New Freedoms:
New Focus
towards a strategic framework for
improvement and development in
the learning and skills sector
Summer 2011
“Our sector needs to be
at the strategic table
more than at any time...”
Our sector is – once again – undergoing transformational
change. The combined impact of John Hayes’ challenge to
us – to be at the heart of economic and social renewal while
handling public service reform and funding cuts – is both
daunting and tremendously exciting.
The new freedoms are, perhaps, a greater opportunity than ever for
us to support our sector to shape its future and to realise its role
in helping people acquire and develop the knowledge, skills and
capabilities for living and working in the Big Society.
For learners and employers to continue to get ‘just what they
need’ from us, we will need to further develop our capacity to
make sense of and interpret the changes in the world around us –
with their implications for our professional practices, and the new
learning needs they reveal – whilst at the same time securing the
strategic shifts for sustainability and improvement. These will be
the hallmarks of our collective success in the next period.
The sector needs to be at the strategic table more than at any
time, with a key role to play in bringing together partners at local
and sub-regional level, and to contribute to the new agendas being
forged. Such a central position brings with it a level of responsibility
– for being transparent and accountable – and a challenge to
step up to help influence the future of the public sphere within
emerging new parameters and freedoms.
The recently published first report commissioned by LSIS from the
2020 Public Services Hub at the RSA –The further education and
skills sector in 2020: a social productivity approach1 – offers one
perspective on an ambitious, exciting future for the sector.
Dame Ruth Silver DBE
Chair of LSIS
Board and Council
The 2020Public Services Hub at the RSAhttp://www.lsis.org.uk/Services/Publications/
Documents/LSIS_2020PSH_FullReport_20110526.pdf
1
Continued…
New Freedoms: New Focus
2
We will be working with the sector on the development of the
ideas in this report and a vision for the future, starting with
discussions with sector membership bodies in September and
through regional seminars for the sector during the autumn.
Given the shifting contexts, the sector has a platform of success,
insight and experience to build upon to develop an ambitious
next phase of improvement and development. We will need to
strike a balance between continuing to improve what is already
underway, and supporting the sector to manage strategic change
– shaping a future which will look quite different from the past.
It is too early to see the emerging picture in high definition and
so our intention is – through dialogue and discussion over the
autumn and beyond – to develop a shared strategy for the next
phase.
This document is therefore deliberately positioned as a new
step towards a strategic framework for improvement and
development. It is intended as a reference point in the process of
making sense of the challenges we face – an opportunity to draw
breath, marshal our energies, and establish a platform for moving
forward together. It also frames LSIS’s strategic intentions and
investment priorities for 2011/12 onwards.
We have an opportunity, not simply to reform, but to reformulate our vision and purpose, holding faith with the best of
our traditions and unlocking new potential. Whatever emerges,
I know it will reflect the sector’s continuing search for selfimprovement, and will place inspiring teaching and learning at
the heart of all our practice.
At its best, learning fulfils and empowers us, enabling us to
take control of our lives and reinforcing some sense of common
belonging. In the uncertain times ahead it is perhaps worth
remembering that learning is arguably what we – as human
beings – do best.
Dame Ruth Silver DBE
Chair of LSIS Board and Council
Transitional year
I see this as a transitional year in which we will jointly need
to raise our sights even higher, and develop a new strategy
for shaping the future for learning and skills that can speak
to peoples’ desire for new prosperity and wellbeing. This time
the change is different – there is no Whitehall blueprint, we –
the professionals – are being trusted with autonomy and new
freedoms.
New Freedoms: New Focus
3
Contents
Foreword
2-3
Introduction
5-7
Strategic
Framework:
8-19
Overview8
Context and authority
9
Strategic ambitions
14
An interdependent approach 15
Outcomes framework
16
New Freedoms: New Focus
4
Learning and skills hold
the key to the coalition
government’s plans for
creating sustainable growth
and the Big Society. The
sector is strongly rooted in
the traditions of practical and
technical learning for trades
and professions that sustain
and develop local, regional,
national and international
economies.
Additionally, its commitment to
providing alternative pathways
and second chances puts it
at the heart of attempts to
reduce inequalities and create
opportunities for social mobility.
