The Government Education Committee is looking into the benefits of adult skills and lifelong learning to the individual, society and the wider economy.
They are also exploring the level of support available to learners, and the role played by local authorities/combined authority areas in providing adult education.
They would like to hear your views and experiences of adult learning.
On average this survey takes around 3 minutes. Follow the link below to access the survey.
The national retraining scheme is the government’s new programme to prepare adults for future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, and to help them retrain into better jobs.
The national retraining scheme is a manifesto commitment and was announced at the autumn 2017 budget.
The scheme is a part of the government’s industrial strategy for building a country that works for everyone. It’s overseen by a partnership made up of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the government.
To support the development of the scheme, the Chancellor announced £100m in the autumn budget 2018. This is for the continued testing and development of the scheme, as well as delivering the first parts of the scheme to the public.
The national retraining scheme will initially support employed adults who:
We’re investing in this group of people first as they:
We’re introducing the national retraining scheme to respond to:
The sections below summarise some of the challenges the country will face.
While automation will lead to new jobs, it will also change many of the jobs of today.
Research on the probability of automation in England: 2011 and 2017, suggests that around 7.4% of jobs (1.5 million) in England could be automated or partly automated in the future.
Some jobs will change significantly or will see reduced demand with up to 35% of jobs being at high risk of automation in the next 10 to 20 years.
Despite the range of learning and training opportunities currently available, the number of adult learners continues to fall.
Our research with adults who have used early parts of the national retraining scheme during its testing phase shows that many people face a range of barriers that prevent them from accessing further learning or training. These barriers include:
The national retraining scheme aims to boost productivity by taking advantage of new technology.
The scheme is part of other measures the government is taking to increase productivity in the economy.
As people work longer, there will be a greater need to:
The national retraining scheme aims to overcome some of these challenges, and prepare adults for changes to the workplace, by:
Further details about what we expect the national retraining scheme to offer when it’s fully rolled out are available below.
Tailored advice and guidance
People will be able to access dedicated support from a qualified national careers service adviser.
This will support people while they’re training and looking for new jobs.
Training offered through the scheme will initially focus on helping people to access English and maths training.
We’ll develop this opportunity based on feedback from people using the service, so it meets their needs.
Improving English and maths skills will help remove a common barrier that some people face when applying for new jobs.
We are developing this flexible approach to training so it fits around working adults’ busy lives.
Online and blended learning will have a broader reach and will mean more adults can access training.
Blended learning is a mix of online and face-to-face provision.
We’ll offer in-work vocational skills training, learnt on the job, as part of the national retraining scheme.
Get help to retrain is the first part of the national retraining scheme that we have started testing in the Liverpool city region.
It will help people to:
The service will:
We’ve started testing get help to retrain in the Liverpool city region with a small number of adults who:
The initial version has limited functionality, but this will be scaled up as we test and develop the service.
We’ll expand get help to retrain to other areas across the country, adding more functionality to every stage.
Get help to retrain will be available to all eligible adults in 2020.
We’re developing the scheme with a user-centred, ‘test and learn’ approach.
This means we’ll:
This approach reduces risks, while developing a national retraining scheme that:
The national retraining scheme is led and overseen by the national retraining partnership which includes:
The national retraining partnership aims to help businesses and workers:
Extensive research with potential users has helped us develop the first part of the scheme. This research has allowed us to meet the needs of employed adults who are eligible to use the scheme, as well as employers.
To do this, we conducted research with:
We’ll continue to use this approach with employers and working adults as we roll out the scheme.
From our research with people currently employed and who are eligible to use the scheme, we have found that:
When speaking to employers, we found that they value:
We’ve worked with a range of national representative bodies at conferences and events, including:
We’ve held meetings across the country so that our research is:
To do this, we spoke with:
We are consulting behavioural change specialists on a research project that will provide clear recommendations for:
We are taking forward a range of pilots and initiatives to inform the scheme. A summary of this work can be found in National retraining scheme: associated projects document.
While DfE is taking the lead in the design and delivery of the scheme through the national retraining partnership, we are working across government to make sure that the national retraining scheme complements existing initiatives and services that have been proven to work well.
This is one part of a wider strategy of government reforms which include:
A new inquiry into the current state of adult education and lifelong learning is being launched by the House of Commons education select committee.
Former apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon (pictured), who chairs the committee, will make the announcement during a speech at an event hosted by the Centre for Social Justice in London tomorrow.
A spokesperson for the committee said the inquiry is “going to be looking at the benefits of life-long learning to the economy and individuals, and also how improving adult skills can promote social justice”.
It will also be “examining the level of support available to learners from local authorities”.
Halfon will say in his speech that while it might not get the same attention as other “big-ticket items in Westminster”, poor access to lifelong learning is “one of the great social injustices of our time”.
Warning of an “enormous wave of lost opportunity about to come crashing down on the next generation of employees”, he will say it is a scandal that lifelong learning is out of reach for the millions already most disadvantaged in society.
“Lifelong learning is a more affluent person’s game,” he will tell the Centre for Social Justice.
“Those who might benefit most from adult learning and training – low-skilled people in low-income work or the unemployed – are by far the least likely to be doing it.”
Another potential problem, according to Halfon, “is the numbers of people undertaking community learning have dropped – from around 650,000 in 2011/12 to around 500,000 in 2017/18”.
