Skills for Jobs White Paper is launched

The Department for Education has today (21 January) launched its Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth white paper which sets out reforms to post-16 technical education and training to support people to develop the skills needed to get good jobs and improve national productivity.

Some of the proposed reforms include:

• Business groups, including Chambers of Commerce, working alongside colleges to develop tailored skills plans to meet local training needs; supported by a £65 million Strategic Development Fund to put the plans into action and establish new College Business Centres to drive innovation and enhanced collaboration with employers.
• Giving employers a central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030, to ensure that the education and training people receive is directly linked to the skills needed for real jobs.
• Boosting the quality and uptake of Higher Technical Qualifications – that provide the skills that many employers say they need and that can lead to higher wages – by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022 supported by a government-backed brand and quality mark.
• Changing the law so that from 2025 people can access flexible student finance so they can train and retrain throughout their lives, supported by funding in 21/22 to test ways to boost access to more modular and flexible learning.
• Launching a nationwide recruitment campaign to get more talented individuals to teach in further education and investing in high quality professional development including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme.
• Overhauling the funding and accountability rules, so funding is better targeted at supporting high quality education and training that meets the needs of employers; and introducing new powers to intervene when colleges are failing to deliver good outcomes for the communities they serve.

Ellen Thinnesen, Chief Executive of Education Partnership North East Chief, said: “‪Over several years we have pursued a bold vision – becoming a North East anchor institution. We’ve invested, aligned skills to economic priorities, collaborated, and shaped a careers focused curriculum. We are delighted the vital role of colleges is recognised in this White Paper‬.”

The full White Paper can be downloaded at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-for-jobs-lifelong-learning-for-opportunity-and-growth.