UK: Reskilling and upskilling

The higher education sector should play a greater part in the government's agenda of improving skills of the workforce, says a new report* by a parliamentary select committee. MPs looked at the review of leading businessman Lord Leitch, published in 2006, which was based on depressing statistics revealing the level of skills among the UK working population.

At the time of the report, more than a third of adults lacked the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification, nearly half of all adults lacked numeracy skills and one in seven was not functionally literate. Figures from 2006 placed the UK 17th among the 30 OECD countries in terms of the proportion of 25-64 year olds with low qualifications.

To remedy this and achieve the ambition for the UK to become a world leader in skills, Leitch recommended "radical change across the skills spectrum". He focused on adult skills, in recognition that 70% of the 2020 workforce had already left school, and proposed a series of objectives for 2020:

* 95% of adults to achieve basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy (up from a 2005 base of 85% and 79% respectively) - also known as a Level 1 qualification;
* More than 90% to have basic school-leaving qualifications (69% in 2005) - also known as a Level 2 qualification, equivalent to five GCSE's at A*-C;
* More than 40% to be qualified to degree level or above (29% in 2005) - also known as a Level 4 qualification.

These ambitious targets were enthusiastically adopted by the government. Some of the evidence collected by the committee, however, questions the fundamental philosophy of Leitch's prescriptions, particularly when people are moving between types of employment, not just looking to increase their overall skills levels.

"Reskilling, rather than upskilling, is increasingly becoming the norm and it is our view that targets and the government's allocation of resources must change to reflect that," said the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee.

The report notes that the old attitude of higher education setting itself apart from the skills and training agenda has broken down in recent years with institutions developing ever closer links with business.

The government recognises this development but wants to push it further and faster. It argues: "Higher education institutions have been increasingly positioning themselves as agents for economic and regional growth and are identifying their areas of competitive strength in research and teaching; the goal is for businesses and universities to work together and learn from each other how to generate and exploit innovative ideas."

Yet the role of higher education within the Leitch agenda, in particular its relationship with employers, seemed to the committee to be a major point of weakness within the implementation of the government's policy on skills.

In recent years, there have been considerable increases in the number of students going to university and acquiring level 4 skills which should make the Leitch target of more than 40% of the adult workforce holding such qualifications by 2020 challenging but within reach, it says.

But there are doubts whether industry co-funding of 50% will be forthcoming in the quantity required to meet annual targets of 20,000 places. Such doubts are voiced by one of the Higher Education Funding Council's objectives for the next three years: testing the policy of employer co-funding to get beneath the welter of opinion and anecdote to establish hard evidence on the willingness of employers to pay for the right higher level skills product.

The current economic downturn may make this level of employer investment even harder to attain, says the report.

* Re-skilling for recovery: After Leitch, implementing skills and training policies - Innovation, Universities and Skills Committee

diane.spencer@uw-news.com