Researchers examined the implementation and early operation of the 'Integrated Employment and Skills' trials in England. The trials were designed to test key components of the integrated employment and skills service for Jobcentre Plus customers, including increased support to identify and respond to customers with skills needs, where this was seen as a barrier to finding sustainable employment.
Source: Tom Levesley et al., Qualitative Evaluation of Integrated Employment and Skills Trials: Implementation Report, Research Report 618, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2009-Dec
Researchers evaluated the 'Adult Learning Option' – a strand of the New Deal for Skills, designed to provide an opportunity to gain a level 2 qualification to people claiming benefit for whom a lack of skills or qualifications was the main barrier to employment. Claimants and staff reported a range of positive impacts. Claimants generally felt that their employment prospects had improved.
Source: Ben Hewitson, Alice Coulter and Lucy Joyce, Qualitative Evaluation of the Adult Learning Option, Research Report 611, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2009-Dec
A report (by an official advisory body) said that 'significant progress' had been made in simplifying the skills system in England: but greater progress was still required in preventing the proliferation of brands and initiatives, reducing the complexity of funding and contracting of skills provisions, and increasing the speed of progress on qualifications reform.
Source: Hiding the Wiring: Final assessment of progress on implementing the recommendations in Simplification of Skills in England, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report | Summary | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Dec
A paper examined the provision of training opportunities for disabled workers.
Source: Laura Fumagalli, Disability, Health and Access to Training, Employment Relations Occasional Paper, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (0870 150 2500)
Links: Paper
Date: 2009-Nov
Employers called on the government to reform the funding of adult skills and training support. Proposals included cutting back on non-essential training courses, and the redirection of some funds away from basic skills training towards higher-level skills – addressing skills shortages in areas such as science, technology, and engineering.
Source: Reforming Skills Funding: Delivering productive results, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report | CBI press release | NIACE press release | Personnel Today report | Human Resources report
Date: 2009-Nov
Researchers found that the government's Skills for Life initiative had not significantly improved literacy or the economic performance of participating companies. One of the main reasons for the failure of the initiative was that courses were simply not long enough – a total of just 30 hours teaching on average. Firms and public sector organizations also found it hard to fit classes in with work patterns, and were unable to provide the long-term stability necessary for effective learning.
Source: Alison Wolf, Tom Jupp, John Bynner and Karen Evans, Enhancing 'Skills for Life': Adult basic skills and workplace learning, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Report | ESRC press release | New Start report
Date: 2009-Nov
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to reform the skills system. Every suitable young person who wanted an apprenticeship would be entitled to one by 2013. The Learning and Skills Council would be replaced by two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. The former would service adult education and training. The latter would support local authorities, which would be given responsibility for funding education for young people aged 16-19. People were to be given the right to ask for time off from work to do training, although employers would not be required to grant a request. Children's trusts – bringing together social services, schools, family doctors, and police – would be placed on a statutory basis.
Source: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes | DCSF press release | ICG press release
Date: 2009-Nov
An article provided baseline measures on which to judge the skills and employment strategy of the Welsh Assembly Government. It tracked the skills requirements of jobs using a variety of measures, analyzed the alignment of qualifications supply and demand, and examined several different aspects of job quality.
Source: Alan Felstead, 'Are jobs in Wales high skilled and high quality? Baselining the One Wales vision and tracking recent trends', Contemporary Wales, Volume 22 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) examined a range of policy levers designed to encourage employers to train on a collective basis.
Source: Review of Employer Collective Measures: Final Report, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Date: 2009-Nov
The government published a White Paper on a national skills strategy for England. It set out plans to create a modern class of technicians, through a significant expansion of advanced apprenticeships, creating 35,000 new places over the following two years; and to give every adult a personal skills account, giving learners the ability to 'shop around' for training with new information on how well different courses and colleges could meet their needs. The government's ambition was that three-quarters of the population should go to university or do an advanced apprenticeship by the age of 30. Some 30 public bodies involved in delivering skills policy would be abolished.
