FABIAN POLICY REPORT

LIFE LESSONS A National Education Service that leaves no adult behind

Edited by Kate Murray, with an introduction by Angela Rayner and contributions from Gordon Marsden, Shakira Martin, Sally Hunt, David Blunkett and more General secretary, Like all publications of the Fabian Supported by the University and College Union, Andrew Harrop Society, this report represents not which has no editorial control over its contents Deputy general secretary, the collective views of the society, Olivia Bailey but only the views of the individual Editorial director, writers. The responsibility of the Kate Murray society is limited to approving its Media and communications publications as worthy of consider- manager, Claire Sewell ation within the Labour movement.

The University and College Union (UCU) is the union fabian society for academic and professional staff in post-school 61 Petty France First published in December 2017. education. We represent 110,000 academics, lecturers, London SW1H 9EU trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in 020 7227 4900 (main) Designed by Georgie Lowry, [email protected] universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training 020 7976 7153 (fax) www.gslowrydesign.co.uk www.fabians.org.uk organisations across the UK.

2 / Life Lessons Introduction Angela Rayner MP 5

1. Progression for the people Gordon Marsden MP 6

2. The numbers game Andy Westwood 10

3. Keeping it in the family David Phoenix 12

4. Inspiring growth Stephen Evans 14

5. Access for all Claire Callender 16

6. Success within reach Peter Horrocks 18

7. Voices of experience Sally Hunt 20

8. Learners in charge David Blunkett 22

9. In the right place Jessica Studdert 24

10. Principles for a purpose Shakira Martin 26

Conclusion Andrew Harrop and Kate Murray 27

3 / Life Lessons 4 / Life Lessons Introduction

By Angela Rayner MP

ducation has always been at the heart For years, these challenges have been This will enable young people, whatever Eof Labour’s offer to the British people, exacerbated. Changes to higher education their background, to continue their studies and as we face the challenges of this cen- funding have left mature and part-time stu- at university or college without fear of tury and our exit from the European Union, dent numbers in free fall. The introduction crippling debts. But it will also ensure that we must once again place education at the of loan-based funding for further education those who need to return to education the heart of our programme for government. has, by the government’s own admission, most will be able to do so, and will break One of the most important, and most led to a sharp decline in participation in FE, pervasive cycles of low-skilled, low-paid overlooked, challenges we face as a coun- and the continued belief that supply-side work and intergenerational disadvantage. try is the fact that there are 5 million adults skills initiatives will transform lives is failing Time and again it has been Labour, in living in the UK today who lack basic to reach those who need it most. government, that has helped to lead the literacy and numeracy skills. This situation will become more sig- British people into new eras in our country. Politicians talk of preparing the next nificant in the years ahead. The combined From the Attlee government, that built a generation for the jobs of the future, but challenges of our departure from the new Britain from the ashes of the second too often we ignore the generations who European Union, the increase in automa- world war, to the Wilson administration, are already here. They are the people who tion, and the growth of new industries will that forged a new Britain in the white heat didn’t get the skills they needed the first require more people to move to new jobs, of the technological revolution, to the Blair time around, and have been paying the for which they will also need new skills. and Brown governments that took our price for it ever since. These are the people Managing these transitions will not only country into a new millennium. who live in communities that many have help individuals gain new skills and break At Labour conference we took the first called ‘left behind’, but we are yet to do the out of cycles of low pay, but it will also step towards turning our National Edu- difficult work of bringing them together transform communities as new industries cation Service from a vision into a reality, with the rest of the country. take the place of those that have been lost, outlining the key principles on which it Growing up in towns now removed and it will help our economy to prosper in would be founded. I have said that we will from the high-skilled industrial jobs that the future. begin to consult on these principles, and once tied communities together, they have This is the mission of Labour’s National the essays in this collection play an impor- often not had the chance to acquire the Education Service. Not just to underpin our tant part in this debate and how we take it skills to move beyond the low-skilled work economic prosperity, but to transform the forward. I look forward to the work ahead that is now rife in these areas. These are the lives of individuals and society, and bring in building a National Education Service very people who will have spent the last meaningful opportunities to all those areas that will transform Britain into a country decade on chronic low pay, as only one in that, for too long, have been left behind. for the many, and not the few. six moved out of low pay in the last decade, That is why one of the most important and despite being those who would benefit pledges we made at the last general the most from gaining new skills, they are election was to provide higher and further Angela Rayner is the Labour MP for the least likely to return to education as education free at the point of use, for all Ashton-under-Lyne and shadow education adults. those who need it, whenever they need it. secretary

5 / Life Lessons Progression for the people

Labour’s plans for a National Education Service build on the best traditions of improving the life chances of all of our citizens. Now we need to be bold enough to build on that vision, writes Gordon Marsden

he three-fold repetition of ideas has so doing he echoed the great self-help who had benefited from financial and Tlong been a powerful tool in politics. movements in working class communities communication globalisation, and those Think of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address concerned with how people could be left behind by it. Whatever Labour does with its ‘government of the people, by the enriched and inspired at the same time as now must reflect both ethical and practical people, for the people’. Or Labour’s slogan their working lives were improved. objectives to benefit all our citizens. of ‘education, education, education’ – a Ethics, citizenship and practical im- The initiatives laid out in The Learning cornerstone in its 1997 landslide victory. provement were twined together for fig- Age were largely sidelined in government Too often education has been something ures like John Ruskin and William Morris. from the mid-2000s onwards. They now done to the people – rather than by, for or They inspired the passion for education in need to be revived in an overarching offer with them. What if we were to merge the the early careers of both Nye Bevan and to all our citizens, and this is the great op- scripts from 1863 and 1997 and talk about Clement Attlee and helped create beacons portunity the National Education Service ‘education of the people, for the people, of adult learning such as the Workers’ Ed- represents. by the people?’ That in essence is what we ucational Association (WEA), Birkbeck and The ideas never went away – many of have the opportunity to do now, making Ruskin colleges and the Open University, them were embedded in the powerful and that rhetoric a reality for all our citizens. A Harold Wilson’s great achievement, with unduly neglected 2009 book ‘Learning reality badged within Labour’s developing Jennie Lee. Through Life’ put together by the late Sir idea of a National Education Service, with David Watson and Tom Schuller. Citizen- lifelong learning powerfully at its core – a The issues this country ship and the need to relate it to learning national offer and a covenant to invigorate, faces now echo strongly has remained key for parliamentary groups enable and empower. the fears and challenges of and select committees. Aspects of that vi- For more than a century the passion sion have permeated initiatives, fostered by to transform the life chances of ordinary progressive thinkers from local authorities and devolved administra- working people has been part of the labour the 1860s to the 1960s tions, as well as the work of Union Learn, a movement’s gene pool. When David Blun- survivor from Labour in government. kett swiftly followed up Labour’s landslide The issues this country faces now That gave me the encouragement to with his 1998 Green Paper The Learning echo strongly the fears and challenges of continue addressing the lifelong learning Age, he worked closely with his former progressive thinkers from the 1860s to agenda – first in a speech I gave as shadow tutor Bernard Crick, whose work was shot the 1960s. They feared, as we do today, skills minister in 2012 at Ruskin College through with the theme of empowering that massive industrial and technological and then developed in a chapter in the citizenship for all. change would wreck social cohesion in book One Nation Fizz, published in 2014 In the Learning Age, Blunkett placed our society and leave the struggling and as a response to Ed Miliband’s call for new creativity and imagination alongside the the vulnerable among its chief victims. policy ideas. I drew on my own experiences acquisition of knowledge and skills. In They too saw sharp divides between those as a course tutor with the OU, seeing the

