throughout our lives – went mainstream. It was, as Blunkett explained in his foreword to The Learning Age, about more than justifying education and training on economic terms alone. It also recognised the power of learning to improve the health and well-being of individuals and society. Blunkett, who was education secretary from 1997


to 2001, recalls that some Labour Party colleagues preferred a more Gradgrindian approach. “I have to say that when we were writing the


Learning Age paper, we didn’t always have the support and understanding of colleagues who thought this was the soft underbelly,” he says. “People used to poo-poo flower arranging


and craft skills.” Blunkett fought his corner. In many ways, the paper reflected Blunkett’s own journey through the British education system of the 1950s, 60s and 70s: attending The Royal National College for the Blind, then, via evening classes, the University of Shefield for a degree in politics, before gaining a postgraduate certificate in education at Huddersfield College of Education. Blunkett lectured in politics and industrial relations for many years. “I think The Learning Age has a greater salience


now,” he says. “A lot of adult provision that had been taken for granted, including help with ageing and combatting dementia, took a real hit after 2008 and that resource has not yet been restored. “But issues around dementia, and the issues


around growing mental health challenges, will bring people back to understand that the broader adult learning agenda is crucial to the well-being of individuals and the health of the nation.” With characteristic political generosity Blunkett


welcomes the current government’s arguably more utilitarian reforms of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). “There is a much better understanding now, with the kind of economy we will be facing in the future and the challenges we have post-Brexit, that bringing people into education and training throughout their lives, both in work and returning to work, is absolutely crucial,” he says. However, Blunkett is less impressed by funding


arrangements involving different “pots of money”, and by what he sees as a lack of integration across government departments. “I think government departments don’t always join


up well together. I think they mean to, but business and education don’t always join up with Treasury intentions,” he says. The ill-fated individual learning accounts (ILAs), announced in The Learning Age, are a case in point. The accounts, introduced in 2000, were originally conceived as a learning fund with input from individuals, employers and government. The Treasury insisted on a voucher system which unscrupulous providers soon exploited. The scheme was axed in 2001 amid evidence of fraud.


“We threw away an opportunity,” says Blunkett. “In the early stages I should have been a lot more


robust with the Treasury and told them that, if we weren’t going to do the matched funding and the development with the banks, then we shouldn’t be doing it at all.” Blunkett thinks there is still an agenda for the original ILA concept, building on the model of individual savings accounts (ISAs). Having been appointed as chair of the Heathrow


Skills Taskforce in 2016, Blunkett remains closely involved in education and training. He is currently trying to coordinate skills development across major infrastructural projects including Crossrail, HS2 and Hinckley Point in the face of growing concern about Brexit’s impact on the supply of skilled workers from Europe. “It’s a crazy situation that we might be heading for. So the whole emphasis must be on gaining those skills now,” he says. “What we now need on the back of the


government’s Industrial Strategy, and with the further education sector on board, is to ask ‘what are the practical steps we need to take to make this work?’.” Making it work will also require teachers and trainers with the right skills, and Blunkett is committed to a highly-trained and qualified teaching profession. “I’m biased because I have a post-16 PGCE


qualification,” he says. “However there are real opportunities to bring people in with practical skills. And, if people are going to continue in FE, we should encourage and resource them to also become trained as teachers. “I was also very strongly in favour of developing the advanced skills teacher. It not only gave status and standing to teachers who could mentor colleagues, but gave a career pathway to people who wanted to stay in teaching rather than go into management.” Blunkett is proud of his achievements as education secretary, including the legacy of The Learning Age, but he remains realistic about some of the shortcomings. “What we didn’t crack was the transition from school through further and higher education into continuing learning,” he says. “The economy was booming, unemployment


was low. A combination of complacency before the global meltdown, followed by bewilderment and recrimination after, led to a dip in our understanding. “I’m very proud of what the government did. But


there is no question that, across the piece, we could have been a great deal more radical.”


Issues around dementia, and the issues around growing mental health challenges, will bring people back to understand that the broader adult learning agenda is crucial to the well-being of individuals and the health of the nation.


SET members can read a full version of this interview by logging into the SET site online and clicking inTuition on the drop-down menu.


FURTHER READING • Read The


Learning Age: a Renaissance for a new Britain at goo.gl/2Bj3QU


• Read the Post-16 Skills Plan at goo.gl/f5HigS


• Read the government’s Industrial Strategy white paper at goo.gl/E9ao2D


Alan Thomson is editor of inTuition


INTUITION ISSUE 31 • SPRING 2018 11


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