Source: Skills for Growth: The national skills strategy, Cm 7641, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: White Paper | Hansard | DBIS press release | NIACE press release | AOC press release | CIPD press release | TUC press release | UCU press release | ATL press release | CBI press release | BBC report | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Nov
The inspectorate for education and children's services identified where strengths in 'Train to Gain' provision had been sustained since 2007-08, and what further improvements were needed. It identified as key priorities: the proportion of employees who completed their qualifications within the planned duration of their programmes; the availability of Skills for Life training; and the opportunities to progress to higher-level training, especially towards qualifications at level three. (Train to Gain delivers vocational training to employees, primarily adults without a level 2 qualifications or with literacy or numeracy skills needs.)
Source: The Impact of Train to Gain on Skills In Employment: A review to follow up the 2007/08 survey, HMI 090033, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (07002 637833)
Links: Report | OFSTED press release
Date: 2009-Nov
The Scottish Government published a paper on employability and skills that promoted the idea of a single system of support for those in training and those looking for a job. It said that there was a need for policy levers in this area, hitherto reserved to Westminster, to be transferred to Scotland.
Source: Employability and Skills: Taking forward our National Conversation, Scottish Government (0131 556 8400)
Links: Paper | SG press release
Date: 2009-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) proposed a 'transformation' of the employment and skills systems. It put forward a comprehensive set of proposals designed to simplify the skills system in England, including lighter touch regulation, simpler and more flexible funding, and a significant reduction in the number of publicly funded organizations involved in the sector. College and university courses should be the subject of new league tables based on how many students dropped out, their future earnings, and how much they enjoyed their classes.
Source: Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, Jobs, Growth, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Links: Report | UKCES press release | UCU press release | AoC press release | People Management report
Date: 2009-Oct
A report (commissioned by an official advisory body) examined the effectiveness of national employment and skills programmes in meeting the needs of vulnerable rural residents. Local providers encountered barriers to delivery, for example in transport, that resulted in higher delivery costs – which in turn meant that employment and skills services in rural areas might be more limited and sometimes of a lower quality than in urban areas.
Source: SQW Consulting, Delivering National Employment and Skills Programmes to Vulnerable Groups in Rural England: Needs, barriers and solutions, Commission for Rural Communities/Countryside Agency (020 7340 2900)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Oct
A paper examined the key concepts, images, and theoretical bases of the 'policy story' surrounding education and training policy in England, and the implicit and explicit assumptions that drove policy 'discourses' on skills.
Source: Ewart Keep, The Limits of the Possible: Shaping the learning and skills landscape through a shared policy narrative, Research Paper 86, Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance/Cardiff University (029 2087 5568)
Links: Paper
Date: 2009-Aug
An article examined the New Labour government's skills policy, with special reference to its impact on higher education in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It said that the policy aimed at the reduction of education to a matter of economically valuable skills: but that it was likely to undermine the government's objective of maximizing economic prosperity and improving social justice.
Source: Nils Lindahl Elliot, 'New Labour's skills policy at the intersection of business and politics', Policy Futures in Education, Volume 7 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Aug
A report (by an official advisory body) examined the research literature on 'high performance working' – a general approach to managing organizations that aimed to stimulate more effective employee involvement and commitment to achieve high levels of performance.
Source: Vicki Belt and Lesley Giles, High Performance Working: A synthesis of key literature, Evidence Report 4, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Date: 2009-Aug
An audit report said that the 'Train to Gain' programme had supported employer-focused training for over one million learners, and had developed a skills brokerage service with which a majority of employers were satisfied. But over its full lifetime the programme had not provided good value for money.
Source: Train to Gain: Developing the skills of the workforce, HC 879 (Session 2008-09), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | AOC press release | CBI press release | Conservative Party press release | People Management report
Date: 2009-Jul
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills published its annual report for 2008-09, showing progress against public service agreement targets.
Source: Departmental Report 2009, Cm 7596, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jul
A report examined the role of the professions in society. It concluded that professions were vital to the economy; were at the forefront of the drive for social progress as catalysts for social mobility; and provided, pro bono, essential technical expertise to policy-makers to legislate on complex matters. But they were also 'unclassified, under-studied, and under-valued' in social and political life.