6 / Life Lessons life chances that study gave to hundreds At the same time the worlds of higher, learning into which both HE and FE of my students, and as a Blackpool MP further and online and distance learning remain key points of entry, the position observing how my local further education are morphing into each other much more remains gloomy. Whitehall officials and college had been a similar catalyst for my quickly, far more rapidly than many in ministers, as we saw in the passage of the constituents. FE is a cause our shadow Whitehall have realised. If we do not recent Higher Education and Research Act, education secretary Angela Rayner also address this we will not remain immune sometimes have to be dragged kicking espouses as passionately as she does early to this worldwide phenomenon – but our and screaming to acknowledge lifelong years education – both of them were expe- ability to benefit or be trailblazers will learning, not just as a general public good, riences that transformed her life. be eclipsed by our competitors in North but as a force for community cohesion and Mechanisms such as the principle of America and Asia. economic growth. credit accumulation (whose benefits I had There have always been individuals seen first-hand at the OU) to deliver that The growing sense that in government who have recognised its agenda have continued to be promoted. the current government’s value, such as when John Hayes fought Learning Through Life advocated this strongly in 2010-11 to preserve the Union in formal education settings and in the settlement for higher Learning Fund from those in the Treasury workplace, along with its call for a national education is both who wished to get rid of it. But DfE orig- system of learning accounts with top-ups divisive and financially inally planned to cut for 2018 the meagre to individuals at significant life transition unsustainable is palpable, £12m a year it gives ULF by a third. Only points. But a combination of factors – not a last-minute intervention in the Chan- least the reverberations from Brexit and the especially as regards cellor’s Budget in November following need to bolster both our existing skills base tuition fees pressure and protests has restored that and retraining older workers – are now £12m – not increased it. ULF deserves bet- placing these ideas politically centre stage. The growing sense that the current ter than that – not threatened candle end Add to that the havoc the tripling of government’s settlement for higher economies snuffing out skills opportunities HE course fees by the Tory-led coalition in education is both divisive and financially for thousands of workers. 2012 has wrought on part-time and mature unsustainable is palpable, especially as The May government’s approach to learner numbers (down 56 per cent since regards tuition fees. As Keith Burnett, vice education risks an equality of misery and 2010), plus the scrapping of grants and chancellor of Sheffield University, put it dashed hopes for both younger and older replacing them with loans for older learn- sharply in a Times Higher Education article people. The projections for the numbers ers in FE – participation in adult further in June: ”with total debt forecast to hit £200 of workers who will need to work longer education fell by 11.1 per cent in 2015-16, billion in six years and to pass £1 trillion by and retrain for the 2020s articulated in the compared with 2014-15 – and you see the 2045, it will dwarf credit card debt... “ Leitch report on skills a decade ago remain crisis in both sectors. As for the wider perspective of lifelong frighteningly relevant. We risk not just one

7 / Life Lessons lost generation but two. That is why we a broad swathe of reports in the last couple tion from another”. While Baroness Wolf need a systematic, radical plan of action of years: Matthew Taylor’s report on the said only last month: “We need to get away covering the whole age spectrum. One future of the workplace backing learning from a system dominated by the view that that recognises the changing patterns of accounts to ‘improve the lives of the coun- you must take out a three-year, full-time work, including the gig economy and the try’s citizens’, parliament’s Higher Educa- loan...Government should try to move the changes wrought by automation, and the tion Commission report this autumn, the allocation of resources to citizens and give need for proper work-life balances. parliamentary based Skills Commission them a lifetime entitlement that is truly That means valuing skills input to ed- report on the FE sector, the NUS Shaping universal.” ucation right from late primary education the Post 16 Skills Plan, the APPG’s Adult Alongside this must come the rec- into the teenage years, giving people Education – Too Important to be left to ognition that how we deliver those new second chances in their 20s and continuing Chance, the WEA’s Improving Lives and mechanisms must be shaped by radical opportunities to retrain, and developing Communities through Learning – and nu- ideas about the role of sector and place. new career pathways right through into merous interventions by select committees, This is an approach pioneered by John their 60s. But we need now a comprehen- the Open University and others. We have Denham and his team at DCLG in 2009- sive lifelong learning road map, spelling also seen recently very welcome alarm 10, but fitfully pursued by ministers since out a clear narrative of progression, social calls over how government cuts in English then. Yet we now have a range of elected justice and mobility. One that shows peo- for speakers of other languages (ESOL) metro mayors and a Labour mayor of Lon- ple at every stage of their age cycle Labour threaten a hugely important section of our don all of whom potentially have vehicles has a strategy for them, in contrast to the citizenry – EU nationals and refugees – for taking things forward. As I wrote in an silos and barriers Conservative-led gov- who have skills and talents we need. apprenticeships pamphlet for the Smith ernments have erected since 2010. The broad range of support for aligning Institute in 2013, co-authored with Roberta And the overarching framework for that higher and further education in this pro- Blackman-Woods, on how local authorities is our National Education Service, first set cess across a wide range of stakeholders, were making a difference: “The age of rely- out as a concept by Jeremy Corbyn during including business, unions, the third sector ing on government micromanagement and his leadership campaign in 2015, which I and others, should give us confidence. The modernisation to deliver what we need has heard him articulate with great passion, Institute of Directors’ 2016 lifelong learning reached a bit of a dead end.” and not least over lifelong learning, at report says how vital this will be “as global Locally based initiatives involving the parliamentary Labour party’s hustings credit transfer systems develop that will Labour-led councils, co-operatives, unions then. allow student consumers to use courses and other groups offered ideas for the It is a vision for lifelong learning around offered by one institution (both online and great social reforms of the 1945-51 Attlee which now there is convergence of views in in house) to count towards their qualifica- government. And if we really want to

