Post 16 Skills

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has today (Friday) welcomed the new Post-16 Skills Planwhich seeks to address a longstanding need to streamline and reorganise technical and vocational education. FSB hopes the plan will encourage more young people to seek a technical education and ultimately help to close the challenging UK skills gap.

The new system will create a common framework of 15 routes across all technical education, down from more than 20,000, which will begin with high-quality, two-year, college-based programmes, aligned to apprenticeships.

The plan has been heavily informed by the Sainsbury review of technical education, also published today, accepting all of its proposals. However the Government has also been clear to add the caveat that the plan is subject to future budgetary constraints.

Commenting on the changes outlined in the plan, Mike Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said:

“Small businesses will welcome the move to streamline and standardise the immensely messy landscape of technical education. In the past many employers have struggled to understand the mindboggling number of different qualifications on offer, making it hard to tell which have value and which do not.

“We support the idea of a clear and equal pathway for young people into more vocational occupations. For too long the academic pathway has been held up as the most desirable route to learning, leaving the UK under-skilled in technical knowledge and practical skills valued by industry.

“Business will support the focus on giving all students transferable skills, particularly new focus on digital skills training which has become an ever more important to all parts of the economy.

“We now want to see the Government press ahead with this plan, fully committing to delivering the changes by 2019, ensuring the new skills system meets the needs of small businesses. While we understand the need to keep to budget, the long-term health of the UK economy is dependent on giving our young people the skills needed to get on and contribute.”