SkillsActive on changes to the skills landscape

Will Pickering, SkillsActive - 10/03/2008

Goodbye LSC. Hello YPLA, SFA and NAS

The government recently announced that as part of its ongoing reforms around skills, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) will cease to operate from 2010.

The £7 billion in funding currently allocated to the LSC will be transferred to local authorities, who will be given responsible for education and training for 14-19 year olds and ensuring that young people remain in education or training until the age of 18.

Local authorities will responsible for offering all young people in their area a full menu of choices from GCSEs, A levels, Diplomas and Apprenticeships.

The Young People's Learning Agency will be set up to help local authorities work coherently together in providing for the 14-19 age bracket.

The LSC will work closely with local authorities and others to manage the transition with shadow sub-regional arrangements due to be put in place from January 2009.

The government will also direct £4 billion a year through a new Skills Funding Agency to administer the public money going to FE colleges and training organisations providing training and skills for adults, post-19.

The Agency will oversee the creation and management of the new England-wide adult advancement and careers service, which will work with Jobcentre Plus to boost individual demand for skills and guide people to the right training to meet their needs.

The new National Apprenticeships Service will cut across both age groups and take “end-to-end responsibility for the Apprenticeships programme, including ultimate accountability for national delivery of targets”.

It will sit within the LSC and then transfer to the Skills Funding Agency and report to the Secretaries of State of DCSF and DIUS.

Click here for more information.

A consultation on the changes is currently running until June 2008.

New Commission for Skills

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) was a direct recommendation of Lord Leitch’s review of skills and will take responsibility for advising the government on skills and employment strategies. It will also be responsible for advising ministers on the re-licensing of Sector Skills Councils.

The UKCES will produce a vision, strategy and operational plan for 2008-09 by the end of June 2008, following this up with a five year plan early in 2009.

Chaired by Sir Michael Rake (chair of British Telecom plc), it will annually assess progress towards the government’s targets of making the UK a world-class leader in employment and skills by 2020.  It will work across all four nations in the UK to support and advise the relevant ministers on the strategies and policies needed to increase employment, skills and productivity.

As a result of the creation of the UKCES, the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and the National Employer Panel (NEP) have both disbanded.

Click here for more information on the Commission.

The Alliance of Sector Skills Councils

Following the closure of the SSDA, the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils is a new organisation, which was launched on 1st April 2008, comprising all 25 Sector Skills Councils.  The full extent of the Alliance’s scope will develop over time, but its core purpose is to:

• Promote understanding of the role of SSCs within the skills system across the four home nations;
• Co-ordinate policy positions and strategic work on skills with stakeholders across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland;
• Help build the performance capability of the Sector Skills Councils, to ensure they continue to work effectively on the employer-driven skills agenda.

Each Sector Skills Council will take responsibility for a particular “theme” on the skills agenda and will co-ordinate both policy stances and action on this theme across the whole Sector Skills Council network. 

Chief Executives of different SSCs have been appointed to take strategic responsibility for the Alliance’s work in each of the Home Countries. (Wales - Stephen Studd, SkillsActive; Northern Ireland – David Hunter, Lifelong Learning UK; Scotland – Jack Matthews, Improve).

Click here for more information on the Alliance.