Skills for Jobs White Paper

Debate between Viscount Eccles and Baroness Berridge

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the key aspect of this is that employers are involved in setting the standards in relation to these qualifications. They will be at the heart of producing the local skills improvement plans, but they will work with the colleges. We recognise that the status of FE employees has not perhaps been what it might have been so we are investing in that workforce, in enhanced initial teacher training for it and in industry exchanges. So while the employer-led bodies will form those plans, they will work closely with the FE colleges and I am sure they will consult the awarding bodies that the noble Baroness makes reference to.

[Viscount Eccles (Con)]

My Lords, obviously I welcome the White Paper, but it worries me to a large extent because there must be limits to what central government can do to match the skills of people to the jobs available. Things move very fast. Throughout the White Paper, the theme emerges of what employers want. This may be strange, but I am slightly suspicious of employers and what they want. It is easily said, but who are these employers? Big ones, presumably. Who represents them? Is not the really important question: what are these employers doing to help themselves?

That brings me to the general position of the noble Lord, Lord Baker, regarding the relationship between education and training. In my opinion the White Paper is very weak on where the boundary lies between education and training. I urge my noble friend on the Front Bench to think very carefully. It is not possible for any education service to make employees oven-ready for employers, as it were. They can take them so far but the employers have to do the rest. There should be a lot more concentration on the duties and responsibilities of employers for training.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, there is a limit to central government, which is why the key strategy here is local skills improvement panels, working closely with colleges and the devolved authorities. That is matched by the Skills and Productivity Board, which will give a national picture. In relation to the question of who these employers are, when one looks at what is happening with apprenticeships, there are trail-blazer groups of employers. This is not just picking one person. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education oversees these trail-blazer groups. They include small and medium-sized enterprises and we are so encouraged that, as my noble friend made reference to education and training, much more is now taking place in the workplace. When one looks at apprenticeships, one sees that they have good training in the workplace as well as time out of the workplace to do that training. There are workplace placements for T-levels as well, so that those young people have a period of weeks in the workplace. So my noble friend is right that employers have a responsibility, and that is why employer-led bodies such as chambers of commerce are going to be involved with the local skills improvement plans.