FE colleges and providers
are social as well as learning
organisations with the potential
and capacity to foster a new
spirit of enterprise to support
and strengthen civil society.
Self improvement
The sector’s commitment to
self-improvement is paying
dividends for learners.
In the last year alone over
4.6 million people, or one in
ten of the adult population,
were supported by colleges
and providers across England.
Overall provider performance has
improved and this is reflected in
learner achievements which have
also increased, albeit more slowly
recently. A growing number of
providers have been rated highly
for leadership and management
and there has been evidence of
improvement in the quality of
teaching and learning, though
Ofsted has expressed concern
at the number of providers that
remain ‘satisfactory’ after three
inspections.
Measuring the Economic Impact of Further Education: The Department of Business Innovation and Skills,
March 2011
3
www.learningbenefits.net
2 < Contents
Levels of satisfaction amongst
learners and employers have
been high, and representation
of ethnic minority learners and
learners with learning difficulties
and disabilities have been
higher than for the population
as a whole.
Overall provider performance has improved
and this is reflected in learner achievements
which have also increased...
The impact of those
improvements on the sector’s
wider contribution to social and
economic life is also significant.
The return on investment in
qualifications started in 2008/09
has recently been put at some
£75 billion over the years in
which successful learners remain
in the workforce2. And the wider
benefits of learning – including
on health and wellbeing, our
propensity to engage in civic
activities, our tolerance of others,
and as a route out of crime –
have been evidenced robustly3.
Continued…
New Freedoms: New Focus
5
Beyond the formal learning
provision (the 4.6 million
mentioned above), the range
of informal learning and
engagement that the sector
stimulates speaks to both the
intentions of the Big Society4
and the aspirations to increase
employer demand for skills and
learning as a route to sustained
growth.
There is much to celebrate.
But the current climate of fiscal
austerity and public service
reform presents profound
challenges for the sector and
creates higher levels of need
among citizens, especially
those less privileged by
education. There will be less
public money and an urgent
need to do more with it.
Looking ahead, the sector faces
the longest sustained period
of cuts since the 1950s – the
transformation implied to the
system as a whole will include
new kinds of providers, new
curriculum offers, and new
models of organisation.
Building the sector’s capacity to
anticipate and shape the future
and ensure that the maximum
value is secured from precious
public – and increasingly private
– resources invested in learning,
is the most challenging task.
And the pathways will have to
be built by the sector itself – the
current maps are sketchy at best.
The challenges facing learners,
employers and community
partners are no less significant.
Work is changing – the
financial crisis and recession
are impacting on patterns of
employment. According to recent
projections, 50 per cent of all
future job demand is expected to
be in the top three occupational
groups5, and it is striking how
the recession has already
accelerated progress, singling
out for unemployment those
with few or no skills, and – in the
case of the almost one million
young people not in education,
employment or training – limited
labour market experience.
See the reports of the LSIS policy seminar series on theBig Society – summer 2011 at: https://www.lsis.org.uk/
Services/Policy/Policy-Seminars/Pages/FE-contribution-social-economic-life.aspx
5
Managers and senior officials, professional occupations, and associate professional and technical occupations
4
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Accelerated progress
Technology is also creating
different perspectives on
future work and our sense of
place within the world, as well
as shifting the basis of all our
interactions and relationships
with public services. Increasingly
we are being provided with
the information to become
empowered customers,
expected to be able to make
informed choices and to use
and analyse information to hold
public services to account. In
our private and social lives too,
technology – particularly social
networking – has taken hold.
We need to be alert and
responsive to the
sector’s own evolving
ambitions for the future.
Society is changing too.
This year, the first of the ‘baby
boomer’ generation reaches
retirement age. This will have
significant implications for the
learning and skills sector over
the next decade – the sector
has an age profile older than
the national average, as well
as an overwhelmingly white
ethnicity profile. Without a
‘talent strategy’ there is a
very real risk that the sector
will lose expertise.
Continued…
New Freedoms: New Focus
6
Meanwhile, younger people
are taking longer to settle
into careers – and for many,
to find a job at all. The crossdepartmental strategy for
18-24 year olds and changes
in higher education offer
opportunities for the sector
to support young adults to
make positive and successful
transitions to adult life,
including – for some – to careers
in the learning and skills sector.