Source: British Professions Today: The state of the sector, Spada (020 7269 1430)
Links: Report | Spada press release
Date: 2009-Jun
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was abolished following a reshuffle of government ministers. DIUS responsibilities were combined with those of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, creating a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Source: Press release 5 June 2009, 10 Downing Street (020 7270 1234)
Links: Downing St press release | UUK press release | 1994 Group press release | AOC press release | GuildHE press release | UCU press release | ATL press release | Royal Society press release | CIPD press release | REC press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report | THES report
Date: 2009-Jun
A new book examined the learning that went on in workplaces. It looked at how improving the work environment – both within the workplace and beyond – could enhance and sustain improvements in learning at work.
Source: Alan Felstead, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin, Improving Working as Learning, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-May
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to reform the skills system. Every suitable young person who wanted an apprenticeship would be entitled to one by 2013. The Learning and Skills Council would be replaced by two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. The former would service adult education and training. The latter would support local authorities, which would be given responsibility for funding education for young people aged 16-19. People were to be given the right to ask for time off from work to do training, although employers would not be required to grant a request. Children's trusts – bringing together social services, schools, family doctors, and police – would be placed on a statutory basis.
Source: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 5 May 2009, columns 25-138, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2009-May
A report said that private and public training providers inhabited 'parallel worlds', with little overlap between the two; and that better collaboration between them could greatly improve the delivery of training.
Source: Lindsey Simpson, The Private Training Market in the UK, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (0116 204 4200)
Links: Report | NIACE press release
Date: 2009-May
A survey found that two-thirds of workers with specialist skills did not use them in their professional lives.
Source: The Western European Location Skills Audit, Oxford Intelligence Ltd (01908 521477)
Links: Oxford Intelligence press release | Human Resources report
Date: 2009-May
A report (by an official advisory body) said that the target to train at least 90 per cent of the workforce to level 2 by 2020 was likely to be missed. The skills base was 'unlikely to improve, let alone became world class' by 2020, unless radical action were taken by government, employers, and individuals.
Source: Ambition 2020: World class skills and jobs for the UK, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Links: Report | TUC press release | Personnel Today report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-May
A report proposed comprehensive labour market reforms designed to protect and develop the skills base. It presented measures that could be delivered immediately on a sectoral basis, seeking to 'build in' competitiveness as the economy emerged from recession.
Source: Tom Bewick, UK Employment and Skills in a Global Recession: What can we do now?, Learning and Skills Network (020 7297 9000)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Apr
The government published an updated strategy for promoting skills among the working-age population, focusing on numeracy and employability.
Source: Skills for Life: Changing Lives, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (020 7215 5555)
Links: Strategy | DIUS press release | NIACE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report said that too few teenagers in England were starting apprenticeships, partly because of poor careers guidance. Although the number of apprentices was rising, only 130,000 businesses out of 1.3 million took them on. Very few apprentices were progressing into higher education or advanced further education.
Source: Progression into Apprenticeships, Skills Commission c/o Policy Connect (020 7202 8576)
Links: Report | Summary | DIUS press release | BBC report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Mar
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on skills and training policies. It said that at a time of economic downturn it was more important than ever to raise skill levels.
Source: Re-skilling for Recovery: After Leitch, implementing skills and training policies – Government Response to the First Report, Second Special Report (Session 2008-09), HC 365, House of Commons Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
A think-tank report study of working lives examined the level of 'cognitive complexity' of different jobs. About one-third of jobs had a high knowledge content, one-third had some, and about 40 per cent had a low knowledge content. Employers used workers' skills and talents poorly, tied them up in rules and procedures, and gave them little say over how they did their work.
Source: Ian Brinkley, Sotira Theodoropoulou and Michelle Mahdon, Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report evaluated a programme aimed at increasing the number of women entering and remaining with sectors and occupations where they were under-represented (and where skills shortages existed). 62 per cent of employers stated that the initiative had been very successful in meeting previously identified skills gaps.
Source: IFF Research Ltd, Evaluation of Women and Work Sector Pathways Initiative, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report called for practitioners and policy-makers to raise the status of employability skills, improve practice in developing them, and create a policy environment in which good practice flourished.
