Here, Daniel Hill, Managing Director for EMEA at Instructure explores what the government can do to better support lifelong learning and education in the UK.
This article originally appeared in the August’24 magazine issue of Electronic Specifier Design – see ES’s Magazine Archives for more featured publications.
The Government and Westminster need to consider greater reform to lifelong learning and education, ensuring new legislation is aimed at providing opportunities for all who seek to upskill.
Where is the current system falling short?
The current framework is too inflexible to help us truly overcome the skills gap facing this country, and more work needs to be done in partnering with the private sector to understand the challenges facing the economy. Without change, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will continue to fall short of providing a countrywide ambition to upskill anyone and everyone and provide better jobs and career pathways over the coming decades.
The long-awaited formation of Skills England, with a new Bill announced in the recent King’s Speech, is also an important step in bringing together businesses, education providers and political stakeholders to help overcome skills gaps prevalent across the economy. Having a single body acting as the rallying point for skills will only be effective, however, if it is open to engaging with businesses and education providers through thick or thin. It is likely to come under pressure to fix this policy area and must not become insular at the slightest issue. What we need to know is how Skills England will relate to lifelong learning, and the LLE more specifically, and how it will work with other regulators as well.
Whilst we await more information on the Bill and Skills England, we are optimistic given discussions of a body tasked with developing “a single picture of national and local skills needs.”
What can change, and what should change?
In order to improve lifelong learning and education in the UK, we believe there needs to be more flexibility, greater collaboration with businesses and training providers, and widened accessibility.
The LLE as it was introduced by the previous government is a noble effort to provide individuals access to education and training throughout their working lives. However, despite the potential it has, it is still unclear how it will be implemented in its current format given Labour’s own plans for wider reforms of the skills landscape. If taken forward, some of the reforms we would like to see to truly improve lifelong learning in the UK would include the following:
Funding currently only applies to modules that are part of a parent programme and doesn’t include flexibility to take independent courses in emerging industries, which have the greatest potential to solve the market’s skills gaps.
Additionally, the part-time or one-off learning opportunities individuals do decide to take on must carry a minimum of 30 credits per course, translating to 300 hours of study which is a significant investment of both time and funding. A policy framework of this nature does not do enough to help those who are unable to take extensive time off or have the capacity to undertake these larger courses.
Instructure’s recent report on the LLE and its ability to achieve lasting change outlines some of these recommendations, including how:
- Universities and the government should work together to establish best practices for keeping bitesized learning course provisions in line with job market skill gaps. There should also be guidelines and incentives for collaborating with the business sector
- Short courses should be benchmarked against nationwide, up-to-the-minute, governing standards which outline the transferability and lifespan of each learning opportunity
- The Government and higher education should encourage using the LLE to fund short, market-relevant courses, as opposed to full academic degrees that may quickly become dated
- The LLE should fund short-form learning opportunities that carry a minimum of 5 credits, as opposed to 30. This translates to a more committable 50 hours of learning
- Once universities have established clear frameworks, they should create awareness campaigns that promote the benefits of bitesized learning opportunities to reach existing and potential students
- To improve social mobility, the government should consider how the LLE can support widening participation and make modular learning available and attractive to those who would be less likely to access higher education
- The Government should review recent restrictions for international students and encourage the pursuit of skills-based learning opportunities, including capsule ones, that carry a minimum number of credits
Seeing an impact
Lifelong learning policies, when conducted properly, will be highly effective in supporting education institutions to provide the flexibility and quality of courses and certificates that can ensure learners meet the demands of the job market, whilst also supporting them to have thriving and evergreen careers.
If implemented appropriately, these reforms should have a massive impact on the productivity of the workforce and help promote innovation by adapting workers to align them with the latest technologies. As we continue to chart a path towards ensuring that 90% of the population is reskilled by 2030 per the needs of the country as articulated by the Confederation of British Industry, it is a necessity to stave off economic stagnation due to the lack of workers qualified to meet labour demands.
It has been pleasing to see the Government begin to take action, but these are just the first steps. By working together to truly embed upskilling in the UK’s education landscape we can confidently usher in each new wave of innovation with a skilled and agile workforce.
