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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

As the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, has said, part-time students are the lifeblood of many colleges. Sections 2 and 3 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 make it clear that post-16 education and training includes full-time and part-time students. A draft of the statutory guidance which this clause proposes that the LSC must have regard to in consulting employers and learners has been made available to the Committee. This guidance is intended to cover both full and part-time learners, but I am happy to look again at whether this should be made explicit in the guidance. In our view, it would be hard to interpret it in any way that did not include part-timers, but I will look again at that specific issue. In addition to the statutory guidance, the LSC will publish its own guidance for all further education providers on developing learner involvement strategies. That will include examples of good practice on learner consultation. The LSC is also developing the framework for excellence, which will monitor the responsiveness of providers to learners and employers. Through its consultation with partner bodies, surveys of learners, and with the input from the learner panels, the LSC will seek and obtain the views and active participation of the full range of learners and the range of different modes of learning. That will include, in an absolutely central way, part-timers. We have considerable sympathy with the intention behind Amendment No. 35, but we are not clear what it would add in practice. The Learning and Skills Council, in exercising its existing functions, already widely consults a number of organisations responsible for employment, development, education and skills, such as local authorities and regional development authorities, and we are keen to see that continue. Clause 7 is intended to ensure that those who benefit from our investment in learning have their voices heard in matters that affect them. This clause imposes an express duty on the LSC to have regard to guidance about it. However, beyond those chief categories of learners and employers, we feel that it should be for the LSC to decide whom to consult, having regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State. At the moment, we are not persuaded that putting further categories in the Bill would be appropriate.