The European Union approved a 10-year strategy designed to improve the quality of vocational training in Europe by making it more attractive, accessible, and relevant to the needs of the labour market.
Source: The Bruges Communique on Enhanced European Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training for the Period 2011-2020, European Union
Links: Communique | EU press release | European Commission press release
Date: 2010-Dec
The government began consultation on 'skills conditionality' – under which Jobcentre Plus would require claimants to engage with a skills training provider, further education college or Next Step adviser, with potential benefit sanctions for non-participation.
Source: Skills Conditionality: Public consultation, Department for Work and Pensions/Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Dec
An article used European data for the period 1995-2001 to investigate the determinants of workers' participation in training activities, and the effects of training on wages. Wage returns to training might be overstated due to failure to take adequate account of the correlation of training with confounding factors that affected wages.
Source: Cecilia Albert, Carlos Garcia-Serrano and Virginia Hernanz, 'On-the-job training in Europe: determinants and wage returns', International Labour Review, Volume 149 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A literature review (published by an official advisory body) examined how the Investors in People (IIP) standard was perceived, and the impact of the standard on the businesses that were accredited. There was a mixed understanding among employers and stakeholders as to whether IIP was a training tool, a business development tool, or both.
Source: Rosie Gloster, Freddie Sumption, Tom Higgins and Annette Cox, Perspectives and Performance of Investors in People: A literature review, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report | Summary | IES press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A study examined the longer-term outcomes of the training and advice provided through the European Social Fund programme, based on findings from participants who responded to both waves of the ESF Cohort Study 2008-2010. Wave 2 had a greater emphasis on the outcomes of participation – exploring, for example, whether participants had gained qualifications or found work since they had started training.
Source: Emma Drever and Cheryl Lloyd, European Social Fund Cohort Study: Wave 2, Research Report 709, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | Technical paper
Date: 2010-Nov
The government published (following consultation) a strategy for improving the skills system. Proposals included: expanding the number of adult apprenticeships, so that by 2014-15 there would be 75,000 more adults starting than under the previous government's plans; improving the apprenticeships package, so that level 3 (A-level equivalent) became the level to achieve; fully funding training for young adults aged 19-24 undertaking their first full level 2 (GCSE equivalent) or first level 3 qualification when they did not already have one; protecting investment of £210 million in adult and community learning; government-backed loans from 2013-14 for learners aged 24 and over undertaking level 3 or higher qualifications; reducing bureaucracy in the sector; and simplifying the complex funding system so that from the 2011-12 academic year there would be a single adult skills budget.
Source: Skills for Sustainable Growth: Strategy document, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Strategy | Equality impact assessment | Consultation responses | Hansard | DBIS press release | ATL press release | BCC press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | CMI press release | NIACE press release | TUC press release | UCU press release | People Management report | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report set out the need for greater policy focus on the utilization of skills, and how it was linked with 'high involvement work practices' (HIWPs). It outlined the relatively low adoption of HIWPs by employers, and set out the possible advantages and disadvantages of such practices for employees. It made recommendations on how unions could get more involved in skills utilization strategies and negotiate new organizational practices and fair shares of productive gains.
Source: Francis Green, Unions and Skills Utilisation, Research Paper 11, Unionlearn/Trades Union Congress
Links: Report | Unionlearn press release | IOE press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report examined the key challenges that threatened to widen the gaps in employability and skills between cities and regions – public sector cuts, and an increasingly knowledge-intensive economy. The private-public gap in skill levels needed to be narrowed by driving up the demand for skills in the private sector. Without this, large scale redundancies within the public sector in some places were likely to result in underemployment or the 'flight' of high-skilled labour to areas of higher demand. An agenda for change was proposed that set out a local and integrated response.
Source: Jonathan Wright, Ian Brinkley and Naomi Clayton, Employability and Skills in the UK: Redefining the debate, Work Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that greater investment in skills was crucial to any sustained private sector-led recovery. But cuts to the further education and skills budget raised the prospect of a collapse in training investment unless a comprehensive strategy were adopted to secure greater investment in skills from individuals and employers.
Source: Fair Shares: The role of employer contributions to skills development, Learning and Skills Network
Links: Report | People Management report
Date: 2010-Nov
The government published (following consultation) a statement of its vision for the further education sector, based on its new skills strategy. It set out proposals to remove unnecessary interference from intermediary agencies; streamline the organizational 'skills landscape'; remove unnecessary regulation; and introduce new freedoms and flexibilities.
