What Difference Could Moving Skills to DWP Make?

The recent move of skills policy for England to DWP means things will be different for Jacqui Smith, she now has offices in two Departments. But will it make any difference to policy?

Will it make any difference to policy?

History suggests scepticism is justified. Skills, by which we mean here the Adult Skills Fund and apprenticeship policy, has been in the business department, education department, employment department, and its own department with universities and innovation. And that’s just in the last 25 years.

Ultimately what matters is what you do rather than the building you do it in. And departmental design is about drawing the lines between policy areas in the least wrong place and finding ways to work across them.

But if the Government wants to grasp the opportunity, there’s a chance to take some genuine steps forward.

1. Let local leaders lead. England’s employment and skills systems are centralised compared to many countries. That’s begun to change with devolution of much of the Adult Skills Fund and integrated funding settlements for Greater Manchester and West Midlands. But it’s still relatively limited and we have a proliferation of plans places have to draw up. Why not merge Local Skills Improvement Plans and Get Britain Working plans and devolve more funding, underpinned by agreements about how many more people will find work or get pay rises and how much more employers themselves invest in skills?
2. Do more on adult literacy and numeracy. Nine million adults in England have low literacy or numeracy, yet 63% fewer are in provision to improve these skills. Many are out of work, so why not introduce an essential skills guarantee that anyone out of work for six months or more will be offered access to essential skills provision, and sooner than that for those who need the most help.
3. Make the Youth Guarantee real. Almost one million 16-24 year olds are not in education, employment or training, risking long-term harm to their career prospects. The Youth Guarantee trailblazers are a step forward, but we need to go further and faster. Let’s see a locally-led expansion of further education places, an ambitious Job Guarantee cover the wage costs of all long-term NEETs regardless of their benefit status, and renewed focus on apprenticeships for young people. Only by doing this can the Government hit its new ambition of two thirds of 25 year olds in England having participated in higher education.
4. Simplify provision. The employment and skills systems have lots of similar sounding programmes that aim to have short courses designed with employers and a guaranteed interview at the end. Skills Bootcamps, foundation apprenticeships, previous traineeships, sector-based work academies. These are all fundamentally similar. Why not merge them together into a more flexible employer-designed programme for young people with the prospect of a real job at the end? And have a simpler list of asks for employers too.
5. Support progression and career change. Changing career comes with an average £3,600 per year pay penalty, but is increasingly necessary with longer working lives and ongoing economic change. Helping people to progress from low pay can help them, save taxpayers money (through increased tax payments and reduced benefit claims), and support productivity by raising skills and helping people work in new ways. Both require a mix of financial support with the costs of retraining or upskilling and blending skills improvements with building experience for a new role or sector. In other words, skills and employment support together. How about a dedicated career changer programme for those on benefits or new ways to combine earning and learning for those in mid career or changing path?
6. Better evidence and open data. Evidence and data are important for people and employers to make informed decisions and for commissioners to make sure impact is maximised. This becomes even more important in a more devolved environment. The DWP has an Employment Data Lab. You can submit details of your programme and participants and their analysts will tell you how much more likely they were to get jobs than a similar group of people. Why not expand that to be an Employment and Skills Data Lab? And publish regular data on earnings and employment outcomes for people taking part in employment and skills programmes, like the US does in trainingproviderresults.gov.

Of course the Government could do any of these whichever Department skills sits in. And it might not do them even with skills in the DWP. But there’s an opportunity and some tangible improvements that can be made. And you have to be an optimist to work in these areas, so fingers crossed and let’s get to work.

By Stephen Evans, Chief Executive of Learning and Work