Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Lords Chamber

The White Paper delivers on that promise to our young people to give them the skills that they need, but the task of revitalising our skills system is not the isolated work of one department or another. It is the collective undertaking of local and national leaders, together with our workforces, businesses and trade unions. It is mission-led Government in action and the prize is huge: opportunity for our young people, growth for our economy and renewal for our nation. I commend this Statement to the House”.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Government for this White Paper, which is an incredibly important and wide-ranging document. It is essential that we build the skills pipeline to turn around the current stagnation in productivity and economic growth. But we also know, on all sides of the House, that this is a tough problem to crack. I read somewhere—I did not double check the data—that there have been 41 attempts to address this issue since the Labour Government were elected in 1997. As with all major reform, the challenge will lie in effective implementation. Delivering the scale of change envisaged in the White Paper will depend on clear accountability and long-term stability of decision-making. I am sure it is an issue that we will come back to in this House in the years ahead.

We are pleased to see that there are elements in the White Paper that build on the work of the previous Government. We are pleased to see a date confirmed for the introduction of the lifelong learning entitlement. We hope very much that this will build a pipeline of skills at levels 4 and 5, which we know are significantly lacking in the economy. It is not clear how this change will be incentivised. It would be helpful to hear from the Minister how the Government intend to create a pull from employers and how they will manage the financial risks to higher education institutions that, understandably, might be nervous about moving from a three-year degree model to a more modular approach.

As the Minister knows, there is a huge marketing task to be done. The pilots that we ran when in government significantly lacked demand—that is a polite way of describing it—so making people aware of these opportunities will be very important. It is also important that the Government can reassure the House that level 4 and level 5 qualifications will retain rigour and labour market currency, and not simply represent partial completion of degree programmes.

We are pleased to see the continuation of the technical excellence colleges, which build on the institutes of technology that we founded, which received significant public funds. We wish them every success. But there is limited clarity on how the network of excellent institutes of technology will be utilised within the new framework. Can the Minister confirm their role in delivering the higher technical education ambitions within the White Paper?

I spent a lot of time at the Dispatch Box arguing with Peers all around the House about the streamlining of level 3 qualifications, so I wish the Minister good luck with that. Can she clarify the sequencing of the ending of funding for BTECs and advanced general certificates and the start of the new V-levels? How confident is she that there will be the workforce to deliver this, given the significant pay gap between staff working in FE and teachers in our schools?

The vocational levels sound promising, but the timeline looks very tight. Can the Minister clarify what will happen if there is a delay? That is obviously important. The other day, the Secretary of State said in the other place that funding would be kept in place for “most existing qualifications”, as opposed to all existing qualifications, until V-levels are brought in. Can the Minister confirm whether T-levels will be extended into areas such as sports science, performing arts, catering and hospitality, and hair and beauty, where there is strong learner and employer demand?

The White Paper rightly commits to simplifying what is currently a confusing qualifications landscape. In that spirit, can the Minister confirm that, as V-levels are introduced, proprietary titles such as BTEC, City & Guilds, and Cambridge Technicals will cease, giving clarity to young people, parents and employers?

There are a number of areas where we have concerns, and perhaps that is just a question of clarification. The Government appear to have scaled back the promotion and rollout of higher technical qualifications designed to meet employer-set standards. Can the Minister clarify the current commitment to the HTQ model? Can she also clarify the details on the ability of colleges to self-certify their HTQs? Previously, IfATE signed off on the quality of courses, with significant input from employers. Without external verification, surely there is a risk that, in future, levy funds are spent on what could be, in some cases, low-quality courses. It feels like we have seen this in the university sector, particularly franchise providers, where there is not enough oversight of qualifications or standards. Similarly, can the Minister clarify the timeline for addressing the quality issues with some degrees? Our concern is that fees are going up before quality is addressed.

