Blog posts for tag:policy

Following the announcement of the Apprenticeship levy rate and the Apprenticeship Institute in the Autumn Statement, the government has outlined further detail on the Apprenticeship reforms and their vision for Apprenticeships going forward. The paper, entitled “English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision”, explores how the government intends to improve recognition and quality of Apprenticeship programmes, give employers more power in shaping Apprenticeships and the state of funding for Apprenticeships. The key points highlighted in the Executive Summary are the intentions for Apprenticeships to provide “substantive training in a professional or technical route” with a strong focus on key English and maths skills, and the availability of Apprenticeships at all levels, up to and including degree level, as well as across all sectors. It’s expected the amount of Higher Apprenticeships – those at a degree level – will increase and become more widely available. This is good news in the light of recent research that showed learners who undertake Higher Apprenticeships earn more than university graduates.

Judging by the initial reaction to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement it seemed the Education and Skills sector had received its Christmas presents early. After bracing ourselves for pretty brutal cuts to budgets across the board, the actual announcements were generally positively received. Thanks in part to higher than expected tax receipts and debt interest, the government managed to avoid some of the larger scale cuts that the sector had been anticipating. Indeed, the ongoing protection to the schools budget and an increase in financial support for education and childcare continue to be welcome for the sector, spreading a little festive cheer. The government has also set out its intention to introduce a new National Funding Formula for schools by 2017, with the intention of overcoming the regional discrepancies brought about by the current system.

Ahead of the 2015 Spending Review and Autumn Statement, we’re predicting that the further education sector will continue to be negatively impacted as a result of the announcements due to be made by the Chancellor today. Following the announcement of and extensive discussion around the Apprenticeship levy, it is expected that the levy rate will be announced this afternoon.

Chancellor George Osborne today delivered the Autumn Statement, which he combined with the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, to announce each governmental department’s spending limit for the next four years. We, as well as many in the sector, were braced for up to a 40% cut in the Adult Skills Budget (ASB), as this has often been the first area in education to see large reductions in spending when the government is looking to save costs.

Skills Minister Nick Boles has recently announced that the government will be making “ground breaking changes to technical and professional education.” Many believe the upcoming changes are a continuation of the reforms brought on by the 2011 Wolf report, which sought to remove “3000 worthless courses”. The aim is understood to be to simplify the vocational education system and bring its reputation in line with university and higher education.

We were encouraged to see the recent Policy Exchange report that calls for the government to divert up to half a billion pounds from universities into Further Education. The report, entitled Higher, Further, Faster, More argues that universities are sitting on “significant funding reserves” and that too much public spending is dedicated to Higher Education, to the detriment of the Further Education sector. The paper outlines the importance of further education and the need for “a diverse and thriving post-secondary education infrastructure” alongside our “world leading” higher education system. It argues that in order to meet its target of 3 million Apprenticeships by 2020, the government must ensure the further education sector is receiving adequate funds. The report proposes that universities should at least “partially fund themselves” due to their large income streams.

The government’s lack of support on statutory PSHE and SRE in schools, particularly in relation to sex education, has been labelled “feeble”. Chair of the House of Commons Education Committee, Neil Carmichael, said: “The response made by the government is…disappointing.

The government’s Emergency ‘Summer’ Budget was announced this week; the first Conservative-only budget since 1996. The key announcement for education and skills was that the government’s target of 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 will be funded through a levy on employers. The levy will support all post-16 apprenticeships. This is likely to incentivise employers and encourage them to employ more apprentices. There are a plethora of advantages to businesses hiring apprentices and it’s good to see that employers are being encouraged to include apprenticeships in their business plans.

The Sector speaks in the FE & Skills Survey and funding is key issue (p4/5) - The news for this week is dominated by the findings of the FE Week FE & Skills survey, which finds the key concerns from people in the sector are funding, the volume of change and workload, English and maths and the ‘broad direction of travel for the sector.’ 90% of respondents were concerned about levels of funding, both for individuals and institutions, while 92% were concerned about the pace & volume of changes, and 96% were concerned at perceived levels of external bureaucracy.

The big news of the past month has of course been the General Election – the surprising outcome of which is continuing to be a hot topic of discussion. I’m sure you’ll agree that a majority Conservative government – and the resulting potential impact on schools – was not what most of us were expecting, whatever your political views. Nicky Morgan’s reappointment as Education Secretary brings some stability, but also a commitment to the Gove reform agenda which will impact heavily on teachers of learners aged 11-19.