Source: Further Education – New Horizon: Investing in skills for sustainable growth, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Statement | Consultation responses | Speech | UCU press release
Date: 2010-Nov
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published a business plan for the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Nov
A report examined how adults identified as priority groups in the 'Skills for Life' strategy (launched in 2001) were improving their language, literacy, and numeracy skills. Skills for Life was found to be having an impact on adults with the lowest skill levels, and many appeared to be using basic skills to progress to other courses.
Source: Anna Reisenberger et al., Engaging Homeless People, Black and Minority Ethnic and Other Priority Groups in Skills for Life, National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy/Institute of Education
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Oct
A survey for the inspectorate for education and children's services examined the benefits of employers' involvement in government-funded work-related education and training. It sought to identify the features of good practice and the ways in which provision could be further improved.
Source: Good Practice in Involving Employers in Work-Related Education and Training, HMI 090227, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report | OFSTED press release
Date: 2010-Oct
The Scottish Government published a new strategy designed to make it easier for businesses and individuals to access advice and support on skills.
Source: Skills for Scotland: Accelerating the recovery and increasing sustainable economic growth, Scottish Government
Links: Strategy | Scottish Government press release | ASSCS press release
Date: 2010-Oct
An article examined the reasoning behind the introduction (from April 2010) of a new legal right for employees to request time off work for the purposes of study or training. It also considered the relationship of this new right to flexible working legislation, on which it was closely modelled.
Source: Lisa Rodgers, 'Time to train rights: a new impetus for skills development in the workplace?', Industrial Law Journal, Volume 39 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
The new coalition government announced a short review (lasting five weeks from the middle of August) of regulations on the right to request time to train.
Source: Time to Train? Consultation on the future of the right to request time to train policy, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Consultation document | DBIS press release | BCC press release | TUC press release
Date: 2010-Aug
Researchers examined the relationship between undertaking training and gaining, retaining, and advancing in employment. Training was most commonly received by younger people, women, public sector employees, and workers in non-profit organizations. Workers in large organizations and those with higher qualifications were also more likely to have received training. A small effect on wages was found of undergoing training, and also increases in the rate of retention and moving into paid work.
Source: Sin Yi Cheung and Stephen McKay, Training and Progression in the Labour Market, Research Report 680, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release | People Management report
Date: 2010-Aug
The government began consultation on its skills policy, including: how private investment in skills could be optimized; where more limited public investment should be focused; and holding colleges and other training organizations to account for their performance.
Source: Skills for Sustainable Growth: Consultation on the future direction of skills policy, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Consultation document | DBIS press release | TUC press release | NIACE press release | AOC press release | CBI press release | BCC press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new coalition government published a draft 'structural reform plan' for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The plan set out how the department would implement the coalition government's key policy aims.
Source: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Draft Structural Reform Plan, Home Office
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined the nature and delivery of projects to support in-work training under the European Social Fund (ESF) in England. The majority of the employees interviewed stated that the training received had helped them to do their existing jobs better.
Source: Peter Dickinson and Richard Lloyd, European Social Fund: Support for In-Work Training Research, Research Report 666, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A paper examined the incidence of training and the intensity of off-the-job training at establishments in Scotland, making use of the 2008 Scottish Employers Skills Survey.
Source: John Sutherland, Training Incidence and Training Intensity: An analysis of the 2008 Scottish Employers Skills Survey, Working Paper 23, Centre for Public Policy for Regions/University of Glasgow
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Jul
The government began consultation on ways in which the funding system and methodology for post-19 further education and skills could be simplified, in order to ensure greater transparency for learners and employers and to reduce burdens on further education colleges and training organizations.
Source: A Simplified Further Education and Skills Funding System and Methodology, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Consultation document | DBIS press release | NIACE press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report (published by an official advisory body) examined the challenges and potential of personal learning accounts.
Source: Steve Johnson, Richard Holt, Naz Khan, Mark Morrin and Szymon Sawicki, Personal Learning Accounts: Building on Lessons Learnt, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jul
Researchers examined the longer-term outcomes of the training and advice provided through the European Social Fund (ESF) programme. Most participants felt that their ESF course was helping them to gain or improve the skills needed for work and that it was boosting their self-confidence about working.