Searching judgements
But for young people and
their parents, the picture is one
of tough times ahead, with
searching judgements to make
about the value of education,
the knowledge and skills needed
for an uncertain future labour
market, and wider financial
considerations about housing,
pensions and family care.
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Uncertain future
The future is uncertain – and
devising forward strategies is
challenging. Moreover, one of
the defining features of this
moment is that the sector itself
is being asked to take a much
stronger hand in defining its
own destiny – this is no longer
being set from the centre.
Therefore in developing LSIS’s
own strategy, we need to be
alert and responsive to the
sector’s own evolving ambitions
for the future. This strategic
framework aims to make a
contribution by taking stock
of the known knowns and the
unknowns, while retaining the
space to respond as the sector
develops its own vision for
the future.
In addition, the riots over the
summer, involving many young
people who might be involved
with and supported by our sector,
reminds us of the vital importance
of keeping flexibility in our plans
and services to respond rapidly to
emerging needs.
We are developing systematically
our antennae for listening to and
engaging with the sector and its
associations, and with partners,
to pick up early intelligence
and signals to anticipate and
respond to needs as effectively
as possible.
Thus this strategic framework
is already based on wide
consultation and offers an
interim set of shared strategic
ambitions which will continue to
provide the basis for on-going
and collective dialogue.
A note on language and
scope
The learning and skills sector
is a broad and diverse one, to
which no overall description does
justice.
We refer to further education
colleges and use the term
‘providers’ to include
work-based and adult
and community learning
organisations.
Overall, the framework will be
relevant to: general further
education colleges, independent
training providers, public
(including local authority) and
third sector providers, sixth form
colleges, specialist designated
institutions, higher education
institutions offering further
education provision, national
skills academies and sector skills
councils.
New Freedoms: New Focus
7
Overview
Overall, the goal is to enable the sector to take the lead and shape
its future – to realise the emerging vision for its role and purpose.
In order to do that, the first step is to understand the contexts in
which the learning and skills sector is operating, and the challenges
and opportunities ahead. This analysis has informed a set of
strategic ambitions for the sector overall – a focus for continuing to
aim high despite the present uncertainties.
Only through shared endeavour will those ambitions be realised
– improvement is the responsibility of everyone connected with
learning and skills, and together there is a need to establish a new
set of metrics to review progress, performance and account for the
sector’s wider contribution.
Context and
authority
• The world we’re in
• The state we’re in
• Sector engagement
Strategic
ambitions
New Freedoms:
New Focus
A learner-driven,
sector-led,
interdependent
approach
Outcomes
framework
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New Freedoms: New Focus
8
Context and authority
The introduction of freedoms
and flexibilities for learning and
skills has been accompanied
by an expectation of greater
responsibility for responsive
planning to meet learners’,
employers’ and community
partners’ needs.
In parallel, a new sector-owned
and led approach to planning
for improvement has begun
to emerge, through the LSIS
Board and elected Council
representing the sector, working
closely with sector membership
bodies and strategic partners.
A range of evidence has
contributed to the analysis
and understanding of both
the ‘world we’re in’ and the
‘state we’re in’, including:
policy analysis and research;
a review of the independent
evidence of sector improvement
and performance; LSIS’s own
performance review process,
led by the Council; and a range
of dialogues with the sector
– through the Council and
Board, national and regional
policy seminars, regional
conversations, and sector
engagement with and feedback
on LSIS services, including
practitioner voices.
Attempts to generalise simply
reinforce that ‘the devil is in the
detail’ – different parts of the
sector serve different learner
groups and achieve different
types of results, and variations
between subjects are, of course,
significant. The way different
datasets are constructed varies
by definition and year of analysis.
With advice and contributions
from sector organisations and
partners it will be improved
over time so that everyone
with a stake in the sector has a
better basis on which to focus
improvement investment and
interventions, to judge progress,
and account for the sector’s
wider contribution.
So, this is an imperfect picture
– it is indicative rather than
definitive. Nonetheless, it is a
first attempt to take stock of
the evidence base and strategic
intelligence that informs the
improvement and development
challenges we face.
Distilling evidence about the
learning and skills sector is a
notoriously tricky business. There
is no single definition of what
constitutes ‘the sector’; and the
richness and diversity of the
organisations that are sometimes
included brooks both overview
and comparison.
