We talk a lot about public investment in skills... But what about employers?

It’s been a busy month as we head towards (hopefully) a summer break. The Department for Education confirmed its plans to remove funding for a range of level 3 qualifications in England to make apprenticeships, T levels and A levels the main routes at age 16. We do need to make choices as simple as possible and it’s right to remove qualifications that are little used or have low returns. But T levels are in the early stages of rollout and study is already relatively narrow in England compared to other countries. The Government should rethink its approach.

We talk a lot about public investment in skills, quite rightly. But what about employers? Our new report, supported by NOCN, showed 20 million lost training days because of falling employer investment since 2011. An extra 1.2 million people would get training if we levelled up participation in training for those with level 2 or lower qualifications to match those with higher qualifications. This is perhaps a familiar picture. Less familiar is that Government policy – whether on apprenticeships, the Lifetime Skills Guarantee or tax relief – increasingly either passively follows or actively reinforces these inequalities. Later this year we’ll publish our proposals for change.

Meanwhile, employment is bouncing back as economic restrictions are eased across the UK. But we have higher unemployment than before the crisis, long-term unemployment is on the rise, and some groups such as young people have been harder hit. There’s lots to do. Recovery and renewal were the themes of our Employment and Skills Convention, viewed by more than 1,300 people.

Lastly, the Festival of Learning awards celebrated the brilliant achievements of adult learners, tutors, employers and projects, showing the difference lifelong learning can make. Catch up with the awards ceremony and get ready for November’s Lifelong Learning Week including the opening of nominations for our 2022 awards.

Stephen Evans
Chief Executive

Festival of Learning award winners for 2021 announced at online ceremony
We announced our award winners for 2021 earlier this month at our virtual awards ceremony. The winner stories show just how powerful learning can be and the difference that great tutors and learning providers can make. You can meet our award winners and watch their inspiring short films on our campaign website. We’ll be celebrating lifelong learning further in our Lifelong Learning Week taking place from Monday 5 to Friday 12 November. Keep up to date with plans!

Supporting young adult carers into Further Education
The Driving Change in Further Education project, run in partnership with Carers Federation, seeks to improve the support for young adult carers in colleges. Congratulations to the 27 colleges in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England that have achieved Quality Standard in Carer Support accreditation as part of their involvement in the project to date.

L&W are recruiting now for more colleges to take part in the final year of the project, which provides free and tailored guidance and one-to-one advice on how to improve support for young adult carers. If you are interested, please get in touch with Jackie Woodhouse, research manager at L&W.

Evaluating the CareerTech Challenge
How can great careers support be delivered at a scale that has a real impact on the labour market? This was a central question that drove the CareerTech Challenge, a partnership between Nesta, Nesta Challenges and the Department for Education which sought to stimulate the development of new tools for career navigation and uncover ‘what works’ to help adults develop new skills and find good work.

We documented and analysed the innovators’ progress through interviews and research, enabling Nesta to understand the enablers and barriers for the development of effective careers support. This report explores the findings and highlights how the CareerTech Challenge innovators used labour market data to support adults to plan for their future career.

Inspire! Tutor Award winners announced
Earlier this month, Learning and Work Institute Wales announced this year’s Inspire! Tutor Award winners. We celebrated their remarkable achievements and commitment to teach, inspire and encourage learners to reach their potential. We held an online awards ceremony, hosted by Nia Parry with contributions from Jeremy Miles MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. You can view the award winning stories here.

Webinar series: Effective practice in pre-apprenticeship programmes

Learning and Work Institute is running a series of webinars to support the dissemination and exchange of knowledge on effective practice in pre-apprenticeships. The interactive webinars will offer training and insight to providers about how to develop key aspects of pre-apprenticeship provision to secure positive outcomes for young people. Find out more and register for each of the below events here.

Evaluating your pre-apprenticeship programme
Monday 26 July 2021 |12:00 – 1.30pm (BST)
This webinar will provide practical advice on developing an evaluation approach, collecting and interpreting data and using evidence to inform decision-making about your pre-apprenticeship.

Project based learning in pre-apprenticeship programmes
Tuesday 7 September | 14:00 – 15:30
This webinar will provide practical advice on developing an evaluation approach, collecting and interpreting data and using evidence to inform decision-making about your pre-apprenticeship.

Blended learning on pre-apprenticeships
Wednesday 6 October | 14:00 – 15:30
This webinar will provide practical advice on developing an evaluation approach, collecting and interpreting data and using evidence to inform decision-making about your pre-apprenticeship.