Source: Emma Drever and Cheryl Lloyd, European Social Fund Cohort Study: Wave 1, Research Report 647, Department for Work and Pensions Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report (by an official advisory body) said that the United Kingdom's economy risked sliding down the international rankings unless its skills and employment systems were fundamentally reformed and improved.
Source: Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK – The 2010 Report, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report | UKCES press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jul
An audit report reviewed the data systems used to support delivery of the Labour government's public service agreement 2 – to 'improve the skills of the population, on the way to ensuring a world-class skills base by 2020' – over the period from 2008.
Source: Review of the Data Systems for Public Service Agreement 2, National Audit Office
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined the post-16 education and training agenda, and its neglect of young people who left education at the end of compulsory schooling to enter jobs without training.
Source: Sue Maguire, '"I just want a job" – what do we really know about young people in jobs without training?', Journal of Youth Studies, Volume 13 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report examined the steps needed to understand disadvantage and/or disengagement in relation to apprenticeships, to create more effective pre-apprenticeship routes, and to improve employer engagement.
Source: Kirsty Anderson, Marcia Brophy, Bethia McNeil and Hannah Walsh, Opening Doors to Apprenticeships: Part 2 – Reflecting on Ways Forward, Young Foundation
Date: 2010-Jun
A paper provided a review of recent research on the theme of employability skills, exploring the evidence base and recent policy trends and initiatives. It outlined some of the key challenges and barriers in employability policy.
Source: Vicki Belt, Paul Drake and Katherine Chapman, Employability Skills: A research and policy briefing, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
An article highlighted 'critical shortcomings' in the approach to apprenticeship in England. The proposed apprenticeship framework was unlikely to fulfil its stated aims of enhancing quality and quantity. The proposals marked a potential step backwards, and a departure from the principles of the 1944 Education Act by ignoring general and civic educational elements in young people's formation. Above all, for any framework to be successful, it needed to take into account the longer-term interests of employees, given changes in the labour market, and to address the issue of employer disengagement.
Source: Michaela Brockmann, Linda Clarke and Christopher Winch, 'The apprenticeship framework in England: a new beginning or a continuing sham?', Journal of Education and Work, Volume 23 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that average levels of job-related training had declined through much of the 2000s. There had been some narrowing of the gap in training provision between low-qualified and highly-qualified employees: but this had been achieved more by levelling-down of training rates than by levelling-up.
Source: Geoff Mason and Kate Bishop, Adult Training, Skills Updating and Recession in the UK: The implications for competitiveness and social inclusion, LLAKES Research Paper 10, Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper examined the new inter-connected areas of provision that were emerging in relation to training, welfare-to-work, and employment policy; and the relationship this had with the state's pursuance of its goals in regard to social cohesion and economic regeneration. The 'benign rhetoric of partnership' masked the existence of power relations at play in this field of policy reform.
Source: Alison Fuller, Lorna Unwin, David Guile and Sadaf Rizvi, Economic Regeneration, Social Cohesion, and the Welfare-to-Work Industry: Innovation, opportunity and compliance in the city-region, LLAKES Research Paper 7, Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that the United Kingdom's policy approach to skills and globalization was 'outdated'. An increased supply of skills was not enough. There needed to be a greater focus on demand-side policy, and a more proactive approach to engaging with employers and understanding and meeting their needs.
Source: Phil Brown, David Ashton and Hugh Lauder, Skills Are Not Enough: The globalisation of knowledge and the future UK economy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Date: 2010-Mar
The government published a blueprint for the adult advancement and careers service, which was due to become operational in England, along with skills accounts, in August 2010. It said that the new service was designed to give everyone access to the best information, advice, and resources to make more effective choices about skills, careers, work, and life – and to help people break down the barriers that stopped them from moving forward.
Source: Fuelling Potential: A blueprint for skills accounts and the adult advancement and careers service, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report (by an official advisory body) presented the key findings from the National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009. It covered the incidence, extent, and nature of skills problems facing employers – in terms of skill-shortage vacancies, skills gaps, and the likelihood that employees would need 'upskilling'.
Source: Jan Shury et al., National Employer Skills Survey for England 2009: Key findings report, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report | Summary | People Management report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report highlighted the positive impact of the 'Investors in People' programme on management and business performance.
