Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill [Lords]

Laura Trott Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) (Con)]

I rise to speak on a piece of legislation that poses more risks than benefits and proves that there is not parity of esteem for technical and academic qualifications within the Government. The Secretary of State is putting forward a Bill that allows her personally to write each apprenticeship assessment. Just in case you think I am exaggerating, Madam Deputy Speaker, we can see it in the explanatory notes. The Bill provides

“the option for each standard and apprenticeship assessment plan to be prepared by the Secretary of State”.

Madam Deputy Speaker, can you imagine the outcry if this was done with history GCSEs? If it were a Conservative Government taking these powers, there would be howls of outrage from the Labour party. It is extraordinary that the Government are, contrary to the words of the Secretary of State today, cutting out employers and giving sole discretion to the Secretary of State. They would not allow it with academic qualifications; we must not allow it with vocational ones.

I acknowledge the statement made in the other place about clarifying the situations when the Government envisage the Secretary of State intervening, but the specific criteria for using this power should be on the face of the Bill. At the moment, the Secretary of State has carte blanche to do whatever she likes, and we know from the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that that is a very bad idea. Can the Minister confirm that there will be some restrictions, and will the Government put those on the face of the Bill?

The Bill is another manifestation of the Department for Education’s centralisation spree. As with the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, everything must be controlled by the Secretary of State, and no innovation is allowed. The Bill abolishes the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education—shortened to IfATE—and transfers its functions to the Secretary of State, in effect absorbing them into the Department for Education. The Government say that they will set up Skills England, but there are no details on the plans for Skills England in the Bill, or on how the Government’s proposed changes to the funding of skills-based qualifications will work in practice.

Simply creating a new agency will not address any of the issues that we need to address within the skills system. Even putting aside my severe doubts about the wisdom of progressing down this road in the first place, the very least the Government could provide the House with is some information on Skills England itself in the Bill. The only thing we know from debates in the other place—the Secretary of State has confirmed it today—is that Skills England will not be on a statutory footing and therefore will unquestionably be less independent than IfATE. Can the Secretary of State explain why this is an improvement?

This matters because the framework document published in the autumn is, at best, vague and, at worst, silent on the role of employers. There are some statements in the section on aims saying that employers will be engaged in the preparation of occupational standards, but it does not say how. Does the Secretary of State think that she knows better than employers? I urge her to explain why employers are so much less visible in the framework document, or to agree to amend the Bill. Reducing the role of employers will harm the apprenticeship system.

The change will also create unnecessary turmoil in the skills system. A cross-party amendment was passed in the other place to try to minimise the impact that this uncertain upheaval will have. The amendment will delay the provisions of the Bill to ensure that Skills England has time to set up before taking on its role and to ensure that the administrative duties do not get in the way of providing quality apprenticeships. That seems the bare minimum of what we would expect, and I hope the Government will not oppose that amendment, because to do so would be absurd.

The skills system needs a stable landscape, but the Bill presents real risks with no obvious benefits: risks that the Government will erode standards in our skills system by removing the relationship with the employer and replacing it with diktat from the Secretary of State; risks of poor leadership by replacing a good organisation, which is liked by employers and apprentices, with an unknown and undefined body.

[Mr Perkins]

I am listening carefully to the right hon. Lady. She seems to be evangelising the role of IfATE, but I have heard far stronger criticisms of it than she appears to make. Is her position that IfATE does not have many faults and should carry on the way it is, or does she think that the organisation’s remit has grown and is vague, and most employers feel that it is a block to getting the standards they need, rather than the vehicle for that, as she seems to suggest?

[Laura Trott]

I have huge respect for the hon. Gentleman and thought his earlier question was spot on. There is much that needs to be improved, but that is much less vague than Skills England, which is what we have in front of us at the moment. There are risks of distraction, with the time and cost involved in creating a new agency in the Department for Education. If the Government were serious about progressing quickly with the urgent strategic issues that I accept are needed in skills reform, the most effective step would be to build on the success of IfATE, rather than dismantling it. Instead, the Bill threatens to undo much of the progress made under successive Conservative Governments in building a world-class apprenticeships and technical education system. It is fiddling for no reason, change for no purpose and, as is so often the case with this Government, the opposite of what is required.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Chair of the Education Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)]

It is an honour to follow such a passionate speech about apprenticeships from my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Tom Collins). I was going to thank the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) for raising John Ruskin and William Morris in the Chamber—I certainly think they should be mentioned more often—but I will amend my comments to say that it would be nice to have some Opposition Members in the Chamber for this important debate.

[Laura Trott]

Hey!