The broad range of support for aligning higher and further education in this process across a wide range of stakeholders, including business, unions, the third sector and others, should give us confidence

8 / Life Lessons achieve the ‘education of the people, by the productive lives (Department of Health), The watchwords for lifelong people, for the people’ , it will need to be a rehabilitating offenders and promoting learning should always be horizontal approach in ever strengthening citizenship (Home Office and Ministry of “progression, progression, circles of cooperation based on travel to Justice) or getting people more skilled to work , regional and sub regional groupings. be economically active rather than simply progression.” As the Skills Commission said: “Devolu- stuck in dead-end work (DWP), our ap- tion settlements should include additional proach must be holistic. learning accounts, a national credit, powers across all areas of skills provision. accumulation and transfer system, linking Funding should be based on an area’s devolved budgets to adult education capability and ambition.” and employment, we put forward that Those should be the principles that a La- ambition. Buttressed now with our major bour government should operate by. Some manifesto commitments on fees in both of those possibilities are shown by the let- HE and FE, and pledges to reintroduce ter that the existing seven elected mayors maintenance grants, educational mainte- have already sent to government asking for nance allowances and the commitment to both powers and devolved funding across set up a commission in our manifesto that all skills areas. There is something irra- should now be a central part of our NES tional about this government’s grudging offer to the British people. willingness to contemplate this for adult The watchwords for lifelong learning skills but not for apprenticeships. Where should be “progression, progression, pro- there is a competence to deliver such gression”. This ensures we focus on output, initiatives to galvanise economic growth and even more importantly outcome, not we should welcome these initiatives as just the input which for too long has been essential elements in a vibrant industrial treated as an end in itself. We need a double strategy that will deliver productivity as helix – a metaphor appropriate for our de- well as transforming the lives of individu- veloping digital world – a structure which als and communities, wherever there is an accommodates accumulated learning, flex- ‘appetite’ for such devolution. ible to respond to the rapid changes of the Our NES will be guided by strong prin- The devil is always 21st century, but which is wrapped round ciples of local accountability to all citizens. in the detail in any and made stronger by funding systems that It will enshrine the principle of education transformation in public reflect our vision of education as a public having an intrinsic value not merely an good and not simply a private consumable. instrumentalist one. It will also give due policy. But that must not What I wrote in 2014 was that the parity of esteem and support (long over- cramp the boldness of revolution in lifelong learning “could take due) to educators and support staff as well our ambition us along a path as potentially significant of as encouraging the input and initiatives of the NHS in 1948”. The new National Edu- learners themselves. cation Service has echoed that comparison. When I wrote three years ago about The devil is always in the detail in It’s fitting the Fabian Society of which I’ve skills and life chances I said: “We are not any transformation in public policy. But been privileged to be a lifelong member wanting in people with interesting ideas that must not cramp the boldness of our and which has contributed so much to and mechanisms for delivering them but ambition. That is why we used the Higher Labour thinking should be doing so now that government departments would still Education and Research Bill debates last again with this collection. For, as Shake- have a significant role in helping deliver a November to advocate our new clause speare puts into the mouth of Hamlet: “The transformation in lifelong learning under 15 to establish a standing commission on readiness is all.” Labour. The key though lies in the plural. It Lifelong Learning and Adult Education. cannot simply be the responsibility of BIS In its terms of reference, establishing Gordon Marsden is Labour MP for (now BEIS) or DfE).” Whether it is about benchmarks for participation, quality and Blackpool South and shadow minister for community cohesion (DCLG), healthier, qualifications, the potential for personal higher and further education and skills

9 / Life Lessons impossible to properly cost these com- The numbers game mitments, but it seems helpful to at least try and establish the broad parameters. A The free education a National Education Service would offer must still be rough baseline figure could be calculated valuable if the funding is to stack up, writes Andy Westwood as current government expenditure plus Labour’s additional funding promised above. In HE, then, existing grant funding of £2.8bn plus Labour’s additional promise of £11.2bn and the existing expenditure in FE of £8bn plus Labour’s promise of an additional £2.5bn for skills, gives a baseline annual NES budget of somewhere around £24.5bn in 2017 prices. That is reasonably “Just as Nye Bevan and Attlee’s Govern- amount to some £11.2bn for universities similar to the overall spending set out by ment created the National Health Service and £2.5bn for skills. DFE for 2017-18 albeit via a very different in the aftermath of World War II, the next In evidence submitted to the House of set of mechanisms. The main difference is Labour Government will create a National Lords inquiry into the economics of higher that the NES increases current expenditure Education Service. We will offer cradle to and further education, the Department for significantly by replacing off balance sheet the grave education that is free at the point Education sets out the costs and funding loans with direct grants of various kinds. of use.” for both sectors in 2017-18. This totals just The additional spending promised by – Jeremy Corbyn, over £8bn for further education, including Labour for HE looks low with £11.2bn Speech to the Association of Colleges, £7.1bn of grants and contracts including compared to £15bn per year. That might 14th November 2017 for colleges, training providers and school mean their sums aren’t quite right or sixth forms. Existing loan outlays of £0.3bn that there will end up being less funding t the 2017 general election, Labour would need to be converted into NES for students or universities either via less Apledged to create a ‘cradle to grave’ grant spending and would make up some funding per student or fewer students National Education Service (NES). More of the additional commitment Labour overall. specifically the party pledged to restore would need to find. Extra spending would There are of course a significant number the education maintenance allowance for also be needed to restore EMAs for lower of variables involved in these necessarily 16 to 18-year-olds from lower and middle and middle income earners. broad calculations. First is the level of de- income backgrounds, replace advanced For higher education, there is currently mand that might result from these changes. learner loans and upfront course fees £15bn of student loan funding including Participation in 2014/15 in England with direct funding for further education maintenance loans and around £2.8bn of some 3.5 million students in FE and courses. But the most high-profile com- of grants including £1.5bn of teaching 1.5 million in HE might be expected to mitments concerned higher education, grant, £1.1bn of remaining student grant increase as those falling out of the system where Labour promised to reintroduce (currently being phased out) and £0.2bn in recent years, especially adults studying maintenance grants for university students, of delivery costs. This gives an overall part-time, return in larger numbers. This and to abolish tuition fees. Finally – and total of £17.8 billion of funding for higher will bring additional open-ended costs to much like the promised major review of education (including maintenance loans) NES spending. tertiary education promised by the Con- in 2017/18, but the current cost to govern- But there are also some important servatives – Labour also proposed setting ment makes up just £7.6bn of that. variables that might work in the National up a Commission on Lifelong Learning It is clear that moving from what the Education Service’s favour – though some tasked with better integrating further and government is currently spending to fund- are likely to be more politically palatable higher education. ing the the proposed National Education than others. The first concerns the money According to Labour’s own calcula- Service will involve considerable cost. that might be raised through the recently tions accompanying the manifesto, the Some such as Paul Johnson at the Institute introduced apprenticeship levy. Employers additional costs for each element, per year for Fiscal Studies have suggested it is near with an annual wage bill of more than

