Legislative programme
promises a better trained workforce, greater opportunity for young
people and adults
DEPARTMENT FOR
INNOVATION, UNIVERSITIES AND SKILLS News Release (2008/026) issued
by The Government News Network on 14 May 2008
* Legal right for
employees to request time to train
* Legislation to expand and
strengthen apprenticeships
Radical moves to increase the number of people who can gain new
skills, become more productive and develop better careers were
announced today in the Government's draft legislative programme.
For the first time, employees will be given the legal right to
request time to train from their employers, and apprenticeships
will receive a boost under new legislation to unlock the potential
of individuals and businesses.
The Government will consult on how workers can be legally
empowered to request time to undertake training that will benefit
them and their employer. The practical arrangements which
employers would follow would be modelled on the existing right to
request flexible working.
By introducing a new right to ask for time for training,
employees will be able to talk to employers about their training
needs, and employers will become more aware of the public funds
available to support training.
Employers will be legally obliged to seriously consider requests
for training they receive but could refuse a request where there
was a good business reason to do so. Employers will not be obliged
to meet the salary or training costs to enable a request for time
to train but we would expect many to choose to do so, recognising
the opportunity to invest in their business.
The plans, announced by the Prime Minister to Parliament today,
will apply to 22 million employees in England. An Education and
Skills Bill will underpin the Prime Minister's drive to
extend opportunity, improve national competitiveness and raise
aspirations throughout society.
In 2004, 3.2 million unqualified adults were in work but current
trends suggest that this will fall to 600,000 by 2020. Nearly
three quarters of the 2020 workforce has already completed
compulsory education.
Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John
Denham said:
"If the job prospects of our workforce are to improve and
the country is to succeed internationally, we have to ensure that
everyone has the opportunity to rise as far as their abilities can
take them.
"Learning starts before school and it should not stop when
you leave. While it is right that we consult on this proposal, I
believe that skills development has to become an integral part of
working life for everyone. A right to request training will help
ensure this becomes a reality.
"It will allow millions of employees to start a conversation
with their employer about how they can become a more productive
member of staff and in turn will encourage employers to better tap
into some of the major Government supported training programmes
available to them."
The right will be backed by ongoing Government investment in
skills and training which will rise to £5.3 billion per year by
2010-11. In particular, employers will be encouraged to take
advantage of the Train to Gain service, which helps businesses
identify and address skills needs, further supported by Government
funding rising to over £1 billion a year by 2010/11.
Equally, the established network of over 19,000 union learning
representatives, skills accounts, with resources tailored to the
individual, and the new adult careers and advancement service -
both of which will begin operating across the country from 2010 -
will help people to maximise the benefits of the new right for them.
The new Education and Skills Bill will also set out measures to
further establish apprenticeships as a key route to unlocking
talent and improving the national skills base.
The Government wants to make sure that far more young people, and
older workers, can start high quality apprenticeships. A new
National Apprenticeship Service will lead the drive for more high
quality apprenticeships, backed up by a new legal definition of an
apprenticeship and a new right for suitably qualified young people
to get an apprenticeship.
The Bill will build on the draft Apprenticeships Bill to be
published this summer, and will strengthen and help to expand
apprenticeships by:
* For the first time, establishing a statutory basis for the
apprenticeships programme, clarifying the legal status of
apprentices and ensuring apprenticeships agreements are in place
between employers and learners;
* Creating a National Apprenticeship Service to provide new,
focused leadership for the Apprenticeships programme, bringing
together a wide range of services and operations currently
dispersed among a range of agencies;
* Providing a statutory entitlement to an apprenticeships place
for all suitably qualified young people who want one; and
* Ensuring that schools provide comprehensive information about
apprenticeships.
Mr Denham added:
"This Government has rescued and rebuilt the apprenticeship
programme and our ambition is to make it an option of choice for
as many people as possible. Today's proposals will underpin
that ambition.