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New Freedoms: New Focus
9
The world we’re in and the state we’re in
‘The new world we’re in –
strategic implications 2011’
is available to download6.
• the need for the sector to
shape its future and maximise
new freedoms;
Published in January this year,
it highlights some key issues for
the sector that emerged in the
second half of 2010, through
both policy announcements
and dialogue with the sector,
nationally and regionally,
including:
• the critical importance of
securing greater engagement
with and accountability to
communities;
• a critical need to be aware
of the challenging new
economics of public services
as the sector faces five years
of significant funding cuts;
• a recognition of the central
role of public information
in informing choice and
improving quality;
• the sector’s central role in
economic renewal and the
Big Society;
• the implications of new
providers entering the
marketplace, and an increase
in the range of sub-contracting
arrangements;
• an opportunity to play a
significant part in public
service reform;
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• the need to maximise
smaller investment and
co-funding (including loans
and accounts);
• the impact of new
organisational forms;
https://www.lsis.org.uk/Services/Policy/LSIS-council-policy/Documents/The%20new%20world%20we%20
are%20in%202011%20-%20strategic%20implications%20-%20February%202011.pdf
6
• the importance of vocational
and craft skills and
apprenticeships;
• a greater focus on science,
technology, engineering and
maths (STEM);
• an emphasis on progression
to higher-level learning;
• new opportunities and
imperatives for curriculum
design and credit
accumulation;
• a continued focus on the
sector’s role in securing
equality, fairness and social
mobility;
• a shift towards stimulating
and responding to demand
from communities and
networks; and
• the need for new partnerships
between formal and informal
learning, and professionals
and volunteers.
New Freedoms: New Focus
10
The state we’re in
‘The state we’re in’ is based
on an analysis of messages
from recent Ofsted reports,
Framework for Excellence and
other Skills Funding Agency
data, and information from
the LLUK workforce survey. The
key messages are summarised
below, and further detail on
learner participation and
success is contained in Annex 1.
There is much to celebrate, and
the recent flattening out of
performance is in some respects
a consequence of a decade of
improvement.
But in a strategic framework for
improvement for a mature and
responsible sector, it is right to
ask what the response should
be to evidence that suggests
the sector is on the cusp of
a slowdown in performance
improvement.
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The headlines below disguise
the ‘devilish’ details which
represent a continuing
improvement agenda for all
with a stake in the learning and
skills sector.
• Overall there has been
positive improvement in the
last decade.
• Overall success rates are
increasing, but more slowly.
• Outstanding performance
shows signs of decline.
• Performance improvement
is plateauing around
satisfactory.
• Leadership and management
is ‘less than good’ in just
over half work-based learning
provision, but is improving.
• ‘Outstanding’ teaching
and learning in colleges
is declining.
• The quality of teaching and
learning in science and maths
in colleges is a cause for
concern.
• Learners report 80 per cent
plus satisfaction levels, but
the rate of increase has
slowed.
• 97 per cent of providers are
judged ‘satisfactory or better’
for equality and diversity,
but a higher proportion are
judged ‘satisfactory’ than
‘good’.
• A significant minority of
employers use sector
providers but engagement is
still regarded as relatively low.
• The learning and skills
workforce is ageing – with
the danger that the sector
will lose expertise without
the development of a
‘talent plan’.
New Freedoms: New Focus
11
The state we’re in continued
The current size of the sector
is set out below, in the full
knowledge that this is a far from
static picture.
• 249 general FE colleges.
• Over 1000 independent
training providers (both
private and voluntary sector).
• Over 200 public training
providers (eg local
authorities).
• 94 sixth form colleges.
• 10 specialist designated
institutions.
• 38 HE institutions offering FE.
• 15 fully approved National
Skills Academies and a further
four in development.
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The Skills Funding Agency’s
participation budget for
2011/12 has been confirmed
as £3.2 billion; LSIS’s
improvement budget for
2011/12 is £31 million.
Funding pressures
The impact of funding pressures
in the next four years will
profoundly re-shape the sector,
and many organisations are,
or for some time have been,
making plans to address this
most significant challenge.