10 / Life Lessons £3m have been required to pay the ap- This research commitment will involve economy to absorb and utilise. That needs prenticeship levy of 0.5 per cent of their significant public spending too, although more than just a leap of faith. payroll above this level. In 2017-18, some as with apprenticeships, it also depends on At last month’s Association of Colleges’ £1.9bn will be spent on apprenticeship the exact breakdown between public and annual conference, Jeremy Corbyn said: training (including from employers via the private investment. levy). Labour has said that it will broaden Much store is set by Labour on the “Increasing productivity is not about squeezing the scope of the levy to fund other types success of its industrial strategy. Essentially out every last drop of energy from working of training and the NES may also choose it must deliver ambitious economic growth people, it’s about investing in people’s lives, to increase the levy pot by extending it to to allow many of Labour’s spending plans investing in their education, their skills and more employers or introducing a higher to be realised. That is a tall order both in their futures – as well as the infrastructure contribution rate. absolute terms – the UK’s long term pro- and technologies of the future.” The second variable in Labour’s favour ductivity performance has been poor and is political and concerns their frequently future growth is being revised downwards And this investment in skills of course used ‘free at the point of use’ promise. This by the OBR – and in the speed in which brings value to the economy. As Diane might be appealing political language, not any improvements might be felt positively Coyle, professor of economics at the Uni- least because of its associations with the in the public finances. versity of Manchester, puts it: “Productivity NHS, but in education spending it can But more prosaically this means that is most simply defined as the value of what potentially have a very different meaning. whilst the inputs – free tuition, unlimited a worker can produce in a given period of Income contingent loans for tuition and access, restoration of grants – are impor- time. That does not mean getting people maintenance, in both further and higher tant to Labour’s concept of a National to work harder. It means enabling them to education, mean that very few people are Education Service, its outputs matter just work smarter. Higher productivity involves currently paying up front. Instead they as much. So there are remaining policy people using less effort to get the same repay their loans after passing a salary questions about what ‘free tuition’ actually results, either because they have better threshold (recently increased from £21,000 gets students and how their learning then machines and equipment, or have found to £25,000 for full-time, undergraduate drives greater value in the economy. a better—faster or easier—work process: HE loans). This means that ministers can that is, more know-how.” claim that studying is free at the point of Colleges and universities We can make some rough estimates use already. about the cost of a National Education A National Education Service, ‘free at not only need to be Service based on Labour’s spending the point of use’, might then suggest that properly funded, they pledges. We can also discuss whether deferred payment mechanisms could be also need to be providing Labour’s calculations are based on reason- considered as most FE and HE tuition the best possible skilled able assumptions. But the challenge will be ensuring the economy will be strong costs already fit that description. It seems workers, graduates and unlikely that Labour and the NES would enough to pay for it. Much more thought perform a huge policy u-turn by using this research for the economy will now need to be given to how free to retain the tuition fee system. However it to absorb and utilise. tuition pledges and a National Education does provide potential wriggle room on the That needs more than Service follow through to smarter, more productive working. Higher and further timing and sequence of abolishing various just a leap of faith fees and reintroducing grants of different education may end up being free – but they types, whether to students or institutions. will still need to be valuable. Separate to the commitment on HE tui- To put it another way, additional growth tion comes the pledge to increase spending (and tax income) must come from Labour’s on research to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030. industrial strategy so that it can underwrite This is not strictly part of the plans or cost- increased public spending, including for FE Andy Westwood is vice dean for social ings for the NES, but will be particularly and HE. Colleges and universities not only responsibility at the University of Man- important to universities and colleges in need to be properly funded, they also need chester He is also a visiting professor terms of overall funding and also to La- to be providing the best possible skilled of further and higher education at the bour’s own plans for an industrial strategy. workers, graduates and research for the University of Wolverhampton

