As the campaign trails of the 3 major political parties rumble onward to the general election in May, I’m encouraged by the growing emphasis being placed on lifelong learning.
Addressing industry leaders at the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual conference earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the importance of the nation’s workforce engaging in continual education throughout their working lives.
“The idea that you go to school, go to college, get a degree and stop learning and start working, that is old think[ing]. From now on, everyone is going to be thinking of how to continuously increase your skills through your life”, he said.
The Prime Minster also highlighted the vital role Apprenticeship programmes would play in his plans to bridge the gap between education and the workplace and the need to encourage an ethos of lifelong learning within the workplace.
I’m sure Mr Cameron’s comments will be welcomed by many of my colleagues in the sector who see daily the impact continual education has in upskilling learners and helping them progress in their careers.
Labour Leader Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also took to the stage at the conference to outline their vision for the future of workplace learning. Mr Clegg used the platform to make a call for better careers advice and guidance.
Mr Miliband talked about a need to address “discontent” among the British public by offering more opportunities to access vocational education. The Labour leader said: “If we win the election, our focus will be on a revolution in vocational education and apprenticeships. Again this is an agenda where we have learned so much from you, as I say, from the CBI. It’s about new gold-standard technical qualifications in schools, so 14-year-olds know what they’re aiming at.”
With renewed commitments to continued education and the spotlight now firmly placed on apprenticeships, it seems whatever the result of the next election we can remain hopeful for the future of lifelong learning.
At NCFE, we look forward to working with you to meet any changing needs of the sector and continuing to provide high quality, vocational based provisions that help learners achieve in the workplace. This is why we’re excited to announce that the following qualifications have now been approved for funding by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for learners aged 19+ and will appear in the Simplified Funding Rates Catalogue 14/15:
If you want to find out more about these or any other fundable NCFE qualifications please contact us on 0191 239 8000 or email [email protected].
