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Further Education and Training Bill [Lords]

I agree with that idea, which is perhaps a subset of a problem about which no one would argue—that employers need to be involved much more actively in the whole process of considering these matters. However, they should not adopt a purely literal approach, and believe that they can ring up and get a group of people who are absolutely ready for employment. An employee needs to be able to perform a particular job, developing all the while and then moving on to even more responsible roles. My final point has to do with something that has been omitted from the Bill. I shall modestly puff the Post-16 Education and Training Bill, which received about 12 minutes of consideration on Friday, when other matters were also considered. It was introduced by the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), the Chairman of the Education and Skills Committee, and I am a co-sponsor of it, although I did not give tongue when it was debated. The Post-16 Education and Training Bill aims at providing some important elements in the transition mentioned by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Ms Smith) in her earlier intervention. That Bill focuses partly on special educational needs, but more generally on mentoring, proper assessment before people leave compulsory education, proper work experience, support and careers advice. In that way, it would give people guidance along a path towards employers who are better informed about the process. The mechanisms would always involve further education and include appropriate qualifications. If we can adopt that approach, we will begin to draw the elements of the system together, and prevent them from operating separately as they sometimes have in the past. In conclusion, the Bill can be quite useful, although we have reservations, which have been expressed in the reasoned amendment. However, we need not oversell the legislation: it is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for progress in this area. It will not, except in exceptional circumstances, help further education colleges or training providers if it mires them in bureaucracy or trips them up and questions their governance, and it will not win the battle of vocational credibility on its own. We have to ask two questions. First, how can we, through the Bill and other actions that the Government are taking, more actively involve employers in specifying and helping to create the right framework for skills so that they can tell us what they want in a balanced way and we can make it clear that the system can respond? Secondly—this is equally important because it takes two to tango—how successful will the Bill and other Government measures be in attracting learners back into learning to upskill themselves and build the skills that are essential for national competitiveness, in which all the reports I have seen show we are, despite our efforts, sadly lacking?