11 / Life Lessons policy makers. Research identifies that we Keeping it in the family will need many more people educated to at least Levels 4 and 5 (HNC and HND Bringing schools, colleges, universities and employers together in a new level) and that the pace of change will way could be the key to providing learning that meets the needs of every require people to reskill more frequently. community, writes David Phoenix This requires more accessible part-time study for the adult population, yet most of our systems are targeted at ‘tradition- al’ full-time routes. For older learners, changes to the student funding system have reduced part-time student numbers by more than 60 per cent with a damaging effect on the ability of those from lower social groups to enter further and higher education. magine if, instead of an education tion system which has evolved over time, In summary, educational opportuni- Isystem, we had an education service – a becoming increasingly fragmented and ties have never been more diverse or more service built around learners, providing complex; often seeming to be driven by complex; but this diversity is not matched them with the most appropriate education institutional priorities rather than the by flexibility for the learner and there is in the manner which best suits them as needs of the individual. A learner’s path no overarching framework to help guide individuals. Instead of following fund- through the education and skills system learners through the different stages of ing, ticking boxes and chasing dubious is complicated by non-educational fac- their career. National qualifications and performance measurements, educational tors such as funding rules, institutional systems are focused on age groups rather providers could respond to learners, their measurements, the complex framework than learner requirements, and in areas communities and local employers and pro- of qualifications, and a lack of impartial such as technical qualifications there vide the courses, the pathways and styles information and advice. remains a bewildering array of options – of learning most suited to their needs. What many policy makers regard as although the introduction of T-levels aims The idea of a National Education the ‘educational norm’ is not matched by to simplify this. Educational routes look Service is an attractive one, and one that the reality. More than half of our young like a spray of diverging tightropes with I support; but it needs definition. Whilst people do not follow what too many limited chances for learners to change di- operating in a national framework it must regard as the ’traditional’ GCSE/A-level/ rection or add to their learning. Yet there meet local needs. It must realign regula- university academic route; but those are plentiful opportunities to fail, espe- tory and financial structures to operate for who are neither A-level students nor cially when the qualification or teaching the benefit of the learner society alike. NEETS (not in education, employment or approach does not fit the learner’s need, In England we have a complex educa- training) have been largely overlooked by experience, preferred style of learning or, in many cases, their future aspirations. Learners of all ages need clearer ed- A learner’s path through ucational routes which take them easily the education and skills and successfully from school to work or system is complicated by to further or higher education. They also need easy access back into and between non-educational factors such types of education as part of lifelong as funding rules, institutional learning, whether that is a few or many measurements, the complex years after they have left secondary framework of qualifications, education, perhaps after years of work or parenting. and a lack of impartial London South Bank University is information and advice aiming to provide these opportunities

12 / Life Lessons by creating a “family of educational bling students to transfer comfortably will mean a joined-up service for learners, providers” – an initiative which could between one and another and between employers and staff. form a partial model for the delivery of a technical, vocational or more academic Regulatory structures in education National Education Service. This family pathways operate primarily horizontally with is a group of like-minded but distinct divisions between ‘layers’ – primary, educational organisations working • Post-16 further education facilities secondary, tertiary. For a new kind of together in a formal group structure. – offering a wide range of academic, vertical framework to work, some of these This structure protects the specialist technical and vocational qualifications horizontal structures in which education educational environments required by is encased need to be relaxed. And with schools, further and higher education as • Specialist professional and technical increased devolution there are likely to be well as continuing professional develop- educational institutions focused on further calls for more locally driven deliv- ment providers. At the same time family the needs of local employers ery. For a local approach to be successful, members are aligned operationally which we need increased local accountability helps ensure collaborative working and • Organisations for adult education within a national framework that is flexi- value for money. The purpose is to pro- and continuing professional devel- ble enough to allow communities to focus vide smoother educational pathways and opment on individual learner needs, whilst main- signposting to a full range of academic, taining quality assurance and financial technical and vocational opportunities • A university, perhaps with a focus on oversight. We need to move away from in a way that benefits individual learners, professional and technical education some of the current silos and constraints local businesses and the local community. that are overly prescriptive and stifle the Family members share an educational • Independent careers advice and innovation this is seeking to create. This mission and work to a common educa- guidance with outreach in libraries and means looking at education more holisti- tional framework or ethos. They believe elsewhere cally – and universities have a key role to that learning opportunities should be play in that. determined by the needs of individual Alongside individual learners, employ- Bringing institutions together within learners, not by the needs of institutions. ers will be key beneficiaries. The family a family in the way we are doing could We already have the support of our local will provide employers with coordinated allow for locally tailored provision, borough councils, leading employers and and easy access to the widest range of ed- within a national service with a strategic a number of local learning providers as we ucation and training including up-skilling approach to education and skills. And it progress the development of this system. in maths and English, apprenticeships would mean we did not have to throw out Our family approach aims to offer at levels 1-7, and high-level continuing the best of what we do. As Overlooked structures which enable students to bene- professional development. The family will and Left Behind, the House of Lords’ fit from the level, style and aim of learning offer a wide range of accredited qualifi- report on improving the transition from that best suits them when they need it, cations including the familiar – GCSEs, work to school, says: “It is important breaking down the academic/ technical/ A-levels, T-levels, BTECs, City and that existing structures, which may be vocational and age-based divides. We Guilds, HNCs and HNDs, bachelors and imperfect, should be refined and im- do not believe there is one size to fit all: masters degrees – but also less familiar proved rather than added to.” A National different communities will have different ones focused on particular local employer Education Service could be a tremendous needs, different existing infrastructure needs. step forward in education and skills, but it and different ambitions. But, as an The members of the family will must be created through consultation and example, a local family might comprise: receive operational and educational thoughtful and evidence-based adjust- benefits. They will be able to share spe- ment and not in another headlines-driven • Primary schools – preparing pupils for cialist teachers and resources and ensure overhaul. the styles of learning used by the family that high-quality facilities are used as extensively and effectively as possible, Professor David Phoenix is the vice-chan- • A multi-academy trust – comprising particularly around STEM education. cellor of London South Bank University a university technical college and acad- Shared back office functions will provide and the chair of the association for emy schools with a shared ethos, ena- some efficiency but, more importantly, modern universities, MillionPlus

13 / Life Lessons includes falls in participation in English Inspiring growth and maths, community learning, and basically everything outside apprentice- A National Education Service will require increased investment for adult ships. Apprenticeships have grown but skills. But the money must be matched by a new culture which allows there are real concerns about quality and lifelong learning to flourish, argues Stephen Evans access: two thirds of them go to existing employees and those aged 25 and over.