Source: The Employability Challenge, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (01709 774 800)
Links: Report | Case studies
Date: 2009-Feb
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill was published, and given a second reading. The Bill was primarily designed to reform the skills system. Every suitable young person who wanted an apprenticeship would be entitled to one by 2013. The Learning and Skills Council would be replaced by two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. The former would service adult education and training. The latter would support local authorities, which would be given responsibility for funding education for young people aged 16-19. People were to be given the right to ask for time off from work to do training, although employers would not be required to grant a request. Children's trusts – bringing together social services, schools, family doctors, and police – would be placed on a statutory basis.
Source: Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 23 February 2009, columns 23-123, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links:
Links: Text of Bill | Summary and Impact Assessments | HOC research brief 1 | HOC research brief 2 | Hansard | DCSF press release | DIUS press release | NUT press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)
Date: 2009-Feb
A report said that urgent action was needed to close a 'gender skills gap' that was contributing towards a cost of £15-23 billion per year in lost national income, and to encourage more women of all ages into training schemes (especially in traditionally 'male' sectors).
Source: Closing the Gender Skills Gap: A National Skills Forum report on women, skills and productivity, National Skills Forum (020 7202 8577)
Links: Report | NSF press release | NIACE press release
Date: 2009-Feb
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the Draft Apprenticeships Bill. It said that it agreed that more needed to be done to tackle inequalities in the apprenticeship system.
Source: The Draft Apprenticeships Bill: Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report, First Special Report (Session 2008-09), HC 259, House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2009-Feb
The opposition Conservative Party published proposals designed to tackle the 'bureaucracy, inefficiency and inflexibility' of the training system. It set out plans for an expansion of the apprenticeship scheme, a network of locally-based training provision, and a greater role for local further education colleges.
Source: Labour's Failure on Skills, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Report | Speech | Conservative Party press release | ATL press release
Date: 2009-Feb
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the Draft Apprenticeships Bill. It said that the new National Apprenticeship Service would actively manage the expansion of apprenticeships to deliver growth at all levels.
Source: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the Draft Apprenticeships Bill: Government Response to the Seventh Report from the Committee, First Special Report (Session 2008-09), HC 262, House of Commons Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2009-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs examined implementation of skills policies, following the Leitch review (December 2006). It said that reskilling, rather than upskilling, was increasingly becoming the norm, and that targets and resource allocation needed to change to reflect that. It also highlighted the complexity of the skills sector: much of the system was 'impenetrable' except to a handful of experts.
Source: Re-skilling for Recovery: After Leitch, implementing skills and training policies, First Report (Session 2007-08), HC 48, House of Commons Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | HEFCE press release | TUC press release | UCU press release | ATL press release | AOC press release | NUS press release | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | THES report
Date: 2009-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs said that large numbers of the adult working population of England remained functionally illiterate and innumerate, despite the fact that the government had spent around £5 billion on basic skills courses between 2001 and 2007. Lack of up-to-date information on the skills of the population nationally, and by region, meant that the government could not be sure that its programmes were equipping people with the skills that the economy needed.
Source: Skills for Life: Progress in improving adult literacy and numeracy, Third Report (Session 2008-09), HC 154, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NUT press release | UCU press release | CBI press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2009-Jan
A trade union report called for state-funded training to be extended to all workers facing redundancy.
Source: Skills in the Recession, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report | TUC press release
Date: 2009-Jan
A think-tank report said that employers would have around 7.4 million low-skilled jobs in 2020 unless the government persuaded them to invest more in upskilling – in 2006, there were 7.4 million jobs that required no qualifications for entry. The government's drive to bolster workforce skills would do little to combat the problem of low pay unless businesses were pushed to invest more in higher-value markets, and reward skills.
Source: Kayte Lawton, Nice Work If You Can Get It: Achieving a sustainable solution to low pay and in-work poverty, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report | Summary | IPPR press release | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | Telegraph report | RSN Online report
Date: 2009-Jan
A report called for better and closer links between employers and further education colleges, in order to help firms plug future skills gaps, drive up productivity, and improve the prospects of businesses in the face of the global downturn.
Source: Reaching Further: Workforce development through employer-FE college partnership, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report | CBI press release | LSIS press release | Personnel Today report | People Management report
Date: 2009-Jan