the Leitch Review
In the 2004 Pre-Budget Report, the Government announced that Sandy Leitch had been asked to lead an independent review into the future skills needs of the UK economy. This review is called the Leitch Review of Skills, also known as the Leitch Review. The intention was to identify the skills profile that the UK should aim to have by 2020 in order to help support productivity, economic growth and social objectives. It was published on 5 December 2006.
To read or download the review visit: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/leitch_review/review_leitch_index.cfm
What follows is a summary of comments made in the press and agencies involved in higher education about the review:
Creative & Cultural Skills, the employer-led Sector Skills Council for Advertising, Design, Cultural Heritage, Music, Craft and the Arts, has warmly welcomed the Leitch Review of Skills.
The Treasury-commissioned report recommends putting employers firmly at the centre of the UK ’s vocational training system. Public funding should only be available, it says, for courses and qualifications endorsed by employers working through their Sector Skills Councils.
“Leitch will accelerate the transition to demand-led skills in the creative industries,” says Tom Bewick, Chief Executive of Creative & Cultural Skills. “It means that universities, colleges and other training providers will be judged on their responsiveness to the needs of employers and how well they equip learners for jobs in the real world.” “But Leitch also makes it clear that employers must take skills seriously too and invest in training their workforce. So in that respect it’s very much a two- way street.” Among the recommendations is a call for employers to double to 500,000 per annum the number of Apprenticeship places they provide.
Creative & Cultural Skills is currently developing the new Creative Apprenticeship with prototype schemes in technical theatre, cultural venue administration and music business skills due to commence early in 2007. The full Creative Apprenticeship framework will comply with Leitch’s call for flexible, work-based training that’s designed by and for employers.
“Much of what we are doing as a Sector Skills Council has anticipated the findings of the Leitch Review,” adds Tom Bewick. “It calls for SSCs to be ‘reformed, re-licensed and empowered’. With a top class board of leading employers from every part of our sector- chaired by Tony Hall of the Royal Opera House- we look forward to building on our achievements to date and delivering better skills for everyone in our vibrant and dynamic sector.”
Sector Skills Development Agency
Commenting on the newly-published Leitch Review of Skills, Margaret Salmon, Chair of the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA), said:
"Lord Leitch is absolutely right to point out not just the challenges to the UK economy but also the importance of world class skills in increasing productivity to meet those challenges.
"These stretching targets simply cannot be reached without the kind of radical change across the whole skills system that he is proposing.
"His employer-led approach means moving the current system from rhetoric to reality.
"Employers will welcome these moves towards increased skills development at all levels and at all ages because different sectors have different requirements.
"Employers have stepped up to the mark in supporting their Sector Skills Councils. They are now looking for 'a deal for a deal' as they increase their investment in skills in the knowledge that education and training at last looks like being better aligned with the development needs of the UK workforce."
HEFCE welcomes challenges of Leitch Review
The review of future skills needs in the UK, by Lord Leitch, has now been published.
HEFCE Chief Executive, Professor David Eastwood, said: 'I warmly welcome the report from the Leitch Review. Lord Leitch rightly sets out targets which will challenge higher education in meeting the country's future needs for higher level skills. The role of higher education is crucial to driving up economic productivity by adding value both to the individual and to the economy.
'We welcome the recommendation that some expansion in higher education should be delivered through a demand-led mechanism like Train to Gain. We have already established Higher Level Train to Gain pathfinders in three regions. We will explore with partners how we extend our support for universities and colleges in taking a greater role in workforce development, and extending their capacity to deliver the tailored flexible courses that businesses and individuals need. We look forward to working with the DfES and the HE sector to help realise Lord Leitch's vision for making the UK a world leader in skills.'
Skillset
Skillset warmly welcomes the recommendations of the Leitch Review and its endorsement of Sector Skills Councils and the industry-led approach to tackling skills and training issues.
The independent review, commissioned by Gordon Brown to investigate the changes necessary to meet the skills challenges of the UK economy in 2020, has concluded that audio visual industries should be the driving force behind devising and implementing solutions to skills and education problems via their Sector Skills Council.
Over the last 2 years the review team has been working with a wide range of stakeholders, looking at projected skills needs across all sectors in the UK economy and at what changes are needed in terms of existing provision and policy to prepare for and meet those needs.
The review is particularly concerned with:
• The social and economic problems caused by the level of adults in the UK without basic skills such as literacy and numeracy;
• The need for a highly skilled workforce to confront the challenges posed by global markets; and
• Evidence of the UK's relatively poor international position in intermediate level skills.
