Special report
Vocational education 11 June 2010 Will the political push to re-skill the unemployed deliver the right results? It may be impossible to say whether or not the impact of the recession in Scotland has yet reached its nadir, but what has become clear is that the theme adopted by political and corporate figures, namely, education and skills development, is at the heart of Scotland’s recovery. An increase in vocational training has been widely hailed by politicians as one solution to help accelerate the country’s economy when it finally staggers onto the road to recovery. With talk of skills shortages and rising unemployment, the Scottish Government has worked on a number of initiatives that attempt to get people back into education and work. Whether it is the answer or not, only time will tell. Critics have accused politicians of taking the easy option while claiming that an increase in apprenticeships and training programmes merely serve to keep people off the dole, and unemployment figures as rosy as they can be in such a dark financial climate. For the first time in four years, Scotland’s jobless rate at the last quarter was higher than that for the UK as a whole. Official figures released last month indicate the rate north of the border has risen to 8.1 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics. It is unsurprising, therefore, that greater emphasis has been placed on developing people’s skills that will get them back into employment. However, the success of such efforts will only be known when the number of jobs created in the recovery becomes clear since without there being a demand for jobs, simply increasing the supply of skills will not be enough. The plethora of figures and statistics that come out on a daily basis clearly underline the ambiguity and unpredictability of the situation. The Scottish Government and education providers boasted they exceeded targets by revealing an uptake of 20,216 Modern Apprenticeships for 2009/10. That, however, comes against a backdrop of concern from the fragile construction industry where it was estimated that the number of apprenticeships in the building trade could fall by as much as half. The Scottish Building Federation warned that of the firms that participate in apprenticeships, 49 per cent have indicated they may not be able to offer any this year, significantly diminishing the rapid progress achieved earlier. Compounding the issue is the fact that while some industries complain of an excess in qualified workers, others claim there is not enough skills to satisfy demand. The CBI recently surveyed almost 700 employers and said around half of employers responded with fears they will be unable to fill jobs with suitably qualified individuals due to an increase in demand for skilled staff. A third believed the need for lower-level skills will fall, while almost half said they were already having problems recruiting workers with skills in the areas of technology, engineering, science and maths. The report found that making the transition from school, college or university to work was one of the most challenging areas. In a UK-wide study, employers said they were concerned they will be unable to recruit students with the skills they need as the economic recovery kicks in. Nearly half of organisations also told researchers at the Confederation of British Industry, and the vocational qualifications body EDI, that they were already struggling to find staff with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths, while even more companies expect to experience shortages of employees within these areas in the next three years. Half of the 694 organisations surveyed are concerned they will not be able to fill graduate posts in the coming years. The Scottish Government and a number of partnership agencies have been quick to roll out schemes to try and address the so-called skills shortage which as well as increasing the availability of training and apprenticeships include initiatives to help people get back into work. Just last week the Government announced that an extra 5,000 apprenticeship places have just been created to help people of all ages enter and progress into the job market. The Government said the new places are in addition to the 15,000 opportunities Skills Development Scotland is already offering and brings the total number of training opportunities this year to 39,500. Another scheme is the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE), which is a national strategic partnership for responding to redundancy situations. Co-ordinated by SDS, the scheme aims to help individuals experiencing, or at risk of, redundancy. Dr Gill Stewart, director of qualifications development at SQA, said flexibility and work at both local and national level was essential. She said: “I think there’s lots going on at the moment at a number of different levels. One of the schemes that has been put together is the government-run scheme PACE. It’s an amalgamation of local and national partners responding to the many issues facing workers and employers. That scheme has looked at how to tackle the issues of redundancies and how to find the emerging trades that we should be preparing for. Another example of where this scheme helped was with assisting those who had been displaced from apprenticeships. It’s very much a local and national solution that is needed and this is just one initiative that has been working well. “Modern Apprenticeships have also been crucial and there has been a lot of work done to ensure the programme is supplying demand and replacing gaps in the market. We also need to make sure people in Scotland are being trained in the emerging industries, like renewables and energy. “We have seen in several industries that jobs are being shed. However, I think it is important that Scotland’s workforce is prepared to recover from the uncertain times. To use the construction industry as an example, things will take off again and it is important we have people with the skills that can meet that.” David Lonsdale, assistant director of CBI Scotland, said that there were some signs of encouragement. He added: “Our latest Scottish industrial trends survey found that for the third consecutive quarter, Scottish industry expects to spend more on training and retraining in