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Education: Adult Learners

My Lords, we were promised that lifelong learning would be a norm. Instead we find, yet again, the Government meddling with systems that provide opportunity and enable people to meet the new challenges facing Britain in a globalised market. There is a demand from employers that we have systems that are flexible and responsive to demand, and relevant to the demands of competition. Does the Minister agree that it is in the interests of Britain that we not only provide for people with poor or no basic skills, but ensure—as has been mentioned—that those already in the workplace are able to change direction or access relevant skills to meet the needs of an ever changing workplace? The Government’s own paper clearly laid out that everyone had a right to increase and update their skill levels and the right to a second and third chance to progress in their careers. So why has the Minister, Mr Denham, decided to take such a retrograde step and cut funding by such a huge amount? Does the Minister not agree that cutting opportunity will remove the right of people to change direction and broaden their skills? The message being given out is, ““If at first you don’t succeed, you just don’t succeed””. The NIACE draws attention to the fact that many people make false starts in life and need supported second chances. My honourable friend in another place, David Willetts, has said that cutting the funding for ELQs has all the hallmarks of a rushed and potentially damaging proposal. This is a big change to be made at such short notice. Can the Minister tell the House how this cut will affect indebted modern language graduates in need of vocation-specific top-up training? When the Government are looking to reform their flagship Train to Gain programme barely a year after its national launch, why are they also deciding to phase out CoVEs? I fear that the Minister finds himself in a conundrum, for he cannot say that the Government want to meet new challenges yet support funding cuts.