OPINION
HIGHER AND FURTHER?
Kate Shoesmith, City & Guilds’ Head of Policy & Corporate Affairs, looks at the latest developments in higher education and asks what they mean for the future of skills
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Much has been made about the need for higher level skills in the UK recently. The National Skills Audit estimated that between 2007 and 2017, there would be a 100% increase in the demand for managers and professionals.
Meanwhile, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Technician Council estimate that around 50,000 more people will be needed to fulfi l demand for higher level skills across a range of industries. The government’s support for progression opportunities
has been crystallised through a series of announcements over the past few months – and, refreshingly, it has not all been about universities and top-up fees.
PLANS FOR PROGRESS
At the start of the year, £180 million was set aside for apprenticeships, and £75 million of that was pledged for the development of higher level apprenticeships, responding to clear employer advice that apprenticeships at higher levels are well regarded by industries and a good choice for those seeking an alternative to an academic pathway. Some employers have stated their intention to offer school leaver programmes, rather than graduate recruitment programmes, in the future. ‘Our graduate-only recruitment programme hadn’t always delivered the skills that we needed for the business,’ said Procter & Gamble, who are fi nding that the technological skills of their new apprentices really set them apart from other young people. Then the long-awaited Higher Education White Paper,
entitled Putting Students at the Heart of the System, was published in June this year. One of its stated aims
The increasing acceptance of apprenticeship programmes should markedly improve the perception of vocational education
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is to support widening access and participation in higher education among those groups of people who are traditionally less likely to go to university. To this end, the White Paper proposed that 20,000 higher education places are to be reserved for those institutions that charge less than £7,500 in tuition fees per year. The White Paper also suggested that a greater range
of providers should be able to offer degrees and that it should not be the preserve of those institutions that deliver teaching and training alone. Therefore, the legislation that will follow the HE White Paper will seek to ‘...facilitate externally assessed degrees by trusted awarding bodies’. Vice chancellors are among those who are less than
pleased with these developments and have warned against the creation of ‘degree shops’, asking that the public, social mission of universities is understood and maintained.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
The ethos of this mission is in fact shared by further education providers and higher level skills provision is not new to further education either. According to data from the Association of Colleges, around 90% of further education colleges offer some form of higher education. It is also undeniable that with the onset of higher
tuition fees, more people will be looking for increasingly cost-effective options. While university is not just about employment outcomes, vocational education and training provision certainly is. So for those who are more inclined to follow work-related options, feel unable to take on the debt of university or are looking to study closer to home, higher level opportunities with other types of institutions – like further education providers – might be the best option. The development of new degree awarding bodies and
the increasing acceptance of apprenticeship programmes should serve to markedly improve perceptions of vocational education. John Hayes, Minister for Skills, certainly hopes so, stating in a recent speech, ‘But perhaps best of all, the insidious old idea that further education can be regarded as a less good version of higher education has been consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.’
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PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES
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