Clause 6
Education and Skills Bill
9:15 am
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
It is good to be back under your chairmanship, Mr. Bayley, and engaged in our important work. I have some good news and some bad news this morning. The bad news is that, in relation to this Bill at least, I have come to disagree with Cardinal Newman, who wrote:
“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt”.
The difficulties that we are beginning to explore in relation to the Bill are causing doubt. The good news is that my hearing problem has improved. Like the young man in Matthew 17, my affliction has been lifted.
The points made in relation to the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Yeovil require amplification. The difference between appropriate learning and relevant learning is an issue, because “relevance” is a loaded word. The hon. Gentleman understated his case, with typical humility. The use of the word “relevant” means that the study must lead to accredited qualifications. The Government have a prejudice against non-accredited learning, as demonstrated by the savage cuts in adult and community learning over the past few years. Although I do not want to contradict the general mood of the Committee that one of the tests of vocational learning is employability, the first route back to employability may not be through the pursuit of an accredited course.
The hon. Gentleman is right to suggest that it would be more appropriate to use the word “appropriate”. Appropriate learning would be better than relevant learning in that regard. I shall come on to deal with the amendments that stand in my name and those of my hon. Friends, but it is worth mentioning that the hon. Gentleman makes a good case about the word “relevant”. It is a much more significant word in this context than it might first appear.
The hon. Gentleman’s second point, which was also persuasive, was that there must be no disparity between young people in the workplace who are engaged in training and young people in further education colleges or other places of learning. There is a question mark over that. I say no more than that. It is clearly the business of members of the Committee to probe the Minister on such matters. I therefore seek his reassurance in that regard.
The Bill does not take sufficient account of the huge amount of training that already takes place in the workplace. That brings us back to the issue of relevance. The explanatory notes, which reinforce the hon. Gentleman’s point, say that such training
“must consist of a course or courses leading towards a qualification accredited by the QCA.”
The Committee will know that young people are already engaged in a large amount of training provided by employers.
On the subject of training, the British Chambers of Commerce in its briefing on the Bill says:
“SMEs in particular conduct a huge amount of this and its place in helping young people attain a Level 2 qualification should be recognised within the policy of raising the compulsory participation age.”
That brings us back to the fundamental difference between us and the Government. The determination to increase participation is a common cause. We can agree about that, but the route to that end is the subject of our discussions in Committee and points to the difference in emphasis between the two sides of the Committee. My hon. Friends and I would not wish to discourage any of the existing valuable work that is being done with young people by making provisions that were insufficiently flexible to embrace that work. That is purpose of our amendment.
The YWCA has also argued:
“Compulsory participation in formal education does not necessarily lead to learning. Non-formal education and youth work awards, accredited by QCA or appropriate bodies, should be recognized as valid forms of training for those most disengaged and disadvantaged.”
That points to a matter that has been raised in the Committee repeatedly: it might be difficult to reach the young people whom we most want to re-engage—namely, those least likely to take up training or educational places post-16—unless we retain sufficient flexibility at the points of access to learning. That argument has been made convincingly by a number of hon. Members in their considerations thus far, and it is directly relevant to the amendments that I am speaking to.
Surely, there is a strong case that in-house training should fall under the relevant training or education category as worded in the Bill, or that those words should be changed. Either we change the word “relevant” to something that is implicitly more flexible, or we include the kind of training that I have described under the banner of relevance. In other words, we would amend the Bill to create a capacity for more flexibility. Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 are therefore designed to assist the Government by improving the Bill to take account of in-house training.
I make one final point. We have spoken at length on our personal experiences of employing people. My experience is that precisely that kind of in-house training is the first opportunity that young people of 16, who have left school perhaps without the strongest academic record, have to be both involved in and committed to, and I am concerned that the Bill’s inflexibility will make that altogether more difficult.