Minister vows to slash red tape on skills

A BUSINESS Minister has promised to cut bureaucracy at further education colleges so they can respond better to employers' needs.

John Hayes MP made the comments in response to a Yorkshire Post roundtable debate about how the Government should support economic productivity through skills and training.

Leading business representatives from the region used the event to call for a reduction in time-wasting paperwork surrounding training schemes and a simplification of the National Curriculum.

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In an interview, Mr Hayes, the Minister for State for Further Education, skills and lifelong learning, said: "The system is too hard to navigate, too bureaucratic and too costly as a result. We need to make the system accessible to learners."

For businesses, he wants to "remove some of the barriers that disincentivise employers from getting involved in training and confuse learners about routes they can take.

"We are committed to making the system much more streamlined, more aligned and more effective."

He said further education colleges would be trusted more and micro-managed less so they could "deliver products that learners and employers demand".

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Mr Hayes also said the Government is reviewing the amount of paperwork involved with apprenticeship programmes and considering how to make it easier for SMEs to take on apprentices.

"It's partly about creating a clearer vocational pathway," he said.

"If you think about that academic pathway that takes people from GCSE to A-level to degree it is very clear. On the vocational side, it is much more confusing."

The UK has around 85,000 small, medium and large employers offering apprenticeship schemes for more than 150 jobs. Some public funding is available through National Apprenticeships Service.

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Asked how many he would like to see, Mr Hayes said: "As many as the economy demands. It's not for me to say what shape the economy should be. We need the apprenticeship system to reflect real economic need and employer demand."

The roundtable event, which was sponsored by law firm Irwin Mitchell, heard complaints from businesses including Yorkshire Bank that schools, colleges and universities were failing to equip students for working life.

Mr Hayes said: "We need to make sure everybody leaves school able to read, write and count. Under the last Government, 40,000 young people left school aged 16 functionally illiterate or innumerate. We have got to make sure people have those core competencies."

He said Britain has to become a hi-tech, high-skilled country and the Government must "make sure people have the right skills to meet economic needs and to get jobs".

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He added: "It's partly about soft skills and the ability to interact, present yourself properly, answer the telephone and make a cup of tea... soft skills that you should get from schools."

In addition, the nation needs a workforce with practical skills, said the Tory MP. He said: "For a long time in this country we deluded ourselves that the only form of accomplishment that mattered came from academic prowess. We have learn again what our forefathers knew – practical and technical skills have just as much value."

He added: "I want people to understand that the acquisition of those skills means they are more likely to get a job and employers to know that young people are emerging from the education system equipped with these kinds of competencies. That's another reason why we're boosting apprenticeships so strongly."

During the roundtable debate, one of the businesses, chemicals manufacturer Croda plc, said many university graduates lacked initiative. Mr Hayes issued a challenge to higher education institutions to "think about people's whole education and not narrowly about the curriculum".

TORY PROMISE TO HELP BUSINESS

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IN a message to Yorkshire companies, business minister John Hayes said he understood how important skills are to economic growth.

He told the Yorksire Post: "I want to reassure both providers of education and businesses that Government understands what they want and will deliver for them."

His is a challenging brief, based on the concerns raised by businesses at last month's Yorkshire Post roundtable debate, sponsored by Irwin Mitchell, the Sheffield-based national law firm.

Companies including Yorkshire Bank, manufacturer Croda plc and headhunter Odgers Berndtson said the Government must reduce the bureaucratic burden to help make Britain more competitive.