He’ll say that while “just over half of those in higher socioeconomic groups engaged in learning in the last three years, just 26 per cent of people in lower groups did.
“Adult learning should be a lifeline for the shocking number of those who left school ill-equipped to grapple with the rough and tumble of the jobs market … around nine million working adults in England have low literacy and/or numeracy skills. Yet in the last ten years just 17 per cent of low paid workers have moved permanently out of low pay.”
Before announcing the select committee’s inquiry into the current state of adult learning, Halfon will say the UK lags behind other wealthy nations in spending on lifelong education, and a recent study by the Social Mobility Commission shows England’s adult skills budget “fell by 34 per cent in real terms between 2010-2016”.
Halfon will call for an adult community learning centre to be put in every town in the country, and a top-slice of the existing £60 million support fund – which is meant to specifically target those living in deprived areas – for apprenticeships and use this to support more organisations like the WEA, the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education.
Halfon will also propose increasing tax incentives both through Corporation Tax and by ensuring increased benefits for employers investing in training people with lower skill levels.
“Only by recognising this crisis and taking urgent actions to reverse it can the UK avoid today’s divisions multiplying because those with most to gain from lifelong learning continue to be the ones with the least access to it,” Halfon will say.
A spokesperson for the WEA said the inquiry into lifelong learning announcement is “very welcome”.
“Grassroots community based learning is a lifeline for many in our most deprived communities,” they added.
“As working lives get longer and we all need to keep pace with change to live full and active lives, lifelong learning becomes more and more vital.”
The select committee is inviting written submissions addressing the following questions:
The deadline for written evidence submissions is 15 August.
Success Profiles are the new recruitment framework used within the Civil Service. 
The Success Profile Framework is being introduced to attract and retain people of talent and experience from a range of sectors and all walks of life, in line with the commitment in the Civil Service Workforce Plan.
The Success Profile Framework moves recruitment away from using a purely competency-based system of assessment. It introduces a more flexible framework which assesses candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. This will give the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, driving up performance and improving diversity and inclusivity. Read more
Guidance for employers on the evidence based actions they can take to support women to progress, to help to close the gender pay gap 
and increase gender equality in the workplace.
Details
One of the drivers of the gender pay gap is that women are not progressing in the workplace as fully as their talents would allow.
Improving, measuring and evaluating recruitment, promotion and talent management processes; supporting part-time workers; and creating an environment where women feel that they fit and belong, can enable women to progress.
Are you aware of the latest Department for Education’s safeguarding guidance?
Emma Hardy MP and Jess Phillips MP have written to all headteachers in England to raise awareness of the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ ‘report, which was redrafted following the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into sexual violence in schools.
The Chancellor has presented his first Spring Statement to Parliament.
The Spring Statement gives people and businesses certainty and stability to plan for the future. Major tax or spending changes will now be made once a year at the Budget in the Autumn.
The Spring Statement:
The government has named and shamed nearly 180 employers for underpaying more than 9,000 minimum wage workers by £1.1 million.
As well as recovering backpay for 9,200 workers, the government also fined the employers a total of £1.3 million in penalties for breaking national minimum wage laws. The most prolific offending sectors in this round were retailers, hospitality businesses and hairdressers.
It comes ahead of the next rate rise on 1 April, when the National Living Wage will go up from £7.50 to £7.83 per hour. Apprentices under the age of 19 and those in the first year of their apprenticeship will benefit from a record 5.7% rise.
Later this month the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will launch a campaign to raise awareness of the new rates and encourage workers to speak to their employer if they think they are being underpaid. Read more
Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP gives keynote speech at the Crown Prosecution Service Modern Slavery Summit – 22nd February 2018. The following is a transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered.
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you this morning. Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my thanks to the CPS for organising and hosting this important summit on prosecuting Modern Slavery crimes.
On behalf of the UK Government may I also pass on a very warm welcome to you all. Many of you have travelled a long way to be here, and I hope this summit will be an important step in improving international dialogue and combatting the crimes of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.
As we are all very well aware, modern slavery exists in all our societies. It respects neither borders nor jurisdictions and its victims are subject to the most appalling mistreatment and exploitation, this brings our task at this summit into sharp focus.
I know you will be looking at identifying ways to better support victims and witnesses, and establishing a strong, active international network to tackle Modern Slavery.
In the last 8 years, the UK has clearly demonstrated that with the right will and mind-set it is possible to transform our approach to Modern Slavery.
The then Home Secretary, and current Prime Minister, identified modern slavery as a significant problem, and since then this Government has put in place an ambitious strategy and dedicated legislation to tackle it.
Prior to 2010, there was no bespoke legislation and the law enforcement response was not sufficiently coordinated or effective to deal with this type of offending.
Driving up quality, increasing choice and ensuring value for money are at the heart of a major review of post-18 education, launched by the Prime Minister today (19 February).
The UK already has a globally recognised higher education system, with record rates of young people, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, going to university. Work is also underway to transform technical education post-16 by introducing new T levels – providing high quality technical qualifications to rival traditional academic options – and overhauling apprenticeships to help provide the skills our economy needs for the future.
Although significant progress has been made, it is clear that the current post-18 system is not working as well as it could be – for young people or for the country. The review will ensure that post-18 education is giving everyone a genuine choice between high quality technical, vocational and academic routes, students and taxpayers are getting value for money and employers can access the skilled workforce they need. Read more