Skillfast
Leitch review offers hope to the textiles sector (politics.co.uk)
Monday, 11 Dec 2006 16:48
Leitch Review offers hope to apparel, footwear and textiles sector as £72 million wasted on the wrong type of training.
In the week that saw the publication of the Leitch Review of Skills it has been revealed that the UK’s textile industry is suffering as resources are wasted on the wrong type of training.
The warning came from Linda Florance, Chief Executive of Skillfast-UK the Sector Skills Council for apparel, footwear and textiles, who states that of the £80million allocated to vocational training in this sector, only 10% is useful and relevant for employers.
She said: “This industry as a whole contributes more than £10 billion to the UK economy and employs around 380,000 people and yet we are unable to provide employers with the appropriate training for their staff to ensure their businesses are equipped to face the challenges of an increasingly competitive market.
“Fashion design courses account for 40% of all sector-relevant courses, for example, but our research shows that there are very few of these types of vacancies. This bias does not properly represent the diversity of the rest of the sector.
“As the Leitch report confirms, what businesses desperately need are people with specific practical skills such as sewing machinists, knitters, weavers and pattern cutters. The existing training system presumes that skills are best taught in a classroom environment, but employers tell us that practical skills are often better taught on their premises in a working environment.”
Skillfast-UK has been working with companies and training providers to break down the historical approach to training – the one course fits all scenario - and establish new innovative models, which will help provide the necessary skills in a way that suits individual businesses. This has worked particularly well with luxury leather goods company, Mulberry and Savile Row bespoke tailors who have developed tailored apprenticeships.
Mrs Florance’s comments have been praised by designer Jasper Conran who has long recognised the skills shortage in the UK’s couture fashion world. He comments: “British design and creativity has been heralded around the globe for many, many years but we are at a disadvantage because we have never had the skilled production infrastructure to maximise its potential. The onus on design-focussed courses has produced a handful of fantastically talented individuals, but at what cost? Without the continued investment in training required to maintain the many skills and crafts that go into producing quality garments and footwear, we are merely investing in a skills gap.”
Mrs Florance welcomes the Leitch Review which has highlighted the fact that the UK remains weak by international standards, holding back productivity, growth and social justice. She said: “The Sector Skills Council (SSC) movement was built on the promise that employers, through their SSC, would have real influence on how skills are delivered into industry. However, without any real power to enforce change, Sector Skills Councils have been fighting to deliver on that promise. In recognizing the importance of an employer and demand-led system, the Leitch Review offers us hope.”
The Review has found that, even if challenging targets to improve skills are met, UK skills will still lag behind that of many comparator countries in 2020. It recommends giving more power to the 25 different Sector Skills Councils including Skillfast-UK and developing more demand-led vocational qualifications, as well as to double the number of apprenticeships undertaken in the UK.
Sector Skills Councils were established by the Government and have been tasked with representing employers in the skills and training arena helping them to increase productivity. Their aim is to facilitate relationships between employers, training providers and funding agencies so that they can develop an appropriate, fit-for-purpose training infrastructure with qualifications tailored to suit employers’ needs.
“This is an incredibly exciting sector covering everything from medical gauze used to heal sports injuries and technical fibres in aircraft wings, to high fashion garments, traditional leatherwear and specialist cleaning services.” added Mrs Florance. “Skillfast-UK represents businesses which offer a wealth of different employment options and we must ensure that we invest properly now to guarantee their future.”
Skillfast-UK’s research was undertaken with 2,000 employers in the sector ranging from textiles and clothing manufacturers to bespoke tailors and professional laundries. The research can be viewed at www.skillfast-uk.org
Financial Times
NATIONAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: Employers urged to drive skills revamp
By Jon Boone, Education Correspondent, Financial Times
Published:
Dec 06, 2006
Employers should drive the UK's skills agenda to ensure the country can remain economically competitive in the decades to come, the Leitch review recommended yesterday.
The eagerly anticipated Treasury-commissioned report said businesses should dictate how the national adult training budget should be spent and the design of courses funded by state money.
Lord (Sandy) Leitch, the former chief executive of Zurich Financial Services, said a new "demand-led" approach to skills provision was vital for ensuring the country could cope with the challenges of an ageing population and the rise of China and India as economic powers.
The skills of UK workers would have to be sharpened up at all levels, he warned, from those who were barely literate to those with degree-level skills.
He said: "Without increased skills, we would condemn ourselves to a lingering decline in competitiveness, diminishing economic growth and a bleaker future for all. The case for action is compelling and urgent."
Under the plans, employers would gain control of £3bn of public money that currently funds adult vocational skills in England. The money would be channelled through Learner Accounts and a massive extension of the Train to Gain scheme, which has a budget of just £80m.
