On 2nd September, LEI's Executive Director, Andy Forbes, wrote to Minister for Skills, The Rt Hon Baroness Smith, relaying our initial thoughts on the Government's Skills agenda, and also our concerns for the lack of any mention of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
You can read the full letter below:
Dear Minister,
RE: Introducing the Lifelong Education Institute
Many congratulations on your appointment as Minister for Skills. It’s particularly pleasing to have someone with hands-on experience of post-16 teaching in this crucial role.
The Lifelong Education Institute is a research, consultancy, and advocacy body for all forms of post-compulsory education, with a particular focus on the skills needs of working adults. We are a membership organisation, with a unique blend of members from the FE and HE sectors, which reflects our commitment to greater integration of Tertiary Education. Our members include all four of England’s existing Tertiary institutions (the universities of Bolton, Derby, London South Bank, and West London), as well as sector bodies such as City & Guilds, JISC and the Federation of Awarding Bodies. We are a politically independent organisation, chaired by Dame Ann Limb.
We very much welcome the Skills agenda of the new Labour Government. There is a great degree of synergy between the reforms you are planning to implement – particularly Skills England and the Growth & Skills Levy - and the proposals we have been developing over the past few years. But as always, there is still much to be done to ensure success. One area of concern is the future of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement. In our view, this is an initiative with the potential to transform adult participation in higher education and skills training, although in need of some radical re-engineering if it is to be successfully implemented.
A glance at any of our recent reports will demonstrate that our approach is to develop policy ideas on the basis of real experience and innovation from the field, and we therefore hope we can assist your team in not only promoting lifelong learning, but also finding new solutions to the policy and funding challenges we face. As an illustration, four very relevant major reports will be launched this autumn:
Making Skills England Work: Labour’s path to solving the productivity crisis, sponsored by City & Guilds (to be launched at Labour Conference)
Regional Education Partnerships, sponsored by Newcastle University
Nuclear Apprenticeships, sponsored by Derby University
College Based Higher Education, sponsored by MEG Colleges
We would welcome an opportunity to meet with you and your team to further elaborate on our work up to now, and the ideas we are developing to advance lifelong learning across the UK.
We look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Forbes Executive Director Lifelong Education Institute
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