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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for setting out the Bill so clearly, and to the Bill team for its thorough explanation of the clauses and the thinking behind them. Further education matters because the difference that it makes really counts. The cost of inadequate emphasis on FE and training is borne by the millions who could benefit from the skills they would acquire at college but who are to be found among the growing, sad brigade of NEETS. As the Minister mentioned, NEETS are young people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training. They are often failed by the system and all too frequently cheated of their chance to prosper. I hope, as I know do all Members of your Lordships’ House, that this debate and further consideration of the Bill will offer new hope to those young people. It is a pleasure to contribute to today's debate, because I trained to become a teacher at an FE college. That college is now part of a new university, Nottingham Trent. Over the years, wehave seen a changing landscape as colleges and polytechnics metamorphose into new institutions. That evolutionary change is taking place in the FE sector. As old industries give way to new ones, colleges and the dedicated professionals who work in them will have to adapt to new challenges. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting Bolton Community College, which, when I was growing up and being educated in Bolton, was known as Bolton tech. It had a strong emphasis on engineering then,as you would expect from a town with a proud manufacturing tradition that played such a large part in the Industrial Revolution. In addition to offering these skills, it is now a centre of vocational excellence in construction and health, and one of the leading colleges for work-based learners. I was very impressed by what I saw, but most impressive of all is how the Ofsted report demonstrates its outstanding capacity to improve its provision. We should hold that ambition for all who are committed to equipping our workforce with the skills for a new age. The acquisition of skills is important to our national economic competitiveness because oftheir impact on productivity, so it is critical thatwe improve our skills base. It is now widely acknowledged that Britain's future will be as a skills- and knowledge-based economy. We could not, and should not, aim to compete with countries such as China in low-end manufacturing. The Secretary of State, Alan Johnson, admitted in another placethat the number of unskilled jobs will go down from 3.5 million to just over half a million by 2020. This need not be seen as a decline or in negative terms. Instead, the 5 million highly skilled jobs that will be created in the same period present an opportunity as much as a challenge, but it is an opportunity that can be grasped only through a step change in the nation's skills. Skills are not only a route to a higher wage or a different type of job; as the Minister said, they are also about individual well-being, a means to encourage and enable aspiration and to allow people to take control of their lives to enjoy a more confident lifestyle. The happiness index compiled by City and Guilds shows that vocational workers are the most likely to feel fulfilled by their work. Demographic change means that we cannot rely on the younger generation to fill future employment needs. Our population is getting older and we must learn to stop considering training as the sole preserve of the young. In the light of the growing consensus about the importance of skills, the Government asked the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, to consider the UK's long-term skills needs. We, the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, and sometimes even the Government recognise the need for FE colleges to become stronger, more flexible institutions, able to respond to local demand, but this Bill places yet more power into the hands of the LSC, which now includes regional councils. In his vision of the FE colleges of the future,Sir Andrew Foster, in his report Realising the Potential, sees colleges as vital—indeed, he says it should be their primary purpose—to improve employability and skills in their locality. He says that they should work effectively with their local LSCs, helping them to develop and implement strategies. How will that work? How will this vital element of localism be captured with the abolition of local LSCs and a move to regionalism? The Minister has explained the move from local to regional councils as a considerable saving against waste and bureaucracy. That remains to be seen. This is the fourth reorganisation of the LSC in five years. I cannot help but be reminded of the quotation, frequently ascribed to Petronius, that, "““we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization””." When the Bill that gave birth to the Learning and Skills Council was debated in your Lordships’ House on 17 January 2000, my much-missed friend Lady Blatch said that the proposals in the Bill were bureaucratic, would result in duplication and were costly and confusing. How very right she was. If the Government truly wish to reduce inefficient wasteand bureaucracy, why does the Bill not mention the 17 bodies that have an oversight role over FE colleges? Why do they continue to make grand statements, set impressive targets and then refuse to give FE colleges the autonomy with which to realise them—especially as the Foster review called for less centralisation and moves towards greater self-regulation? FE colleges, quite rightly, must be given the freedom to innovate and excel with the light-touch, understandable and simple structures that they so desire. That inconsistency between what the