The newly published White Paper sets out a series of reforms aimed at transforming post 16 education and training, boosting skills and getting more people into work.
Key points
The Skills for Jobs White Paper enshrines the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee, and sets out a blueprint for post-16 education to enable people to gain the skills they need to progress in work at any stage of their lives. Key points include:
- Adults without a full level 3 qualification will be able to to gain one for free from across a range of sectors from April 2021.
- Skills Bootcamps offering free, flexible 12 – 16 week courses and a fast-track to an interview with a local employer will be available to adults.
- There will be a Lifelong Loan Entitlement to make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly, which can be used over their lifetime and for modules of a course.
- A £65m Strategic Development Fund will be set up to help business groups develop tailored skills plans.
- Employers will be given a central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030.
- The quality and uptake of Higher Technical Qualifications, that provide the skills that many employers say they need and that can lead to higher wages, will be boosted by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022, supported by a government-backed brand and quality mark.
- The law will be changed so that from 2025, people can access flexible student finance to enable them to train and retrain throughout their lives. This will be supported by funding in 2021 / 2022Â to test ways to boost access to more modular and flexible learning.
- A nationwide recruitment campaign will be launched to get more talented individuals to teach in further education, and there will be an investment in high quality professional development, including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme.
Sector response
Association of Colleges   Learning and Work Institute   Federation of Awarding BodiesÂ
Association of Employment and Learning Providers   TUC
On the 11th of May 2021, the government announced further details of the Skills Bill that will put into law the reforms detailed in the Skills for Jobs White Paper. You can find out more here
