Written evidence to be reported to the House
Further Education and Training Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Bill Rammell (Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education), Department for Education and Skills; Harlow, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) the Committee shall (in addition to its first meting at10.30 a.m. on Tuesday 12th June) meet—
(a) at 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 12th June;
(b) at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 14th June;
(c) at 10.30 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 19th June;
(d) at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 21st June;
(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the following order:Clauses 1 to 13; new Clauses relating to Part 1; new Schedules relating to Part 1; Clauses 14 to 21; new Clauses relating toPart 2; new Schedules relating to Part 2; Clauses 22 and 23; new Clauses relating to Part 3; new Schedules relating to Part 3; Clauses 24 to 27; Schedule 1; Clause 28; Schedule 2; Clauses 29 to 32; remaining new Clauses; remaining new Schedules; remaining proceedings on the Bill;
(3) the proceedings on the Bill shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 4.00 p.m. on Thursday 21st June.
It is a pleasure to be here, Mr. Atkinson, and I look forward to serving under your chairmanship. This is the first Bill since 1992 to focus on further education training, which is important for a sector that is often felt to be neglected and undervalued. The Bill will help us to reform the supply side and to shape up to the skills challenge that Sandy Leitch set out clearly in his recent report. It will also address aspects of the Learning and Skills Act 2000.
The further education sector in this country provides learning opportunities for more than 5 million people a year. Those opportunities are crucial in providing skills for securing productive, sustainable employment, and they promote community and personal development. Sandy Leitch’s report should have cleared out any sense of complacency on the issue.
Although this is a relatively small Bill, it is an important one. It underpins our agenda to transform further education, which we set out in last year’s further education White Paper. The Bill includes the restructuring of the Learning and Skills Council, and it will make the council and the wider further education system more responsive to the needs of learners, potential learners and employers. It will also enable further education institutions to award foundation degrees only and will modernise arrangements for industrial training levies.
I have tabled amendments to make arrangements for improving unsatisfactory further education provision. Those and other matters that are covered in the Bill are important, and I am sure that we will discuss them in great detail. The programme motion proposes that the Committee meets twice today, twice on Thursday and twice on Tuesday and Thursday next week. That gives us a total of eight sittings, which I think is right to cover the Bill’s wide content. The motion was agreed by the Programming Sub-Committee, and I commend it to the Committee.