‘Joined up’ ministers see room for further clarity for providers

DWP and BIS ministers have pledged to add more clarity to the ACTOR system used by training providers to record their experience and expertise in supporting the unemployed.

An employment and skills meetings, chaired by DWP Minister Chris Grayling and BIS/DFE Minister John Hayes, concluded that there was a need to deliver greater transparency in the current arrangement.

Attending the meeting, Martin Dunford, chairman of the Association of Learning Providers (ALP), warned that the current ACTOR system was not fit to ensure relevant and critical information about providers was being properly recorded to be able to inform future contract decisions.

This was a particular issue for the large number of providers that have recently been awarded prime contracts by DWP, according to Dunford.

ALP chief executive Graham Hoyle commented: “Yet another example of how ALP is directly influencing officials and ministers in their quest to deliver their policies. Once again these discussions confirmed how important it is for providers, via ALP, to raise matters of importance directly to ministers in order to ensure that providers are best positioned not only to develop their businesses but to ensure that their expertise is made fully available to deliver government objectives and help the clients we all seek to support.”

Meanwhile, the ALP has expressed concern over the government’s recent response to Alison Wolf’s review of vocational education for being quiet on the role of providers.

In its response, the government said it broadly welcomed all of Wolf’s recommendations, but offered no details about one such proposal described by the Association as “unworkable”.

The Wolf report recommended that government training monies should be targeted towards employers, for them to ‘buy in’ provider support where necessary. However, the ALP argues this would be “disastrous for SMEs who would walk away from Apprenticeship delivery”.

In addition, the ALP is concerned over Wolf’s suggestion that Apprentices without high grades in English and Maths should be required to ‘retake’, alongside the attainment of functional skills, which is suggested will replace key skills in Apprenticeships from September 2012.

According to the Association, such a decision should not have been made before the current review of functional skills has been concluded.

“Our view has never been to oppose functional skills but simply to be persuaded that they were indeed fit for purpose before any mandatory implementation,” ALP said in a statement.

Susannah Fairbairn