Minding the Skills Gap [7th March 2008]

[7th March 2008]

This is a report written by Cheryl Stevens, intern to Lord Taylor, on the National Skills Forum Research Launch.

This launch took place on the 23rd of January in the Strangers’ Dining Room of the House of Commons. The event was sponsored by City & Guilds. The purpose was to discuss funding differences between the Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE).

Upon entering the Strangers’ Dining Room, there was a mix of different ages. The youngest person was in their early 20s and the oldest must have been around 70. I was surprised that there were so many young people at this event. This made me wonder if these issues affect those of my age group more than I previously thought.

The event began shortly after I arrived. Gordon Marsden MP, Chair of the Associate Parliamentary Skills Group, introduced the launch. David Anderson MP also spoke briefly about the degree of consensus on the report. One of the speakers was Mick Fletcher, an Education Consultant. He compared the FE and HE sectors of education on a variety of topics. Regarding individuals, he noted that HE is funded with billions of pounds, whereas FE will only receive about 100 million pounds maximum. He claimed that for HE, loans are quite large and some have room to be forgiven. Regarding FE career development loans, they contain interest and must be paid off. Fletcher commented that the government is more concerned with HE and ignores the FE. This ought to change because both organisations should be partnered with the government.

Keith Brooker, Acting Director-General of City & Guilds also spoke. He discussed how HE’s structure is organised. He said the demand is based on the learner and determined by what individuals and the collective want for the future. On the other hand, FE is centrally-controlled. In HE, they are the ones that design the content and use that to check standards. In FE, the Sector Skills Council is the one to design content, leaving FE in a fixed position.

The final speaker was Phil Willis MP, Chair of Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee. One of the first comments he made was to ask us to look around the room and see how many MPs and Lords there were in attendance. There were few. Most people were members of related organisations or young Parliamentary employees. He also said that if this were a predominately HE launch that the room would be filled and people would be waiting at the door wanting to come in. This was thought-provoking to me because I had never known that FE was such an issue in England. If it were, I had assumed more people would be proactive to ensure FE would move forward. Mr. Willis went on to say that right now there is a great need to emphasise education. He noted that ten years ago further education was not of huge importance, because there were no shortage of skilled people for jobs. Mr. Willis insisted that funding is a key component. He closed saying that FE and HE need to work more closely together.

Afterwards there were questions and answers. At the end of the launch, I met Stephen Davison. He works for Policy Connect in the House of Lords. This is an organisation that works to create a positive and useful public policy. He enjoyed the launch. He was interested in knowing more about my position and WLF.

Lastly I spoke to Mick Fletcher, one of the panellists. He discussed his work and profession with me. He expressed his passion for the FE sector. We spoke about WLF and he is interested in keeping in touch.

If I were to change anything about this event, it would be to advertise more. The topic of discussion was so enthralling. I’m not sure if this was an invitation-only event, but I hope that if more people had known about it, then there would be a greater number in attendance.