Stepping up So we have an economic and social imperative to increase lifelong learning. How can we do that? The funding matters – we need an effective supply of courses and learning opportunities for people. But we need to raise demand too among ifelong learning can transform lives Participation in learning also has people and employers, building a culture Land drive economic growth. It’s proven links to improving health and of lifelong learning. I argue there are five more essential than ever with an ageing wellbeing, citizenship and community, priority areas essential for a National population and changing economy. Yet and financial and health capability. Most Education Service. the number of adults participating in of our big challenges as a nation require First, is to build a social partnership ap- learning is falling, and the UK is starting more adults to learn, at least as part of proach – government on its own will not from a poorer skills base than many other the answer: learning helps us with the be enough. If we want to increase learn- countries. How can a National Education challenges and opportunities we face as ing at work, we need to engage employers. Service put lifelong learning at its heart? individuals and communities. This means listening to what employers So it is worrying that the skills base need and ensuring funding follows this in Going nowhere of the UK workforce ranks mid table at a flexible way. But it also means working It is a truth almost universally acknowl- best: 25th out of 32 OECD countries for with trade unions – thousands of union edged that lifelong learning is a good intermediate skills; and 9 million adults learning reps in workplaces up and down thing. Politicians extol its virtue as an lacking functional literacy or numeracy the country play a crucial role in expand- engine of social mobility and economic skills. This holds back productivity (and ing access to learning – and civil society. growth. They talk about the combination as the economist Paul Krugman said: Could we learn from the establishment of an aging population and changing “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the of the Low Pay Commission when the labour market, and remark that people long run it’s almost everything”), living national minimum wage was introduced will need to upskill and reskill more often standards, health and wellbeing, and and have a similar approach for learning during their working lives. communities and citizenship. and skills policy – a Lifelong Learning All of this is true; many of today’s Commission? school leavers will have 50-year careers. The number of adults Second, as part of that social part- And the pace of economic change means participating in most nership we must empower people, both that both the types of jobs available, and to raise their demand for learning and the skills needed in existing jobs, are forms of learning has because not all learning is about employ- changing. The number of jobs that may be fallen significantly over ment. Currently, people too often have automated is debated, and technology will recent years to try and fit into government funding create new jobs too. But the skills needed structures, rather than vice versa. Today it will differ so we cannot expect what we Yet the number of adults participating can be difficult to find a learning opportu- learn at school to last us a lifetime: learn- in most forms of learning has fallen nity, under a National Education Service ing should not stop at the school gates, significantly over recent years. There are you should always be able to find one that and education needs to inspire us to learn 900,000 fewer adults in publicly funded is relevant and that fits learning around throughout our lives. further education than five years ago. This your work and family life and that should

14 / Life Lessons be a clear promise to people. work, can help health, criminal justice, Putting people in charge of their own and council services save money by The power of lifelong learning is likely to build greater engage- increasing awareness of and engagement learning to unlock ment and more active choices. One way with preventative services. This included potential, drive to do this would be to give every adult a increasing registration with primary care personal learning account. This would services, reducing the number of people prosperity, and promote detail the learning they have done, and attending A&E. The result was a £3.68 inclusion is clear their entitlements to future learning. It saving for every £1 invested. could include a government top-up if Fourth, we must invest in learning for some form of maintenance support would individuals invest in their own learning, adults. The declines in adult participation be essential given the higher living costs as well as free entitlements for those on in learning are associated with falls in this group faces compared to young peo- low incomes and for basic skills. Singa- public investment. And we were falling ple (e.g. family commitments). However, pore provides an example: recognising short of an ambition for 21st century perhaps a bigger focus could be growth in the importance of human capital to their Britain even before these cuts. higher apprenticeships, which are funded economy, they gave every adult aged through the apprenticeship levy, a tax on 25 and over a S$500 FutureSkills credit 1. Basic skills. An immediate priority the payroll of large employers. (worth around £280), in effect a voucher should be increased investment in Eng- Fifth, we need to focus more on out- to spend on approved learning. lish, maths, digital, and English for speak- comes. The apprenticeship levy and the Linked to this, there should be effective ers of other languages. We have called for ambition to grow apprenticeship numbers advice to make the right choice, including an extra £200m per year, doubling current are welcome. But they risk distorting through a revitalised National Careers levels of investment, so that all adults who behaviour to hit the government’s target Service, its remit expanded to provide need these skills have the chance to access of three million apprenticeship starts by greater help for those in work. them, setting an ambition for all adults to 2020. If the ultimate purpose is to improve Third, we need a lifelong learning have these skills by 2030. productivity and people’s job and career strategy. We’ve had almost as many skills prospects, why don’t we talk more about strategies as skills ministers over recent 2. Intermediate skills. Labour has that? Otherwise we might hit the target, decades. But unless you know where committed to ending the FE loan system, but miss the point. Could we widen the you want to go, how do you know which which requires some adults learning inter- focus of the levy to workplace skills more turn to take? A lifelong learning strategy mediate skills to take out university-style generally? The same applies elsewhere: could set out this vision and the role of the loans. This would cost £325m per year, but qualifications are probably the worst National Education Service. given that almost half of this money will measure of learning apart from all the It should be a pan-government strat- not be paid back (as people’s earnings are others; but we have shown in Rochdale egy: learning isn’t just about colleges or too low) and that participation in learning that you can measure the social benefits qualifications, and education can have a covered by loans has fallen by one third of learning too. wide range of benefits, so lifelong learn- since their introduction, the potential The power of lifelong learning to ing should be a golden thread running prize is clear. It is these intermediate skills, unlock potential, drive prosperity, and through every area of government policy. along with basic skills, that the UK is par- promote inclusion is clear. A National Why not require every policy being devel- ticularly short of and which will be ever Education Service for adults must mean oped to consider the role lifelong learning more essential in a changing economy. increased investment: adult skills have could play? faced large cuts since 2010. But investment Our work has shown the role unions, 3. Higher skills. The expansion of on its own is not enough – if we build it, employers, housing associations, local participation in (mostly full-time) higher they may not come. Investment must authorities, and the voluntary sector can education by young people has masked be underpinned by building a learning play in engaging people in learning. For big falls in the number of adults learning culture, driven by social partnership and example, working with Rochdale Council higher skills later in life, including part- empowering people. we showed how community learning, time. Reversing this decline, particularly organised into a Citizens’ Curriculum if tuition fees are to be abolished as La- Stephen Evans is chief executive of the of the key skills needed for life and bour proposes, would be expensive. And Learning and Work Institute