Early indications are that the
introduction of minimum
contract levels will affect
around 300 providers from this
September and a further 100
in 2012, and perhaps more
significantly the impact of a
Work Programme-style payment
by results regime is expected to
be challenging; pilots suggest
funding will be solely for
outcomes with nothing in the
payment regime to recognise
retention costs.
Continued…
The perception that
management teams are not
addressing the situation may
be inaccurate but is a factor
in the external environment
that is affecting the sector.
New Freedoms: New Focus
12
Emerging challenges
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The analysis of the state
we’re in highlights a particular
difficulty of using historical
(2009/10) data to inform future
planning, particularly at a time
like this when there is such a
fault line between the past and
future. Policy also moves on and
since the publication of ‘The
new world we’re in’ in January
2011, shifts in the sector are
already altering the picture.
For example the withdrawal of
EMAs, changes in entitlements
for those on ‘inactive’ benefits,
and the re-balancing of the
entitlement curriculum will
impact on institutions and
learners from this September, if
they haven’t done so already.
The emerging challenges that
have been identified so far
include:
Other emerging challenges –
the impact of sustained funding
cuts, raising the participation
age, a greater emphasis on
job outcomes and the opening
up of higher education
opportunities for the sector
– have also been identified,
again through consultation
and discussion with sector
representatives, membership
bodies and strategic partners,
and through analysis of policy
developments.
• developing a ‘distinct and
vocationally-focused’ offer;
• less public money and the
need to do more with it,
including generating income
from private sources;
• restricted entitlements to
learning, increases in fees,
and the introduction of loans
for learning;
• a greater emphasis on job
outcomes: payment by
results, supporting learners
into employment, and
recording job outcomes;
• raising the participation age
and reconciling different
approaches to the pre- and
post-19 learning systems in
organisations with a broad
post-16 offer;
• developing and extending
affordable, quality higher
education provision;
supporting and networking
growth in SMEs and micro
businesses;
The complex interaction of
these emerging challenges with
changes in our wider economic
and social life, and proposals for
public service reform, make for a
fuzzy picture.
• greater freedom and
responsibility to respond
to communities (of place,
interest, and employers)
and shifts in the balance of
accountability;
Through further dialogue and
discussion over the autumn and
beyond, it is hoped this picture
will become clearer, forming
the basis for the development
of a new vision, purpose and
role for the sector. At this stage,
the next step in the strategic
framework is the articulation
of emerging ambitions for the
sector.
• the need to improve the
visibility of colleges’ and
providers’ contributions to
economic and social renewal,
and the sector’s collective
social value; and
• developing the talent in the
workforce that reflects and
leads the sector it serves.
Emerging challenges have been identified
through consultation and discussion
with sector representatives, membership
bodies and strategic partners...
New Freedoms: New Focus
13
Strategic ambitions
From the analysis of the context
in which the sector is operating,
seven strategic ambitions for
the sector as a whole have
begun to emerge. We believe we
should together be developing
a learning and skills system
in which:
• providers are acknowledged
as visible and effective
contributors to the Big
Society, harnessing the selfdetermination and sense
of civic responsibility of
individuals, organisations
and communities;
• learners and employers
experience innovative
and inspiring teaching
and learning, and achieve
successful outcomes
from learning in positive
and supportive learning
environments;
These proposals represent a
launch platform for further
discussions with the sector over
the autumn and winter about
raising our sights towards a
new strategy that establishes
the sector’s role in shaping and
realising its future vision and
purposes.
• the sector makes a
measurable difference
to inclusive, cohesive and
diverse communities and
to improving social mobility
and equalities;
• technology creates
innovative, global education
platforms that connect
learners and employers to
experiences far beyond their
own communities;
• providers and professionals
plan and operate effectively
to shape the future in a more
devolved system, driven by
empowered customers and
learners and visibly responsive
and accountable to their
communities; and
The new strategy will need
to develop a robust set of
measures for everyone with a
stake in the sector to review
progress and performance
and account for the wider
contribution of learning and
skills to economic and social life.
• providers are recognised
as key delivery partners
in economic growth, both
nationally and locally: for
their focus on SMEs and micro
businesses, and developing
the employability and
enterprise skills of individuals
and communities;
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• sector providers with
exemplary leadership and
governance and fit-forpurpose organisational forms
operate cost-effectively and
efficiently as a coherent,
networked system.