the coming year than in the past one. This is an encouraging bright spot, particularly at a time when companies tell us every pound is a prisoner and when firms have scaled back capital expenditure and investment in innovation. “In our 2009 CBI UK skills survey, over half of firms said incentive payments should be introduced to encourage employer involvement in apprenticeship schemes and help deal with rising youth unemployment. We are therefore greatly encouraged that Scottish ministers have responded positively with initiatives which should help young people continue to develop their skills and help prevent a generation of young people being scarred by unemployment. “Giving Scots pupils, through initiatives such as Skills for Work, the opportunity to develop their understanding and appreciation of the types of core and employability skills which will be required of them in the workplace is an important step in ensuring today’s school leavers are ready for the world of work. “The jobs market is tough and every indication is that it will get tougher, so those who can demonstrate practical skills and commitment will be well placed to compete.” The increased trend towards vocational education has been clear across the whole of the UK – a total of 3.6 million vocational qualifications were awarded in Britain in 2009 – an 11 per cent increase on the previous year. Although there is a bigger focus on vocational education, figures have shown that places in colleges are rising so rapidly that many are turned away. Scottish colleges are rejecting thousands of applicants because of dramatic increases in applications, which have been linked to the recession. Scotland’s Colleges, the body that represents and promotes colleges across the country, said applications for the year 2008/09 had risen by around 30 per cent and figures for the forthcoming year would also be up significantly. Information obtained by the Liberal Democrats in January claimed that only four of Scotland’s 43 colleges have not turned any applicants away. The Lib Dem report said there was nearly an 800 per cent increase in applicants turned away from Carnegie College in Dunfermline and a 500 per cent increase in the refusal rate at Kilmarnock College, year on year. By January Stevenson College in Edinburgh had turned down 1,326 potential students, compared with 323 in 2008-09, the Lib Dem figures claimed. It is not just hands-on, vocational training that has increased in popularity in the last 12 months. Figures released earlier this year highlighted that thousands of young Scots will miss out on university places after applications for the 2010/11 term rose by almost one third – the highest increase on record. By January of this year there were 38,763 applications to Scottish universities, up more than 31 per cent on last year. Although the majority of applications, 28,000, were from school leavers, a large proportion of the remaining number were thought to be from older people who wanted to go into higher education as a result of the diminishing jobs market. Dr Wendy Livingstone, associate principal for business and innovation at Forth Valley College, said colleges across Scotland were helping to prepare people for work through a mixture of short and longer-term courses that were tailored to meet the needs of students. She said: “At universities in Scotland no one could challenge the fact that we have an excellent academic and research culture that has produced some leading scientists. However, there are a large number of jobs that require skills as well as academic expertise and that’s why it is critical we have a strong and progressive vocational education system. In a lot of areas, many graduates qualify but don’t have hands-on experience, that’s where vocational education is really important. “In Scotland it is essential we maximise productivity and improve the delivery of skills needed to compete. I think we need a situation where there is strong academic work but also effective vocational opportunities too – both make very different contributions but they are both important. “I think it is clear now that we need to have education and training that is formulated on an individual basis, where we work with an individual and assist in helping them to make the transition they need. Getting people off welfare and back into work couldn’t be more important, but it is critical we remember that everyone has different life and learning experience and different aspirations.” Dr Livingstone said that Forth Valley College had achieved success in a number of projects, and although small in terms of numbers, she believes it adds up to a big contribution if replicated across the country. She added: “We worked on a pilot with a company based in Stirling where we took nine unemployed science graduates. We found that one of the problems was the graduates did not have much hands-on experience and lacked things like laboratory practice. We delivered a course over nine weeks, giving the graduates training in commercial awareness and laboratory practice as part of the intense course. Six of them have already received fulltime work and I think it shows the difference and value of where vocational education can just add the bit extra to make people more employable. “It is clear that in Scotland we have to prepare also for the emerging industries. We need to develop the skills base in renewable technologies, for example, and drive the industry forward. To do this we need really sharply focused courses that can prepare individuals to work within these fields. It is sometimes a case of repackaging skills and giving an extra dimension that will be applicable to new fields.” Jacqui Hepburn, director of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, said the number of initiatives launched by the Scottish Government has been helpful. She said: “There have been many schemes implemented and they have made a big difference. In terms of apprenticeships, there has been the ‘Invest in an Apprentice’, and ‘Safeguard an Apprentice’ schemes. I think overall with apprenticeships we have to be encouraged with what is happening. When a company is taking on an apprentice they have to offer them a contract and this guarantees their employment. Of course, not all jobs are safeguarded, but that is the same in