Further education sector needs clear strategy from Government to help plug skills gap - Ann Marie Spry

With unemployment predicted to double by 2025, the upcoming recession is set to be added to the mix of crises. We need to help prepare people, so they are in the best possible position to navigate such a turbulent period. And this all boils down to skills and ensuring that people have the right competencies that can be easily transferred into other jobs should they be made redundant.

Education, particularly further education, has been central to the skills agenda for some time, but now needs more serious focus. For years, leaders from the sector have been shouting about the missed opportunities from not adequately funding this part of the education ecosystem. As the country moves into yet another crisis, those working in further education are already planning how they can respond and support the communities they serve.

Further education institutions such as those within Luminate Education Group, are well-equipped and well-versed in supporting the regional skills agenda. This has been seen already by preparing people to take up clinical support worker roles in the NHS, developing care workers for the social care sectors and training specialists in engineering and cyber security.

But what we need from our government is a clear and understandable strategy to help tackle what’s coming down the track. And this needs to be delivered in a way that does not leave anyone behind. Colleges are perfectly positioned to facilitate and drive forward skills plans as they already have strong relationships with employers and are well-connected in their localities.

Further education is a hidden gem in society and due to a lack of understanding of its depth and scope, it is often overlooked as a viable part of the solution. Given the need to act swiftly to ensure we are preparing people effectively for austerity, many in the sector are now aggressively engaging with the government in order for action to be taken.

It will be the low-skilled population that will be most affected, both during and after the recession. And they are not prepared to deal with this. They will be forced into even lower skilled jobs, leaving major gaps in the labour market that, if left unfilled, will present barriers for the country and region progressing forward with its growth, climate and levelling up ambitions.

Our concern is that the employment crisis is being overlooked as further crises unfold around it. When looking at our region, we can predict that some wards are likely to suffer more than others because of historic lower skills attainment levels and more adults without higher grade GCSE maths and English, meaning a more concerted plan is needed to target specific areas.

We need more long-term strategies from the government that will genuinely tackle the low skills of those most vulnerable to unemployment.

There needs to be bespoke training plans to upskill and reskill, which really invests in the basic skills required as foundations for skills development with a targeted labour market policy that connects workers to the right skills and brings education providers and employers closer together.

Investing in the rollout of more Institutes of Technology (IoTs) is only part of the solution and will only solve certain aspects of the issues we face. Despite the austerity that many are set to experience, we should not lose focus on how we can shape the future of skills.

If nothing is done then an extremely steep uphill battle will be ahead of us, prolonging the impact of the recession. It takes time to build skills and transfer them to other sectors, but further education providers can be the answer. They are already set up and operating in this model of responding to skills needs and working closely with employers.

If the government can wrap its arms around this issue and seek to positively support this way of working, then we can expect to see a much less difficult battle ahead of us. Putting the work in now to provide sensible solutions is an integral part of damage control.

Not only will this prepare us for the inevitable recession, but also help us better respond to the climate emergency, cost of living crisis and levelling up.

On the latter, the Learning and Work Institute has recently released a report highlighting the gap between the highest and lowest performing regions in England when it comes to adult education participation. And this is just one example of the gap continuing to widen between the north and south, putting the government’s levelling up plans at risk.

Ann Marie Spry is the vice principal of Luminate Education Group, which includes Leeds City College and Harrogate College.