Lifelong Learning

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Knight, on his tour de force opening speech. It fitted into the renaissance man—or maybe we should say renaissance woman—pattern in its breadth and insight, and it was a pleasure to listen to. I also, of course, welcome the maiden speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Curran, who talked about the opportunity one has in politics to change lives. We heard some examples about how she has already done that, and I am sure she will do more. We look forward to working with her.

I echo the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, about the dignity of some of what we have heard, including from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich. With the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, having moved to a very successful career in riffing, I am going to take the pedestrian speaking slot which other noble Lords have left open. It is possibly because I am a bit damaged by having taken some legislation through this House that aimed to underpin lifelong learning. I hope the Minister will forgive me if I have some questions on where we are at and where we are going with that.

Of course, the principle of offering students, in the case of the lifelong learning entitlement, up to the age of 60 a tuition-free loan which gives them entitlement to four years of full-time education is widely welcomed, and we know that that is for a number of reasons. We all, I think, hope that it will allow those who might not embark on a three-year qualification to get staging-post qualifications to whatever level is right for them—in many cases, they might go all the way. It also offers those already in the workforce the chance to upskill, retrain and get high-quality qualifications. We heard from my noble friend Lady Morgan of Cotes and others about the number who change sectors or careers each year. Those two things, we all hope, will address the skills gaps that we have in our economy.

When we were in government we lived through one delay in the launch of the LLE. The noble Baroness has lived through another, but perhaps she can give the House some reassurance that applications will start from September 2026. Of course, some big tasks need to be done before the LLE can go live. The first is setting up all the systems within the Student Loans Company. I know, having worked closely with the Student Loans Company, how seriously it takes its responsibilities in this area, but it is a truly complex process. The second is to understand the Government’s vision for the LLE and how—as we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, and others—it will attract the types of learners who have not traditionally accessed lifelong learning and higher qualifications. It would be really interesting to hear where the Minister’s thinking is on this and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, said, what the incentives will be to drive those behaviours.

I remember trying—not altogether seriously, but just to test it out—to apply for one of the pilots that we ran when we were in government. It was almost impossible, despite Google’s best efforts, to find even the application form, so thinking about making it visible and accessible is important. I think we all fear that we will end up, in five or 10 years’ time, with the vast majority of people still doing three-year, full-time courses. You have to be quite brave to do a course that no one has done before, possibly at an institution where none of your friends, family or people you know have studied. That need for focus and tenacity to make this work will be so important, but the prize, as we have heard from across the House this afternoon, is obviously a huge one.

It would be helpful to hear the Minister’s thoughts on how the Government are going to track progress. We will stretch her talents, as a “Mastermind” winner—as she was unwise enough to disclose to those of your Lordships who were in the House last night—in a different way and invite her to paint a picture of what a successful higher and further education system would look like once the LLE is fully implemented.

I wonder whether the Minister could say a word about how the Government think that opportunities for skills development can be promoted regionally. I was very struck when I was campaigning in the election in the summer—in seats that were apparently marginal but perhaps turned out to be slightly less marginal than we had hoped—that there were streets I walked along where I felt that, if I lived on that street, I would not have much hope, including for my children. As the noble Lord, Lord Knight, rightly said, this is where populism breeds if we do not have hope for the future. It is extremely important that that regional perspective is prioritised. We made some steps towards that in government, particularly through the institutes of technology that we established, which brought together colleges, universities and employers with a regional focus. I hope the Minister can reassure me that the Government are going to continue supporting those and not waste the investment that was made in them.

The Minister will be aware that some institutions are concerned about how the current regulatory system—I told noble Lords my speech was going to be pedestrian—will fit with the LLE. This is important. As the Minister knows, the continuation metric that the Office for Students looks at perhaps lends itself less well to an approach where students are doing shorter courses, then leaving education for a while and restarting. I assume that she will be able to provide reassurance that that is being reviewed ahead of the rollout. Also, could she say a word on maintenance support?

I think the Minister will be aware of unhappiness in the sector about historic underspends in the adult education budget. My understanding is that the evidence is that the mayoral combined authorities have been more effective in disbursing all their money, although I think the noble Lord, Lord Knight, was hinting that all might not be well in that department. Maybe the Minister could comment on that.

In closing, I will pick up on a few remarks made by your Lordships. My noble friend Lady Morgan of Cotes talked about the work that the Careers & Enterprise Company does in building confidence, about our attitude to lifelong learning, and about making it the cultural norm that you learn through life wherever you were born and whatever advantages you did or did not have. All of us want to be Sister Mary—I am hoping that Wordle and Quordle, including Quordle Extreme, as well as sudoku, qualify me for avoiding dementia. I also want to pick up on the joy of lifelong learning that the noble Lord, Lord Bates, talked about. My husband, who is also in his 70s, started a part-time degree. When filling out his UCAS form, he struggled a bit to explain how he was going to use it, but he did focus on joy.

I look forward very much to hearing the Minister’s remarks.