Turning to the introduction of a Progress 8-type measure in higher education, will the Minister outline how this will be constructed, given the different curricula in each institution? For pupils who did not pass English and maths GCSE while at secondary school, we of course welcome the additional investment to support them but are concerned that there will be a risk that some children are deemed to be unable to pass these important qualifications. Have the Government estimated how many pupils they expect will never complete their maths and English GCSE?

The White Paper is fairly silent on incentives for employers to invest more. The noble Baroness knows very well about the significant drops in employer investment in these areas. It is also silent on plans for boosting apprenticeships at levels 2 and 3, which are obviously very important, and further plans for simplifying the funding of further education. Finally, is the noble Baroness able to confirm that the employer contribution to the growth and skills levy will stay at 2%, or are there plans to increase it?

The White Paper has a very brief section on measuring impact which is mainly, if I may say, about counting outputs. How will progress and impact be measured in a really transparent way, maybe through employer engagement, learner outcomes or gains regionally in terms of skills? To say it another way, can the Minister say whether her every dream was fulfilled in this White Paper? If every measure knocked it out of the park, what would be the impact on productivity in this country?

[Lord Storey (LD)]

My Lords, we on these Benches welcome the Statement. We share many of the concerns that the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, raised, and she quite skilfully teased those out with the questions she asked. Looking at the Statement, my immediate thought is that there is a lot of rhetoric in it, but there needs to be less rhetoric and more detail about some of the proposals. The biggest issue we face, which is not addressed, is the cultural shift in this country. Parents regard it as a successful education, quite honestly, and I have said this before, if the child or young person gets the required number of GCSEs, goes into the sixth form and goes to university. Schools lap up the number of students who go into the sixth form because they get extra funding for it, yet we know that half the pupils in our secondary schools are not academic, and we have this academic curriculum.

The other thing that surprises me in the Statement, which I think is crucial, is that young people need guidance. They need advice. They need help. They need support. I am surprised that there is no mention of careers education or careers guidance in the Statement —at this point, I declare an interest as a patron of Career Connect. It rightly says that

“our young people risk being left behind.”

That is absolutely right, because currently we have about one million NEETs in this country—not in education, employment or training. It talks about

“local businesses becoming more productive … and bustle returning to the high street”,

which begs the question of how we are going to do that. That is not just by quality training; there are number of other issues. Of course, the hike in national insurance did not help businesses, to be honest, and it certainly did not help high streets either.

The Statement talks about

“a muddle of confusing pathways”,

yet in some respects makes the muddle even more confusing, replacing BTECs with V-levels and cutting funding for the international baccalaureate programme in state schools. We welcome V-levels bringing flexibility, but we would rather see the phasing out of BTECs by 2027, both running in parallel during the transition so that outcomes can be compared. We know that BTECs work, because 200,000 students took them last year and 99% of universities accept them. One in five workers hold them. We need the Government to be more supportive here and look at funding streams. Why can sixth forms claim VAT, yet further education colleges cannot, for example? We support V-levels, but only if the transition from BTECs is based on evidence and if sufficient funding is provided to truly deliver a world-class vocational education.

Briefly, I am pleased about the section on universities. On the last Statement, the Minister gave us an assurance that the Government would face up to the funding crisis in universities, and they have been true to their word, but it is a bit disappointing that more money could have been available for universities had they not slapped on the levy for overseas students. That could have been an income stream that benefited the university sector.

I turn to the international baccalaureate. It sets the global benchmark for education. It is trusted by universities, employers and educators around the world as a mark of academic excellence, and thousands of British families choose to send their children to schools offering the IB diploma. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of this cut to students’ ability to study under an internationally recognised programme?

We welcome the Government’s ambition to create a joined-up, strategic approach to education. However, the glaring omission of lifelong learning cannot be ignored. Learning does not end at 21. What steps are the Government taking to provide pathways for essential professions and deal with shortages in social work, nursing and engineering? It is important to all of us—we all have a real stake in this, the present Government and the previous Government—that we get this right and that it works. I hope that the mantra of two decades ago, “education, education, education”, is replaced by “skills, skills, skills”.