During the third week of the Labour government, Keir Starmer launched Skills England. The Prime Minister said young people in the UK had been 'let down' by a lack of opportunity and a 'fragmented and broken' skills system. School leavers had not been given access to the right opportunities or training in their community and this had also led to 'an over-reliance in our economy on higher and higher levels of migration.'
He presented what at first glance looks like a win-win situation. 'From construction to IT, healthcare to engineering, our success as a country depends on delivering highly skilled workforces for the long-term. Skills England will put in place the framework needed to achieve that goal while reducing our reliance on workers from overseas.'
What is Skills England?
It is a quango. It will 'bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions, providing strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system aligned to the government’s Industrial Strategy.' Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has appointed former Co-Operative Group chief executive Richard Pennycook as interim chairman of Skills England. This which will be rolled out over the next 12 months.
Previous governments have often shied away from the post-16 sector. They have focused on schools and universities rather than further education and apprenticeships. Skills England is not just about education, it is also about the economy, immigration and poverty. This makes it a high stakes initiative as there will undoubtedly be nay sayers from four different camps.
Cassandra MacDonald is Dean of School of Technology at BPP, the UK’s largest apprenticeship training provider and chair of governors at a school in Bradford. TeachingTimes asked her what impact Skills England might have on education and industry. 'We're really excited and positive about the announcements,' she said. 'It's a good step forward to have one body that is going to join up skills policy, across different groups and to align it with industrial policy. It will certainly help where there are skill shortages.'