New Freedoms: New Focus
14
An interdependent
approach
Everyone involved in the
learning and skills system holds
a share of responsibility for
quality improvement, and for
designing responses to new
economic and social agendas,
and shaping the future through
innovative practice and
engagement with communities.
Quality in the new world we’re
in will be driven more through
empowered learners and
employers making choices
and through strengthened
accountability to customers and
community partners7.
In a system where learners
and employers are increasingly
expected to pay, the decisions
they take about where to
direct their private investment
will also increasingly influence
notions of quality.
The new world we are in will be driven
more through empowered learners and
employers making choices...
Empowered
learners, employers
and communities
Sector membership
bodies and
strategic partners
Advocating for and
supporting their
members and the
FE workforce
The recent BIS consultation New challenges, new chances: next steps in implementing the further education
reform programme. (August 2011) states clearly that learner choice is to become the key determinant of what
provision is funded.
Driving the system,
shaping provision and
defining quality
LSIS
Education and training
organisations
Promoting
and driving
improvement and
development across
the sector
Advocating for, inspiring and
delivering success for their
learners
7
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New Freedoms: New Focus
15
Outcomes
framework
As part of the new strategy,
a new outcomes framework
should support the sector
to articulate a range of
successful outcomes from
learning, including the wider
economic and social returns
on investment, both public
and private.
A new guiding framework
is needed to generate more
meaningful metrics to account
for the sector’s strategic
engagement with, and
contribution to, its communities
and localities and to enable
the sector overall to review its
progress and performance, both
quantitatively and qualitatively.
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Outcomes for the future should
exemplify the sector’s vision,
purpose and strategic ambitions
and the emerging shifts in the
balance of accountability in the
system overall.
Inclusive strategy
A new framework should also
consider the extent of the
population not engaged in
education and training and aim
to ensure that the new strategy
is as inclusive as possible.
LSIS will work jointly with the
sector, sector membership
bodies, Ofsted, and the Skills
Funding Agency to explore the
scope to develop an outcomes
framework for learning and
skills, taking account of
the National Improvement
Partnership Board’s work
on FE public information,
the Skills Funding Agency’s
work on efficiency indicators,
and the new performance
framework being developed by
the Department of Business,
Innovation and Skills.
It will also review the emerging
evidence on social return on
investment and the implications
of the 2020 Public Services
Hub’s social productivity
framework for capturing the
‘social value’ of learning and
skills.
New Freedoms: New Focus
16
Annex 1
Learner participation
Learner participation and success rates
16-18
Around 4.6 million learners in England were supported by the
sector in 2009/10, rising to over 5 million if school sixth form
colleges are included.
19-24
Of the 4.6 million:
25-49
• 1.1 million were under 19; 770,600 were aged 19-24;
just over 2.03 million were aged 25-49; and 726,000
were over 50;
• in overall terms, under 19 learners represent a little under a
quarter of the total learner population, 19-24 year olds 17%,
25-49 year olds 44%, and 50+ 16%8; and
• just over 1 in 10 of the adult population was supported in the
formal learning and skills system in 2009/10. 55 per cent of
under 19s (though that figure rises to 80 per cent if school sixth
forms are included); 18 per cent of 19-24 year olds; 1 in 8 of all
25-49 year olds; and just 4 per cent of those aged 50+.
Figure 1 right shows learner numbers by age (above) and learner
numbers by age as a proportion of the total adult population (below).
Figure 1
50+
.5m
1m
1.5m
2m
2.5m
5m
10m
15m
20m
25m
16-18
19-24
25-49
50+
Learner numbers Total population
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8
The percentages given do not add up to 100, due to rounding
New Freedoms: New Focus
17
Learner participation and success rates continued
FE learner responsive success rates
75%
70%
65%
20
09
/1
0
20
08
/0
9
60%
20
05
/0
6
Inspection judgements on outcomes for learners indicate that
outstanding performance was highest among work-based learning
providers: 8 per cent compared to 6 per cent in colleges. Good or
better learning outcomes were highest by some way among ACL
providers. The corresponding college and work-based learning
proportions were 50 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.