all positions.” The biggest concern with diverting resources to skills development is whether or not there will be jobs to accommodate those qualifying. Skills expert Professor Ewart Keep, of the University of Cardiff, welcomed the increase in vocational education but said there was concern over the fragility of the job market. He said: “Apprenticeships are good and in Scotland they have a better reputation than they do in England and have been at a higher level. However, I think there are reasons to be cautious. Apprenticeships will work as long as when people complete them there are jobs to go into. And it will only work if the recession is short. “If there are not the jobs to match the people completing vocational training then it’s a real problem. There is a real issue about the degree to which the economy is going to bounce back from the recession. I have suspicions that it will not be quick. If the jobs are not there, a push for vocational training alone will not produce a happy ending. “Another concern is that I don’t think the Scottish economy is constrained by a skills shortage and I’m not sure that supplying more skills will alone be enough. Recovery of the economy is a much deeper issue, for example, people’s individual finances and ability to spend. The history of recessions over the years show governments, quite rightly, feel obliged to be doing something and what it boils down to is if there is work for people to do. Much will also depend on public sector job cuts, there will be cuts or at least freezes and positions will dwindle in this sector. “There has been less unemployment than people initially expected. Part of the reason for that is employers have looked at short-term working and cutting staff hours. When the economy recovers many of these employers will not take on more staff they will just increase the hours of current workers.” Professor Ewart said the Scottish Government is in some respects leading at the UK level, but questions where the funding needed to continue vocational education programmes will come from. He added: “The Scottish Government is doing some useful thinking on skills utilisation. There are a number of issues within this where the Scottish Government is taking the lead in the UK. The issue on getting the best use of skills is big and a lot of thinking needs to be done in this area. If the future job market and levels of productivity are to work, it has to be about getting the best benefits out of having a highly skilled workforce. The Scottish Government has a skills utilisation taskforce and the SFC is funding projects which test what employers might need to reorganise and move forward. “A hugely important issue is who will pay for it all? Payment has been made by the state and it will be interesting to see how sustainable that model is. Youth education will not be impacted but what will happen with adult vocational training? I cannot see there being much taxpayer money used to pay for that. It is not a legal requirement to provide this at adult level and in the UK, after the budget cuts start to bite, politicians will be looking at the adult learning budget and there is a chance it will be cut. “The issue of paying for the training will become really big, whether it be individuals paying, the Government or employer contributions. That’s a debate we have never really had, and is one I don’t think politicians want to have. However, I think in a year-anda- half everyone involved in this sector will be talking about that.” Ms Hepburn added: “I think it is a really interesting time in terms of public sector spending and its likely decline. Employers already invest pretty significantly to fund training and supply opportunities through business. I think there is also a need now to look at what individuals will contribute – it would appear that it will be a collective thing.” She added that as well as an increase in the number of traditional apprenticeships, people were also undertaking more modern programmes in subjects such as food and drink, renewables and life sciences. Critics of the push to increase vocational education have vehemently opposed its significance in helping the recovery, with one organisation claiming it was “a hangover from a previous age”. Academics at Universities Scotland, the body that represents university principals, released a controversial report a year ago that claimed: “If we do no more than fix the holes in the hull of our economic ship in recession, we will find ourselves adrift with no engine once the recession is over.” The report, What Was/What Next?, added: “The blanket assumption vocational training must be good for the economy is simply not sustained by the labour market or wage premium evidence and increasingly looks like a hangover from a previous age. “There is sometimes an indiscriminate assumption that all vocational (taken to mean post-school, non-university) education must be good for the economy. In the coming years, the evidence shows that there will be a polarisation of the labour market and the skills needs of the future will be at the highest and lowest levels. There will be little demand for intermediate vocational level skills.” But such pessimism is not repeated across the board. A report published this year by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills said that vocational qualifications frequently have value in the labour market. It went on to say the research, carried out by Sheffield University, indicates that average earnings across the UK increased by up to 22 per cent following the completion of a Level 3 apprenticeship. The figures, opinions and predictions demonstrate the unpredictability of the role vocational education will play in the recovery. In just over a week, millions of graduates will celebrate their achievements at the annual VQ Day. It will be hoped, by the politicians more than anyone, that these new qualifications will be put into employment soon and not simply become fresh statistics that deepen the wounds of Scotland’s ailing economy. Related articles: Working together 25 June 2010 Delivering on 2020 25 June 2010 A week in politics 17 May 2010 A man of substance 17 May 2010 A new beginning 17 May 2010 See all articles in this category Submit a comment |
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