The skills system needs stability too

David Laws’ recent comments to the ATL conference calling for a period of ‘stability’ in education reflect a growing concern that proper evaluation of new initiatives is needed before moving on with new ones. The RSA’s recent Schools with Soul report said 2015 should be a year of reflection, and there is, it seems, a growing political consensus that education reform should be given time to settle.

While schools have taken their share of change in recent years, the skills system has not been ignored either. The last four years have seen, for example, the arrival of Traineeships and study programmes; the setting up of UTCs, academies, free and studio schools; plans for Chartered Colleges; changes to Apprenticeships and funding routed through employers, devolution to LEPs and other local bodies; reform to both vocational qualifications and accountability measures; new funding methodologies for both adults and 16-18 year olds; changes to capital funding; and an overhaul of the relationship between Further Education and JobCentre Plus.

Many of these changes have been welcome - College Principals are enjoying the freedoms they offer and, in many cases, leading the engagement of employers in the work of equipping learners with skills that will promote growth. But the scale of change contrasts with the often-lauded German system, which has seen less innovation in fifty years than we have seen in four.

Anomalies can arise when much policy is changed simultaneously. For example, families where a young person is full-time in College can claim child benefit, while those on Apprenticeships cannot. For many, additional family finance may outweigh the benefits of choosing the right sort of programme, and this seems an odd policy at a time when we wish to promote high quality Apprenticeships.

Well-intentioned policy needs time to settle down, so that anomalies such as this and unintended consequences can be ironed out. So let’s extend David Laws’ call not only to schools, but to Colleges as well, and see if we can’t resolve some of the issues before we have more ‘new ideas’.

Peter Roberts is Chief Executive of Leeds City College, one of the largest Further Education Colleges in England. He is also Chair of the 157 Group, which represents 29 large Colleges of Further Education across the whole of the UK and aims to promote the role of these important institutions within our education and skills system.