Written evidence to be reported to the House
Education and Skills Bill
12:00 pm
Susan Anderson: We fear that that could be an unintended consequence, which is why we have said that although we think this is a necessary step, it is not a sufficient step. There are issues that need to be tackled, but we are confident that they can be. They really must be addressed. Our fear is about not only the number of people in economic inactivity, the NEETs, but the 65,000 or so young people who are currently in employment that does not lead to a qualification—there is obviously no problem with the 100,000 who are doing an apprenticeship scheme or nationally recognised qualifications. Some good skills enhancement is taking place with young people who are currently in employment, but it is not leading to a nationally recognised qualification. If we cannot get qualifications right and do more on that, we could end up as an unintended consequence tipping more of those young people either into schools where they may not have a good range of options or into unemployment. That could be an unintended consequence if we do not get things right.