15 / Life Lessons Several factors have contributed to the Access for all decline. Most significant is the 2012/13 student funding reforms. These changes Part-time study is in crisis, with student numbers falling as fees rise. to part-time funding aimed to open up Drastic action is needed to widen participation, writes Claire Callender access to higher education, make it more affordable, and encourage more people to study part-time. They have had the opposite effect. In 2012/13, the government withdrew most of the public funds it gave univer- sities for teaching. Higher tuition fees, capped initially at £6,750 a year and now £6,935 for part-time undergraduate courses, replaced these lost government abour’s proposed National Education productivity and by widening higher funds. As a result, tuition fees have dou- LService seeks to integrate the disparate education participation. It gives people a bled or tripled since pre-2012 levels. To parts of the education system by providing ‘second chance’. Compared with full-time pay these higher fees, part-time students services from the cradle to the grave. It in- undergraduates, the majority of part-time became eligible for government-funded corporates an education system that offers students are women, aged over 25, have loans, just like their full-time colleagues. opportunities for people to upskill and family responsibilities, while a sizeable Part-time bachelor degree students begin reskill over their lifetime by providing free proportion have no or low entry qualifi- repaying their loans four years after start- lifelong learning. According to Labour’s cations. Four out of five work, mostly in ing their course and when earning above Towards a National Education Service, this full-time jobs in higher-level occupations £21,000 (rising to £25,000 in 2018/19). “will deliver productivity and growth to the in the service and public sector. They fit They pay nine per cent of their income whole economy while transforming the their studies around their jobs and do- over £21,000, with any outstanding debt lives of individuals and communities.” This mestic commitments. written off after 30 years. For many who emphasis on lifelong learning is welcome. Our current system of are working, this means starting to repay So often in UK skills policy documents, their loans while still studying and before proposals focus on initial education and lifelong learning, especially they have got their degree, unlike full- training rather than the needs of adult part-time undergraduate time students who repay their loans when learners. Arguably, improvements in provision, is in crisis they leave university. economic performance, innovation and There are two problems with these productivity ultimately depend more Yet our current system of lifelong loans. First, the eligibility criteria are too on enhancing the skills of the existing learning, especially part-time undergrad- restrictive. Consequently, the majority of workforce than on improving the quality of uate provision, is in crisis. Since 2010/11, part-time undergraduates do not qualify new entrants to the workforce. Most of the the number of part-time students starting for loans, mostly because they already workforce of 2030 is already working now, an undergraduate qualification at an Eng- have a higher education qualification. and past the stage of initial training. lish university has fallen by 61 per cent, to Instead, they face far higher fees that Part-time study is an economic, prac- just 100,000 students. Last year alone the they need to pay upfront and out of their tical and often the preferred option for numbers declined by more than 8 per cent own pocket. Unsurprisingly, this has both employers wanting to upskill their — the seventh successive year there has contributed to a fall in enrolments. Re- workforce, and for individuals wanting been a drop. Today part-timers make up search from across the globe repeatedly to re-skill or improve their existing skills. just 20 per cent of all undergraduate en- demonstrates that upfront tuition fees Its wider social and economic benefits, trants. The fall has been greatest among and fee increases tend to depress higher and the benefits to individuals, are older students, those wanting to do ‘bite- education participation, particularly well documented. Part-time study can sized’ courses, and those with low-level among disadvantaged students, unless achieve greater social equity by helping entry qualifications—all typically “wid- accompanied by equivalent increases in individuals escape from low pay and low ening participation” candidates. student financial support.

16 / Life Lessons universities and in short, less intensive institutional-credit bearing courses. The part-time undergraduate market is more volatile and unpredictable than the full- time market. There are no longer any financial incentives for universities to provide more costly and risky part-time courses especially when, with the lifting of the cap on student numbers, they can fill all their places with full-time students. Consequently, universities have closed their part-time courses, especially those below the bachelor degree level – typically vocational and short courses. This matters Two misplaced assumptions inform Universities have closed for part-time students because they are far this policy: that employers pay for their their part-time courses, less mobile than full-time students due employees’ fees; and that because most to their work and family commitments. part-time students work, they can afford especially those below When such local courses close, their high fees. In fact, only a select minority the bachelor degree level access to higher education may close too. of part-time undergraduates get such em- – typically vocational and The part-time undergraduate sector ployer help. In addition, immediately after short courses in England has been the key victim of the 2012 funding changes, the number of 2012/13 reforms of student funding. part-timers receiving employer support There has been a market failure. Any fell. High fees are a barrier to employers including expenditure on study, is likely government committed to re-skilling as they are to students. to be constrained in times of economic and upskilling its workforce; averting the The second problem with loans is hardship and stagnating wages. Taking downfall of the part-time undergraduate that their terms and conditions appear out a loan and having to pay, in essence, sector; encouraging more people to study unattractive to those who are eligible for an additional nine per cent of marginal part-time; opening access; widening them. Some who are eligible for loans tax for loan repayments, or forking out participation; and making part-time are not taking them out. This suggests more than £6,000 a year for fees, is a leap study affordable, will need to take drastic that potential students do not necessarily of faith when the returns on their invest- action. This has to tackle high tuition fees, perceive these loans as an adequate safe- ment are unknown and uncertain. a lack of affordability, and debt aversion. guard against the risks of part-time study. Indeed, evidence from international A truly National Education Service that Inevitably too, some are debt averse and studies on the financial returns from abolishes tuition fees and provides free refuse to borrow, just like some of their lifelong learning in the form of higher lifelong learning wherever and whenever full-time peers. Yet without loans, they earnings and improved employment op- a student wants to study, will go a long cannot afford the high fees and so cannot portunities is mixed. Yet student loans are way in addressing this. It would also participate in higher education. said to be justified because of the assumed need to give part-time providers addi- For some, then, part-time study is financial returns of higher education tional funds – a part-time premium – to now too expensive and unaffordable. and the belief that those who benefit compensate for any reduced income from Part-time students, who are older and financially from higher education should lower fee income. Above all, there is a have substantial family and financial contribute towards its cost. For all these need for the political will to confront the commitments, are far more price sensitive reasons then, loans may not be the right challenges part-time study poses. than their younger full-time peers. Their policy instrument for encouraging greater unwillingness or inability to pay the high- participation in part-time study. er fees upfront or via loans is compounded The decline in demand for part-time Claire Callender is professor of higher by wider economic factors. Their discre- higher education study has led to a fall education at Birkbeck and University tionary and non-essential spending, in supply, especially at research-intensive College London Institute of Education

