Take learning to the people – A new report from City & Guilds warns that a top down approach to recovery puts the UK economy at risk and calls for increased devolution to address challenges that lie ahead

Take learning to the people – A new report from City & Guilds warns that a top down approach to recovery puts the UK economy at risk and calls for increased devolution to address challenges that lie ahead

We have been working closely with our core partner City & Guilds Group to create opportunities to further our 12 month FED National Consultation on a long term vision for education. Their recent report ‘Act Now to get Britain Working Again’ highlights a recurring theme discussed at our series of FED round table events.

The City & Guilds report believes thatthe Government must give UK regional economies greater autonomy over skills and employment’. Their Act Now report was compiled following a series of in-depth roundtable discussions with a cross-section of Metropolitan Mayors and LEPs, regional business leaders and educators.

Together with Mayoral Combined Authorities and businesses, City & Guilds Group has compiled a series of solutions to help bolster individual city regions, these include:

  1. More autonomy over skills funding to deal with local skills and employment challenges – Government must devolve more skills funding to the regions to Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). They would ultimately be the ones responsible for administering the funding in a more targeted and effective way specific to the business profile in their region
  2. Taking learning to the people – being more flexible about where people learn, be it digitally or in locations which are more practical and accessible
  3. Creation of employment and training hubs in areas of high unemployment – a one-stop skills and jobs matching service for adults seeking employment, or for those in employment who might need to or want to upskill or retrain
  4. Opening up funding to include any type of skills-based learning that leads towards a job – a more effective reallocation of Government funding to ensure more adults have access to Adult Training Allowance Loans to meet employer and labour market demand

Kirstie Donnelly, CEO of City & Guilds Group said “The message that came back loud and clear was we can’t apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach if we want to successfully support people back into jobs

She went on: “As we look to building a much needed post covid recovery, we need to champion locally led solutions via a national network of Employment and Training Hubs. These localised and digitally enabled hubs would provide a ‘Shop Window for Skills’, making employment pathways more visible and accessible, and ultimately provide a platform which brings together local jobseekers, employers and training opportunities”.  

For the full report click here, and for a summary of the key points raised by the report click here.

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