80%
20
07
/0
8
Approximately two-thirds of all learners are studying at level 2 or 3
with success rates of 80 per cent and 80.9 per cent respectively for
learner responsive level 2 qualifications in 2009/10 (76.5 per cent
and 75 per cent for full level 2 and 3 qualifications).
85%
20
06
/0
7
The complexities surrounding the data on success rates make overall
conclusions difficult and misleading. But what is clear is that learner
responsive success rates have risen steadily between 2005/06 and
2009/10 across all qualification levels except for Skills for Life, where
they have decreased slightly in the last year to 74.7 per cent. Success
rates for apprenticeship frameworks have risen dramatically since
2005/06 – by over 25 percentage points to 73.8 per cent in 2009/10
(see figures 2 and 3, right and overleaf).
Figure 2
Total Skills for Life Full Level 2 Full Level 3 Level 2 Level 3
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New Freedoms: New Focus
18
Apprenticeship success rates
Figure 3
80%
75%
70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
45%
20
09
/1
0
20
08
/0
9
20
07
/0
8
20
06
/0
7
20
05
/0
6
40%
Total Intermediate level Advanced Level
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New Freedoms: New Focus
19
Equality, diversity and
widening participation
Of the 4.6 million learners
supported by the sector in
England, representation of
ethnic minority learners (17.5
per cent) is higher than for
the population in England as
a whole (11.8 per cent). Their
achievements as a proportion
of all learners’ achievements at
17.8 per cent are at a seven-year
high. Participation by learners
with learning difficulties and /
or disabilities is at an eight-year
high – 560,000 learners (12.1
per cent of all participating
learners). Their achievements
are also at an eight-year high,
having risen to 414,190 in
2009/10.
Achievements
In addition, Labour Force Survey
data suggests over half of all
learners are from the most
deprived half of areas across
the country, with two-fifths of
19-24 year olds in education
and training coming from the
most deprived quarter of areas
in England.
With enrolments in preparation
for life and work (including Skills
for Life provision) standing at 31
per cent, 41 per cent and 38 per
cent for the 16-18, 19-24, and
25+ age groups respectively,
the sector continues to play
a significant role in widening
participation, offering
alternative and second chance
pathways to re-capture social
mobility.
Additional support
And yet, data indicates there
were 200,000 16-18 year olds
not engaged in education,
employment or training (NEET)
in 2009/10. The figure rises
to just under 1 million 19-24
year olds who are NEET and to
approximately 1.8 million over
25 who are NEET. This is one
area in which the sector has an
opportunity to make a major
impact: additional support for
18-24 year olds, and greater
freedoms and flexibilities offer
new possibilities for working
with this age group.
Research by the Inquiry into
the Future for Lifelong Learning9
highlights the projected growth
in the third and fourth age
populations (50-74 and 75+);
by 2020 numbers are expected
to rise by 18 per cent and 28
per cent respectively. And yet
NIACE’s research10 shows that
the older people are, the less
likely they are to participate
in learning – the latest data
suggests only 29 per cent of
adults aged 55-64, 17 per cent
of adults aged 65-74 and 11 per
cent of those aged 75 and over
regard themselves as learners.
The LLUK footprint which
includes libraries, archives
and information services,
and community learning and
development reminds us of the
wider informal learning system
in the public and third sectors.
Opening opportunities
Although this wider informal
and workplace learning
provision is not immediately
in scope for this strategic
framework, formal learning
providers have a range of
links with organisations and
employers offering informal
learning and these partnerships
are likely to extend in response
to the Skills Funding Agency’s
minimum contract levels policy;
to support the Big Society –
opening up more opportunities
for learning through volunteer
and self-help arrangement,
including for older people; and
to support businesses wishing
to implement learning and
development programmes for
their staff.
Also, the 2009 National
Employer Skills Survey
suggests around 55 per cent11
of employees receive some
learning through work.
Schuller T and Watson D (2009), Learning Through Life. Leicester: NIACE
Aldridge F and Tuckett A (2011), Tough times for adult learners. Leicester: NIACE
Though figures from the Learning and Skills Council (2007) show that for about a quarter of employers, at
least half of the recorded training is on induction and statutory items such as health and safety.
9
10
11 < Contents
New Freedoms: New Focus
20
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