to tracking adult progression.

More than 24,000 families participated in the first two years of the programme, which was delivered through local authority providers. Successful outcomes include the development of new partnerships to help engage and support families, the acquisition of new skills, progression for parents and progress towards better outcomes for children. More information on the programme and its outcomes will be available in June.
 

Growth and Innovation Fund update

Following the March launch of the £50m Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) a successful workshop for potential applicants was held with over 100 people attending. Eligible organisations are currently developing their applications. Our delivery partners, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency, report strong interest and numerous enquiries across the three strands: Best Market Solutions, Joint Investment Programme and National Skills Academies.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 3 June. A GIF Board, chaired by Charlie Mayfield, the chair of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, will meet on 13 July. After that, BIS will announce which applications have been successful in this first round of GIF bidding. We expect to make an announcement on the timing of a second round of GIF applications in the autumn.

Further information on GIF can be found at www.ukces.org.uk/gif
 

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Green Paper: consultation

The recently published Department for Education Green Paper - ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’ - proposes the creation of a radically different system to support better outcomes for people with special educational needs and disabilities. The further education and skills system has a crucial part to play as young adults with special educational needs progress from school into adult life.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills supports the proposals set out in the Green Paper and encourages contributions from colleges, training providers, adult learners and their representatives to the consultation now underway.

Responses can be completed online by emailing send.greenpaper@education.gsi.gov.uk .

The consultation ends on 30 June 2011.
 

Updated - Further Education and Skills Investment

BIS announced in the Budget on 23 March 2011 that we would invest an additional £180m to deliver Apprenticeships over the Spending Review period. 

Skills Funding Agency Funding following Budget 2011

	SR Baseline in 10-11 prices	Budget	Indicative Budget
(£000s)	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
Teaching and Learning
Adult Skills Budget	2,835,871	2,869,542	2,720,969
...of which
Apprenticeships	360,810	679,000	683,000
OLASS	134,828	133,600	131,800
Adult Safeguarded Learning	210,747	210,747	210,747
Total Teaching and Learning	3,181,446	3,213,889	3,063,516
Student/Learner Support	227,206	232,414	248,206
Learner Support	144,398	151,398	163,768
Information Advice and Guidance	82,808	81,016	84,438
Skills Infrastructure	137,264	66,922	66,446
Total SFA programme	3,545,916	3,513,225	3,378,169
Capital Grants	-	305,000	278,900
Administration	-	104,422	102,374
Total Skills Funding Agency	3,545,916	3,923,371	3,759,201

Footnotes:

This table builds upon the budgetary information published in Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth (November 2010). Since that publication we announced in the Budget on 23 March 2011 that we would invest an additional £180m to deliver Apprenticeships over the Spending Review period. This includes £25m non participation to support capacity building in higher apprenticeships.
 

Forthcoming events

- VQ Day (22 June)
- World Skills London 2011 (5-8 October)

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