[Andrew Pakes]

It is nice to have some—to have some more would be quite good.

Whereas we have had William Morris and John Ruskin, some colleagues seem to have been getting speechwriting advice from Lewis Carroll, because some of the speeches from Opposition Members have been through the looking glass in their description of the problems and what is happening. We are lost in a debate where people are stuck on the function of a body, rather than the purpose we are trying to achieve, which is to change and enhance people’s lives.

Before I continue, I must declare my interest. Alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins), I am co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are my passion in this House and in life, so I certainly believe that the transfer of functions and assets from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to the new Skills England body is an overwhelmingly positive move. It was a proposal made in our manifesto—another promise made and kept by this Government.

The rationale underpinning this Bill is simple enough: the scope of the institute was too limited, and it is letting too many people down. Vitally, Skills England will work with young workers on their learning journey, signposting them through the maze of qualifications and apprenticeship opportunities. More than that, it will identify the skills gaps in our economy and work with the Industrial Strategy Council and the Migration Advisory Committee to plug those gaps. This matters to me, because in Peterborough, we have some of the highest levels of youth unemployment in the country. Apprenticeship starts are down, and unemployment is up.

It is clear to me that the work of Skills England must be aligned with the new industrial strategy, something we heard too little about from Opposition Members in their discussions of this issue. It does not matter what structure we have if we do not have industrial purpose, which this Government will bring to our growth mission, but also to our mission to remove barriers and transform lives. We must have cross-departmental, cross-agency, joined-up working to deliver the skills revolution and take us out of the old silos. When the Minister replies to the debate, I encourage her to detail how the industrial strategy and new Skills England bodies will work together to create those transformational opportunities. I also invite her to talk about how the growth and skills levy will fit together with Skills England, enabling us to deliver on those ambitions.

Our No. 1 mission is economic growth, spread to every part of the UK and built on a diverse base of industries and services. That mission will be hamstrung unless we unleash a skills revolution. The first report of Skills England made that clear, and it shows the scale of the challenge. Employer investment in training has been in steady decline over the past decade, with training expenditure at its lowest level since records began in 2011. Investment per employee is down 19% in real terms. I know from talking to business leaders in my constituency that they find the qualifications landscape and the institute bewildering. They tell me that skills supply is often mismatched against demand and that there are insufficient ways to encourage employers to invest in skills. I know from talking to learners in my constituency that the journeys into careers are poorly signposted and often blocked. Learners too often lack the essential literacy, numeracy and digital skills they need prior to apprenticeships to get the jobs they need.

In short, we do not have the skilled workers to do the future jobs that will drive growth. This Bill goes a long way to addressing that by setting up the institution and the purpose to get us there. Apprenticeships are the golden thread that run through this Government’s ambitions for growth. The new Skills England must recognise the centrality of apprenticeships to that and bring them centre stage into our economy.

As so many others in the Chamber have discussed today, the breadth, talent and determination of the apprentices I have met has been humbling, whether that is the butchers’ apprentices in Newborough, construction apprentices at Laing O’Rourke building a new Olympia or creative learners at the Fashion Retail Academy. Recently, I was delighted to welcome engineering apprentices from Caterpillar in my constituency to talk to us.

These apprenticeships will give young people a clearer route into careers where the nation has skills gaps. The new levy we are talking about will fund short apprenticeships, giving learners and employers greater flexibility. Overall, we must elevate the status of apprenticeships in our society and culture. I am not decrying our universities, but we must end the snobbery that says an apprenticeship is second-best to a degree. We must tackle the outmoded idea that learning and earning is a lesser option for young people. We do not hear that lazy trope in Sweden or Germany, and we should never hear it here in the UK. My third question to the Minister is: how will Skills England work through this legislation to elevate the role of apprenticeships in our society?

Skills and apprenticeships are not only the engine of growth, but the ladder of opportunity. The Minister will have seen the excellent briefings on this Bill from the Co-operative Group, of which I am a member, and one of its central challenges is that we should not just be creating more apprenticeships, but ensuring that Skills England has a responsibility to improve outcomes for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, including working-class kids in my constituency. That will ensure that the new body has social mobility baked into it from its inception. That will not only deliver better outcomes for those from working-class backgrounds, but will encourage Skills England to thoroughly measure the impact. When the Minister responds to the debate, will she talk about how we will measure the impact in cities such as mine, as well as the country as a whole?

This is a wonderful Bill, and I am pleased to support it. I am pleased to put on record my support to the ministerial team, particularly Baroness Smith of Malvern in the other House, who has been kind with her time and brilliant with this Bill.