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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

Like the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp of Guildford, we support the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, in viewing the continuing training of adults as important to both the British economy in the future and the personal development of potential students. I wish to speak to the Question whether Clause 5 shall stand part. I do so in a probing sense to give the Minister a chance to set out the Government’s intentions behind the clause. There is suspicion among relevant organisations that the Government intend to dissolve these two committees, which we understand is not the case. I also wish to take this opportunity to ask the Minister about adult learning. Listening to the many organisations involved in further education, it is clear that the Government are giving the greatest priority to young people under 25. This is understandable. As we have heard many times, the number of young people not in education, training or employment has risen by 29 per cent since 2001 and there are now 1.3 million people in this situation. However, the Government must not allow adult education to suffer because of this. The LSC has predicted that over half a million adult places will be lost by next year, despite the increased funding of further education. Adults need to be given opportunities to retrain and up-skill. Three million unskilled jobs will be lost between now and 2020, and the workers affected will need further education to move into the skilled jobs that will make up 75 per cent of our economy by 2012. Unless the Government are willing to consign a large number of adults in the future to long-term unemployment, they must maintain the availability of adult education in order to allow people to change careers at any point in their life and to remain in employment for longer. I hope that the Minister will explain to me how unskilled adults are expected to retrain if no suitable courses are available at their local college. I have no doubt that the Government will attempt to interpret my support for meaningful adult education as a spending commitment. In answer to this, I point out the amount of time and money that the further education sector is expected to spend making up for the deficiencies of schools. Almost half our young people fail to get five GCSEs above grade C, and of the remaining 51 per cent many do not achieve those grades in maths or English. The Government expect the further education sector to provide a complete education for those people whom the school system has failed, from basic skills right up to foundation degrees. Colleges are blamed for the unemployment of young people who have been effectively disengaged from education or training since childhood. Of course people need to learn how to read and write, and adults who left school without those skills should have the opportunity to learn them later in life. But it is a mistake for the Government to continue to treat the further education sector as no more than a bandage for the school sector. Adult education is critical now and will become even more critical. There is no other way to give people job security for life in a market where fewer and fewer people have only one career. I hope the Minister will reassure me that there will be no further cuts to adult education and that it will be given its rightful priority.