Train to Gain helps businesses find the best training for their needs by acting as a broker between employers and training providers.
If accepted by the government, the change will further diminish the role of the Learning and Skills Council, the £11bn quango responsible for planning and funding skills provisions.
State-funded further education colleges, which the report said were used by less than 10 per cent of employers for their training needs, should have nothing to fear from the changes: "They have a real opportunity to deliver more economically valuable skills."
The Higher Education Funding Council, the main university funding body, would also lose a portion of its budget to allow employers rather than education bureaucrats to decide exactly how best to spend public money on improving higher-level skills.
Lord Leitch also called for a strengthening of the powers of Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), employer-led bodies charged with ensuring particular industries have the trained workers they need.
Under the Leitch proposals, the power to approve new courses would be stripped from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and handed to the SSCs. Only those approved by SSCs, which could also give the green light to programmes developed by employers, would receive public funding.
The recommendation reflects Lord Leitch's view that the country must concentrate remorselessly on "economically valuable skills" that employers are prepared to pay a wage premium for. The SSCs will also be expected to play an important role in meeting another key objective of almost doubling the number of apprentices to 500,000 by 2020.
Lord Leitch disappointed some in the skills sector hoping for a cull of the many agencies and quangos involved in enhancing the abilities of UK workers. However, he did call for a new employer-led Commission for Employment and Skills to be set up, which would replace the Sector Skills Development Agency and the National Employment Panel across the UK.
He also shied away from compelling employers to increase their training activities, instead launching a "pledge" for employers to voluntarily agree to train all eligible employees up to Level 2, the equivalent of GCSE level.
Skills focus must include higher levels
By Elizabeth Pollitzer
Published: December 8 2006 02:00 | Last updated: December 8 2006 02:00
From Dr Elizabeth Pollitzer.
Sir, The skills agenda for economic competitiveness ("Employers urged to drive skills revamp", December 6) should go beyond basic vocational skills and include provisions for development of degree-level skills and professional qualifications as well.
The convergence of information technology, electronics and telecommunications industries in particular creates important opportunities for innovation and economic growth.
These technologies are changing fast and are affecting almost every employment sector, with new job roles and career pathways emerging as a result.
Lord Leitch envisages a driving role for sector skills councils in relation to vocational skills. There is no need to create any new bodies to take responsibility for higher-level skills; professional bodies could be given a similar responsibility in relation to professional development.
Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director, Equalitec, London EC2V 8EA
The Guardian
Tuesday December 19, 2006
Learning the hard way
Universities must start to listen to what workers want, says Deian Hopkin
The Leitch review of skills is the Treasury equivalent of an Ofsted inspection of education and training over the past decade. Leitch's verdict is mixed but generally downbeat, and the picture he portrays is often stark, the economic equivalent of a failing school. Even if the current tough targets for skills are met, we will still lag seriously behind other countries.
As far as higher education is concerned, there is praise but also concern. Universities have provided excellent education, but too little of it. Those we have educated have benefited themselves and the economy, but universities have failed to provide fair access, and much of what we do may not be fit for purpose. The 50% participation target has given the sector an incentive to increase the number of young people going to university and to prioritise full-time first degrees ahead of part-time opportunities that may better reflect the needs of the workforce and of employers.
Leitch is critical of simple participation as opposed to real attainment. New higher education growth should not be "more of the same". None the less, he sees higher skills as a key to prosperity, and that puts universities in the frame.
Demography dictates that to achieve the target of 40% of the workforce gaining a degree-equivalent qualification by 2020, the focus of attention has to shift from 18- to 30-year-olds to the workforce as a whole. This pushes lifelong learning to the front of the stage, no longer an interesting sideline but a key component in the strategy for raising the skills level of the UK population.
The idea of going to university will be joined by Earn to Learn, announced by the chancellor in his pre-budget report, for people working part-time to gain graduate qualifications. An extension of Train to Gain to include HE-based training is being tested. This will inform responses to the Leitch recommendation for the development of a service, similar to Train to Gain, to provide access to flexible HE for employers and employees. Both schemes are attractive to the Treasury because they involve a financial contribution from employers and increase GDP investment in HE, currently languishing at a miserly 1.1% compared with 2.9% in the US.
Universities are urged by Leitch to engage directly with employers. It follows, however, that sector skills councils and similar agencies should be opened up to greater participation by education providers; something that has not happened sufficiently. Employer-led should not mean employer-only.
It is vital, for example, that universities play a central role in the development of the new 14-19 diplomas, which are very much employer-led at present and regarded by Leitch and others as central to achieving ambitious new targets. Their success will depend in large measure on their recognition by universities, both at admission and beyond.