"Taken together, this draft legislative programme is a real
boost to skills and is further evidence of this Government's
determination to help people get in to work and get on at work. We
must secure a prosperous future for our economy and a just one for
our society. "
Notes to Editors
1. Details of the Education and Skills Bill are contained in the
Government's green paper Preparing Britain for the Future -
the Draft Legislative Programme 2008-09. This sets out the UK
Government's plans for legislative and key non-legislative
action in next year's Parliamentary session. See http://www.CommonsLeader.g
ov.uk/draftprogramme.
2. The bill also sets out measures covering children and schools,
referred to in DCSF's press notice, available at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk.
3. If you want to make Your Voice heard, you can comment on the
programme. See http://www.CommonsLeader.gov.uk
/YourVoice.
4. You can also see what is going on in your region
Site
link: http://www.CommonsLeader
.gov.uk/regionalactivity
Skills
5. In World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review, we
stated that the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES)
would report to Government in 2010 on whether a statutory
entitlement on training is appropriate, and whether further
institutional change is required to deliver a better integrated
employment and skills service. We have decided that the 2010
review should not now consider the issue of compulsion in terms of
whether the Government should introduce a statutory entitlement
for training for those with skills below level 2. That review will
now be completed in 2014/2015. The review would still be of
fundamental importance in considering the efficacy of the skills
and employment policies and systems and progress towards meeting
our skills ambition. It would be making vital recommendations for
Government to consider and act upon. The 2014/2015 review will
have the same terms of reference as for the 2010 review.
6. Overall funding for adult skills and apprenticeships will
increase to £5.3 billion per year by 2010-11.
7. Investment in Train to Gain, which helps employers to identify
and address their skills needs, including public funding to sit
alongside their own investment, will rise to over £1billion in
2010-11.
8. Up to one fifth of the UK's productivity gap with France
and Germany can be attributed to poor relative skills.
Time to Train
9. The proposed legislation would work so that:
* employees
can ask their employer for time to train, where the training will
benefit both them and the employer;
* requests do not have to
be about accredited programmes, but might simply be for short,
unaccredited, training;
* the employer must consider a request
carefully, but could decline it for a good business reason; and
there will be no requirements on employers where an employee was
recruited less than 26 weeks previously;
* employers agreeing
a request can agree to meet the employee's salary during
training if they wish, but are not obliged to do so if it is
'off the job' training;
* employers agreeing a
request can organise the training if they wish, and indeed pay for
it, but there is no obligation to do so. Work-based training
would naturally count as 'time to train';
*
alternatively the employee may need to arrange their own
training, perhaps through a local college, but will benefit from
being released from work. The employer would not be expected to
pay towards this if they did not wish to do so; and
* the
practical arrangements which employers would follow would be
modelled on the existing right to request flexible working, with
which many employers are by now familiar. Appeals to employers,
and tribunal arrangements, would also follow that system.
Apprenticeships
6. Funding for apprenticeships will increase by almost a quarter
between 2007/08 and 2010/11, to over £1 billion. Funding will be
available specifically for expanding apprenticeships for those
aged 25 or over.
Apprenticeship starts have increased from
65,000 in 1996/97 to 180,000 in 2006/07. They are projected to
grow to almost 210,000 by 2010/11.
7. The Apprenticeship Bill, to be published in draft form this
summer, will form part of the Education and Skills Bill to be
introduced in the next parliamentary session.
Skills Accounts
8. We will start to offer Skills Accounts nationally from 2010
onwards. Skills accounts will be available alongside the adult
advancement and careers service to give all adults better access
to the range of services and support they need over a lifetime to
take control of their future.
Through a Skills Account, an individual will have:
- A
virtual "voucher" of state funding, representing their
entitlement, to purchase learning at a quality assured provider of
their choice;
- Access to a portal of comprehensive and up to
date information through the adult advancement and careers
service, signposting the learner to the choices and learner
support available;
- A clear and inspiring record of their
future goals, skills and career achievements, accessible online,
providing clear evidence of a commitment to training and
progression that can be shared; and
- Ongoing targeted advice
triggered towards the end of each phase of learning, enabling
individuals to unlock the provision available.