Government say and do is repeated throughout the Bill. In marked contrast to the extraordinary raft of increased powers for the LSC to axe college principals and governors, the only increased power the Government are giving FE colleges is the opportunity to award foundation degrees, ending the reliance on higher education. Others in this House will no doubt wish to speak in greater detail about that. For me, it emphasises the dichotomy of the Government's approach: on the one hand to give more independence, on the other to tighten control. Colleges must be allowed to mature to own their qualifications, but rigour should be maintained and good partnerships and good relationships retained. In his report, the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, states that, "““the case for action is compelling and urgent””." It is compelling and urgent for employers and potential learners alike. A recently published survey by Lloyds TSB shows that skills gaps are the greatest concern of businesses, greater even than the threat of a terrorist attack. Some 48 percent said that theyhad experienced difficulties in recruiting qualified workers. At the same time, UK unemployment continues to rise, climbing by 27,000 to 1.71 million in the three months to September—the highest level in seven years. A total of 1.3 million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training, an increase of 29 per cent since 2001. Of course, in failing so many Britons, Britain is on course to fail. The Further Education and Training Bill will do little to meet these challenges. Remarkably, in the Queen’s Speech debate, Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State, suggested that the Leitch review was of little relevance to the Bill. In the other place he said: "““We do not see a need to wait for Leitch before the Bill. Indeed, we think that Leitch’s report will make such radical proposals that there will need to be a further period of consultation. I doubt very much whether there is anything in Leitch that will necessitate our changing the Bill””.—[Official Report, Commons, 16/11/06; col. 251.]" The Government are not bringing forward a system driven by employers and learners as the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, advocates. Instead, they are entering a supply-driven system of the very type that the noble Lord says has failed. Ministers have imposed a rigid system unresponsive to the needs of employers and learners. There is a danger that the weight of central direction and control is stripping FE professionals of a clear sense of vision and purpose. This danger is accentuated by the Bill, which would give the Learning and Skills Council draconian new powers to sack college principals, managers and governors, despite the fact that FE colleges receive some of the best Ofsted reports in the public sector. It is clear that the Government do not have a coherent strategy. Why bring out a Bill that is seen by many in the sectoras a technical and tidying-up process? Why are the Government in such a hurry to legislate? Why is this a Bill with no vision? In contrast, Conservatives are clear-sighted about our belief in vocational education. As the shadow Minister John Hayes, whose contributions to this debate were recently praised by the chief executivesof the Association of Colleges and the Creativeand Cultural Skills Sector Skills Council, said, a Conservative strategy will be shaped by the ““elevation of the practical.”” He added that Britain must be the best it can be but that we are failing to fulfil the nation's promise. The Bill fails to address five key areas. First, investment in skills training: how much the Government should spend, where business should contribute, and what individuals should pay. The Bill says nothing about these issues, even though the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, concludes that we need to invest far more. We should look for ways to encourage individuals and businesses to invest in their future. Individuals and businesses will spend more only if they are confident that training will deliver the skills they need. We need a much better match between supply and demand, and between provision and need. We must develop a system driven by the choices of learners and the economic needs of business. Secondly, meeting the needs of learners and businesses means breaking down the rigidity between further education, higher education and schools. If the new specialised diplomas are to succeed, they must be taught by the best teachers with the best facilities, regardless of whether this happens to be at a school, the local FE college or the university campus. Thirdly, to drive the system forward, learners and employers must have confidence that vocational qualifications will meet their needs. This means looking at accreditation—the esteem and rigour of qualifications. We need a coherent system of qualifications that is well understood and which fits together. Fourthly, the system needs to be driven by the choices of learners. We need a careers service that provides learners of all ages with the informationthey need to make the right choices. Fifthly, on bureaucracy and regulation, we must address the opportunity missed by this FE Bill to give colleges the freedom necessary to innovate and excel, and to meet the needs of businesses and learners. Surely these issues go beyond party concerns. In that spirit, we urge the Minister to seize the chance the Bill offers to address the profound challenges highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Leitch. We urge the Government to grasp this opportunity to table amendments that address the five points that I have made and to take steps to empower FE to meet the challenge and to bring new hope to those whom the system has failed.