The government has announced the launch of Skills England to unify the skills landscape and establish a collective national goal to enhance the nation's skills. According to the Department for Education, between 2017 and 2022, skills shortages in the country doubled, exceeding half a million and now representing 36% of job vacancies.
Skills England will bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and trade unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions, providing strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system aligned to the government's industrial strategy. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has named Richard Pennycook CBE, former chief executive of the Co-operative Group and lead non-executive director at the DfE, as the interim Chair.
The Skills England Bill, announced in the King's Speech this week, will transfer functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to Skills England.
techUK welcomes Skills England
techUK supports the establishment of Skills England, as currently there is no mechanism for strategic oversight of the skills system. We have proposed, alongside The Skills Federation (also known as the Federation for Industry Sector Skills & Standards), that the mission for Skills England should be to oversee how government is developing and maintaining a world class skills system and advising on how to ensure this supports growth and contributes to greater equality.
To do this, we believe Skills England must be a statutory but independent social partnership body which adopts a strategic oversight and advisory role, with a high level of independence from central government. To assess impact, the body should publish an annual report describing the progress government has made, highlighting progress in closing skills gaps and tackling shortages, examining progress on levelling up and equity, and setting out the challenges ahead.
We have long called for government to be more joined-up on skills policy and this body will look to do just that, to work across government departments with the Industrial Strategy Council and Migration Advisory Committee to identify skills and labour needs, drive forward training opportunities and ensure that skills policy is aligned with wider needs of the economy.
Employers will have more flexibility over their funds
The body will be established in phases over the next nine to 12 months, will identify the training for which the government's new growth and skills levy - which replaces the apprenticeship levy - will be accessible, giving employers more flexibility to spend levy funds on training for the skills they need.
Skills England will hold responsibility for maintaining a list of levy-eligible training to ensure value for money, and that the mix of government-funded training available to learners and employers aligns with the identified skills needs.
In our UK Tech Plan, we emphasised that more that can be done to support both employers and learners, including the importance of increasing the flexibly of the apprenticeship levy. We recommended reforming the apprenticeship levy into a broader skills and training levy, and including in scope other forms of accredited training, that is more closely aligned to the practical and operational realities of jobs. The broadening of the apprenticeship levy could include training provided in-house by companies and form part of the ‘off-the-job' training requirements for apprentices.
Supporting our nations and regions
Data from techUK's Local Digital Index reveals the clear divide between London and the South East and the rest of the UK. The UK has been labelled as the “most unequal large industrial country” with divides between cities and towns in every part of the country. Although there have been some moves toward devolved decision-making, especially in the area of skills, England remains one of the most centralised governments in Europe.
Labour outlined in its manifesto that it was to expand devolution further and faster, with local authorities having more say in training. They have previously committed to turbocharging mayors with access to new powers over skills and employment support--supported by long-term integrated funding settlements. Skills England would also supply the jobs and growth data that would inform local training budget choices, by collecting data on local skills needs which is currently done by the Department for Education's Unit for Future Skills.
Devolution can enable different elements of industrial strategy to sit at the same level of government. Local governments are best placed to ensuring coordination between policy levers, with effectiveness of skills, innovation and infrastructure policies most effective when working in tandem.
techUK has mantained that any local and national industrial and skills strategy needs actionable objectives that take account of local needs. Any nationally coordinating body, like Skills England, will need to be well-resourced to oversee changes, create an accreditation framework, monitor for outcomes, and share learning. Government will need to ensure that complexity in the existing system is not exacerbated by further devolution of funding and skills training; whether through cross-cutting national schemes or inconsistencies between different areas in resource, arrangements and powers.
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techUK has stayed closed to Labour thinking and will continue to work with businesses to understand how government's proposals will impact them. If you are techUK member and would like to be a part of this work, please contact Nimmi Patel.