If the economy needs high-level skills, it also requires creativity, enterprise and innovation. Higher education has sought to deliver this. There should not be a dichotomy between education and training; the economy needs both and they are not incompatible. It is a question of balance and this requires greater dialogue between universities and employers on the real relationship between supply and demand.
Financing may prove challenging. The investment required to raise skills to level 3 is calculated at £1.5bn to £2bn, but estimates for higher levels are vague. Leitch points to the review of funding in 2009 as the way forward. He suggests a form of public-private partnership for research activity. Taken with other remarks in the report about the responsibility for higher education being shared between individuals and employers, this suggests any additional funding for HE should not assume unconditional Treasury support.
Leitch says the case for action is "compelling and urgent"; we are already seeing the skills strategy evolve into a skills mission. For each university, the question is how far it remains a supplier and how far it is prepared - and able - to respond to demand.
Deian Hopkin is vice-chancellor of London South Bank University and chair of the Universities UK skills task group
Higher Education Academy: HEA Conference on WBL 13.06.06
How higher education can play role in upskilling the workforce
A report on work-based learning by the Higher Education Academy was launched at a national conference on 13 June, at which Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell was a keynote speaker.
Work-based learning (WBL) - learning which accredits or extends the workplace skills of employees - is making good progress in higher education, a report by the Higher Education Academy has found. The report, Work-based learning: illuminating the higher education landscape, is based on a study carried out by the Academy for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), and was launched at a sold-out conference in London on 13 June. The conference provided a platform for debate on how higher education can expand its role in the upskilling the workforce - a strategic priority for the Government.
Keynote speakers included Bill Rammell MP, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, and Dr Geoffrey Copland, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of Westminster and member of Universities UK's Skills Task Force.
Bill Rammell commented: "Around 50% of the adult population will be 40 by 2020. The provision and take-up of work-based learning opportunities at HE level is therefore key to our ability to help create sustainable employability together with opportunities to develop and progress throughout people's working lives. I welcome this report and the conference focus on the considerable amount of good practice that exists."
The study reveals that there is a great deal of workforce development activity underway in the HE sector. Successful collaborations exist and universities can be a source of learning, research and innovation, specialist skills, and increased productivity. While some higher education institutions (HEIs) see WBL as primarily the concern of the more vocationally-oriented institutions, there are many success stories, including the significant increase in entrants for Foundation Degrees (FDs) which are driving the expansion of higher education and meeting the demand for skills. They may include a work-based element, which sits closely with employer needs.
Part-time provision at undergraduate and postgraduate level is also seen as an integral part of how higher education institutions (HEIs) support workplace development. In the institutions surveyed for the report, WBL was seen as a means to pull together an institution's learning and teaching, research and "third stream" (knowledge transfer) activities. The report notes that HEIs are responding very effectively to what is needed, particularly by introducing one-stop shop approaches; by centralising support to deliver programmes and co-ordinate communication with academic expertise; and in establishing frameworks for accreditation and in-house training.
The report outlines seven case studies of successful WBL initiatives taking place in HEIs. For example, the University of Portsmouth expects WBL to be a central pillar of its approach to teaching and learning. With HEFCE funding, it has established Foundation Direct - a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning - which will provide e-learning support for distance-learning FD students, mentors to support the professionals in work who support FD students, and research into good practice in FDs (in collaboration with the Higher Education Academy, Foundation Degree Forward and the Centre for Recording Achievement).
An analysis of all seven case studies found that a flexible approach to delivery, in which the learner has a greater say over where and when learning takes place, is important. The extent to which WBL should be regarded as having equal value to more traditional academic learning and receive equal credit is an issue yet to be resolved in the higher education sector, though progress has been made. Northumbria University, for example, has a framework for accrediting in-house company training and can award credit for learning in the workplace. Much WBL, however, remains uncertified.
The report concludes that for many staff in higher education, WBL is already a vital and legitimate mode of learning that offers significant value to HEIs' teaching and learning. It also acts as a driver for innovation in higher education more broadly. Looking to the future, institutions will need to develop strategies that cross the cultural bridge between learning and work and demonstrate how WBL practices can be widely applied across the whole of higher education.
The Higher Education Academy is already actively supporting HEIs in tackling the WBL agenda. There are opportunities for it to play a more significant role in providing such support in future, in particular by providing better intelligence; building a comprehensive picture of the nature and extent of WBL across the sector; establishing a research base to inform future developments in WBL; and strengthening the 'community of practice' to enable the promotion of the 'pockets' of good practice that already exist across the sector.
The full report is available to download at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/researchpublications.htm