Consultation - Conservative Green Paper on Training and
Apprenticeships: Building Skills, Transforming Lives (UK)
From: Conservative Party
Date published:
Response due:
Semta response submitted: 26/09/08
Summary of the proposals in the Green Paper
A massive expansion in the provision of real
apprenticeships:
- Ensuring that all apprenticeships are work-focussed - this
makes it easier for companies to run apprenticeships. Instituting
direct payments to employers, simplifying the current inspection
regimes, reducing the excessive paperwork associated with
certification and inspection, and making more government financial
support available upfront.
- Offering a major boost to the provision of real, workplace
apprenticeships by injecting £775 million of support for
apprentices of all ages, to be delivered through new Lifelong
Learning Accounts. This extra support will be delivered by
refocusing the current ‘Train to Gain’ scheme on supporting
apprenticeships. The Lifelong Learning Accounts will improve the
present system, fully funding 77,000 apprentices that are currently
part-funded, and creating 100,000 new additional apprenticeships
every year.
- Support for more workplace apprenticeships including a £2,000
bonus for each apprenticeship at a small or medium-sized enterprise
(SME). SMEs comprise by far the largest number of companies in the
UK, but they often have difficulty meeting the cost of taking on
and training apprentices, so they will put in place extra
support.
- Providing an additional £5 million to make it easier for small
employers to come together and form Group Training Associations – a
way of pooling their resources and talent to create and run their
own apprenticeship schemes.
- Introducing a £60 million Business Skills Development Fund to
promote non-apprenticeship skills that businesses need and
employees want.
More community learning to improve skills and
employability:
- Introducing a £100 million NEETs fund – targeting special
help at the many young people who leave school only to find
themselves not in any education, training or
employment, helping this group into positive work-oriented
learning opportunities.
- Making a major investment into an adult Community Learning
Fund: £100 million for courses to help people update or gain new
skills. This will be particularly valuable for people such as
parents trying to return to work after time out caring for
children.
- The adult community learning support and the NEETs fund will be
available for local further education (FE) colleges to take their
place once again at the heart of community life. Colleges will be
given the freedom to deliver the courses that best suit the needs
of their communities, and provide the most flexible and accessible
form of local learning for people.
Supply-side reform to set Further Eduction free:
- Removing funding bureaucracy and unnecessary inspection audits
from FE colleges, including many of the functions currently carried
out by the Learning and Skills Council and its planned
successors.
- Creating a streamlined funding model where government support
for training follows the learner. Under the system, new providers
will be allowed to enter the FE sector and compete to attract more
people into learning and skills programmes, expanding choice and
raising standards right through the sector.
- Funding to be administered through a slimmed-down Further
Education Funding Council for England, and the industry-based
Sector Skills Councils will accredit courses with an increase to
their budgets so that they can perform this function. These reforms
will save providers significant administration burdens and
costs.
A revolution in careers advice
- Redirecting funds currently used on administration and
inadequate careers advice, providing £180 million to fund a careers
adviser in every secondary school and college in the country.
Spending £100 million to create a new all-age careers advice
service which will provide a community-based source of advice and
guidance for people of all ages.
- As well as face-to-face guidance, investing £5 million in
a new web-based skills matching service, revolutionising people’s
ability to access information on jobs, training and
apprenticeships.
Next steps
Semta will be contacting the Conservative Party to discuss the
issues raised in the response.
Documents and Links
Semta's
response
The Green
Paper
Semta represents the view of our employers across government and
the media. If you are an employer in the science,
engineering, or manufacturing technology sectors, we welcome your
views at policy@semta.org.uk
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Consultations
7 November 2008