Source: Mike Bourne and Monica Franco-Santos, Investors in People, Managerial Capabilities and Performance, Centre for Business Performance/Cranfield School of Management
Links: Report | Human Resources report
Date: 2010-Mar
A paper provided an overview of the literature on recruitment and selection, and the relationship between employee selection and different strands of education and training policy and practice.
Source: Ewart Keep and Susan James, Recruitment and Selection: The Great Neglected Topic, Research Paper 88, Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance/Cardiff and Oxford Universities
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Mar
A report (by an official advisory body) published the results of a 'national skills audit' for England, setting out existing trends and what skills would be needed for the economy to grow in the future. It recommended focusing support on economically valuable skills in priority sectors, highlighted the need for more information for employers and government on where high-value job opportunities would be in future, and called for businesses to make more use of high-level skills.
Source: Skills for Jobs: Today and Tomorrow – The National Strategic Skills Audit for England 2010, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | UKCES press release | DBIS press release | IES press release | New Start report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report for an official advisory body examined variations in apprentice pay, and the role of apprentice pay in young people's decisions to start and complete an apprenticeship. It also considered the potential responses of employers to the introduction of a national minimum wage for apprentices.
Source: Kayte Lawton and Emma Norris, A Qualitative Study of Apprenticeship Pay, Low Pay Commission
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report said that apprenticeship initiatives were failing to target young people in jobs with no training on offer. This group should be a priority of apprenticeship schemes – but they were not being targeted as they already had jobs.
Source: Kirsty Anderson, Marcia Brophy, Bethia McNeil and Dominic Potter, Opening the Door to Apprenticeships: Reaching young people who are disadvantaged and disengaged from apprenticeships, Local Wellbeing Project
Links: Report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report (by an official advisory body) examined the barriers to the development of skills in Scotland. Relative to other industrialized nations, Scotland had too few businesses in high-skill, high-value-added industries, and was creating too few high-skilled jobs. Too many young people failed to gain the essential and lower-level skills needed to progress in work. Existing employment and skills systems in Scotland were neither fully integrated and consistent nor always sufficiently aligned to labour market needs.
Source: Towards Ambition 2020: Skills, Jobs, Growth for Scotland, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report called for a new approach to monitoring and tackling inequality in skills training provision – focusing on black and minority-ethnic learners, offenders, and people with disabilities.
Source: Doing Things Differently: Step changes in skills & inclusion, National Skills Forum
Links: Report | NSF press release | New Start report | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report | People Management report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Train to Gain programme in England had delivered a substantial expansion of training that was flexible and met employers' needs. Most learners had benefited and some employers had seen business benefits. There had, however, been serious weaknesses in the way the programme had been managed.
Source: Train to Gain: Developing the Skills of the Workforce, Sixth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 248, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | UCU press release | NIACE press release | CBI press release | BBC report | Personnel Today report | People Management report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report said that vocational qualifications made a marked difference to employees' earnings: but that the effect varied widely between sectors and occupations, being strongly influenced by the type of qualification and the method by which it was acquired.
Source: Steven McIntosh and Richard Garrett, The Economic Value of Intermediate Vocational Education and Qualifications, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report | UKCES press release | ICG press release | People Management report | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report highlighted a number of policy interventions that the evidence suggested could help to raise the demand for skills among individual workers.
Source: Ron McQuaid, Colin Lindsay and Steve Johnson, An Appetite for Learning: Increasing employee demand for skills development, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jan
A think-tank report said that local authorities should channel funding to areas of skills training that would most benefit long-term employment and economic growth in their locality. It recommended that 'skills accounts' be reshaped to give individuals more choice over the training they received; and to give local councils greater democratic strategic control, by enabling them to vary the public subsidy for different skills training options based on existing and future local economic needs.
Source: Nick Hope and Anna Turley, We Can Work It Out: Local employment and skills for economic recovery, New Local Government Network
Links: Summary | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Jan
A think-tank report said that the skills system in England was not designed to meet the real demands of the employers and individuals who ought to benefit from it. The report recommended that the government diminish the importance of centrally set qualifications targets, and reform the funding regime to make it more flexible and responsive to demand.
Source: Ralph Hartley and Tom Richmond, Simply Learning: Improving the skills system in England, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | Times Higher Education report
Date: 2010-Jan