17 / Life Lessons encouraged people who have few or no Success within reach prior academic qualifications to realise their ambitions. We are proud to have Technology and innovation offer the opportunity to reach out to those who helped more than 2 million people make don’t have access to the skills they need – and to bring learning to life. a difference to their lives – and the lives Peter Horrocks explains of their families – through the power of education. I am constantly moved and inspired by the stories OU graduates tell. Faye, for example, who was brought up in local au- thority care and left school at 16 with no qualifications. She fell into a low-skilled manual job but knew she could do better. She challenged herself to go back to col- lege and she attained 10 straight A GCSEs. magine that you are a low-skilled or Now imagine that there is a one-stop This led to an engineering apprenticeship Imanual worker whose job is under shop where you can find out what skills and years of ’learn while you earn‘ study threat from the rising tide of automation. are needed in your area, what qualifica- with the OU, in which she clocked up Imagine that you feel you were let down tions you might need to attain them, what four successive higher qualifications. She by school and that you’ve never sought you need to do to start training and where now has her dream job as a consultant to qualifications. Imagine that you have rent to look for a job once you have retrained. a global engineering firm. She describes to pay and a family to feed. Where do you It is a simple concept, made all the simpler her experience of the OU and distance turn, what are your options? in an online world. But this one-stop shop learning as “life changing”. In coming years, more and more peo- does not exist. To achieve those relatively If we believe in a society where every- ple will find themselves facing a similar straightforward goals you might need to one can progress as far as their ability dilemma. Automation will sweep away turn to a careers service, a further educa- allows, surely we have a duty to support millions of existing jobs, technological tion college, a job centre or any one of an the ambitions of those who have, for and economic developments we cannot endless array of other potential options. one reason or another, been left behind. anticipate will mean workers need to No wonder that even people with existing Often, these people have work, family or retrain throughout their lives. Yet there skills and a decent level of education find caring responsibilities which mean they is no national mechanism to help those the prospect daunting. cannot attend traditional colleges. Some people and only patchy and fragmented It doesn’t have to be this way. For have disabilities, others live in remote provision of skills training. nearly 50 years the Open University has communities. For all of these, the only

If we believe in a society where everyone can progress as far as their ability allows, surely we have a duty to support the ambitions of those who have, for one reason or another, been left behind

18 / Life Lessons option is online, distance learning. With the right political will and work- ing in partnership, we can build a truly national skills offer, as part of a National Education Service, harnessing the best of public and private sector expertise and online technology to deliver it. An important starting point would be a national online portal for adults offering personalised advice and guidance on learning and training options. The portal could build on existing systems like the National Careers Service, jobs websites, information from local employers and councils and practical training options to people who need to learn while they supplied by institutions such as the OU With the right political will earn, there could be online support from and FE colleges. and working in partnership, a variety of experts, be they academics or This would put the needs of the indi- we can build a truly employers. Or they could consult others vidual at the centre of the new service. The national skills offer, as part who are taking or have taken similar idea would be that anyone could visit the courses. There could be an automated portal and, with minimum fuss, swiftly of a National Education ’advise me‘ tool to help in the initial and work out what employment options were Service, harnessing the later stages of learning, pointing to new available to them in their area and the best of public and private options as they become available. training they might need. Crucially, the sector expertise and online If the national skills service were to portal would also give immediate access link up with the big digital players – the to free short online courses so they can technology to deliver it BBC, Google, Cisco or Microsoft – whole take their first small step to learning new areas of possibility might open up; easily. developed with partners such as Money maximising public awareness of the The courses could range from basic Saving Expert or Cisco. service, connecting learning communities skills – digital, numeracy, literacy, pro- If there were a joined-up approach and crowds together, and working with ject or people management – to more with government, people could have a industry to identify relevant training advanced content to prepare for formal dynamic digital record of their study linked to job opportunities. We could study at a higher level. And we could history – a learning passport – which harness for the economic and public good make learning stimulating, perhaps by they might wish to link to an online CV the scale and developing technology that interactive simulations, virtual reality or to access a skills matching service or jobs these organisations offer. augmented reality. Each course, once ap- search. If we went a step further, one The beauty of this vision is that it is propriately verified to a national standard, could envisage a ‘learning visa’ to help so achievable. It is within our power, it could be accompanied by an online badge people navigate and apply for financial is within reach. Through it we can bring or certificate that would allow the learner support to underpin the move from the one step nearer that long cherished but to demonstrate progress. initial free courses to more sophisticated permanently elusive political goal – a The OU, for example, has more than paid-for training at a higher level. The fairer, just society in which every citizen 1,000 free courses already available on its visa might be used to promote and deliver has the means to achieve to the best of OpenLearn platform which attract more fee subsidies, perhaps from employers or their ability. A society which gives Faye than 6 million starters a year. Often that from government to help meet local skills and millions like her the chance to dream, ’learning journey‘ can be triggered by needs. believe and succeed. one of our joint broadcasts with the BBC The possibilities online are almost like Blue Planet 2; others might arrive endless. Apart from the 24-hour access to Peter Horrocks is vice-chancellor of through our YouTube channel or courses information and training which is so vital The Open University

19 / Life Lessons staff, and ensure that a career in education Voices of experience remains an appealing prospect for future generations? A professional workforce must be at the heart of a new National Education First and foremost, we need to reinforce Service. Sally Hunt sets out how staff in higher and further education the status of education staff as skilled should be empowered to shape the future professionals, recognising the value they bring and increasing their agency in the workplace. Education is a vital public service and the way staff are treated needs to reflect the important role they play in our society. That starts with investment in pay, pensions and working conditions so that the sector can continue to attract graduates to work in education. Labour ublic service reform often focuses on loan claims at private colleges highlights must ensure that its high-profile plans to Pchanging how institutions are organ- the dangers of this approach. abolish tuition fees in higher education ised, or how public money is spent, but it That same drive to liberalise education do not lead to cuts in teaching resource at is rare to hear much detail on how staff has also systematically undermined the universities. Staff have already suffered will be supported to do their jobs better. professional status and autonomy of teach- attacks on their pay and pensions and Yet the success of all public services, not ers and lecturers. In trying to encourage universities are struggling to compete least education, rests with the efficacy of different actors into the education sector, with big business to retain staff in high the workforce. the government has asked employers to demand subjects. A reduction in teaching It’s heartening, then, that Labour’s lead the reform of apprenticeships and income would only make academic ca- proposal for a National Education Service technical education, removed the require- reers even less attractive than alternatives includes a clear commitment to support ment for teaching staff to have qualified in the private sector. a professional education workforce. The status in schools and colleges, and imposed Similarly, urgent investment is needed party has set out an ambitious vision for a a disastrous teaching excellence framework into further education, where staff have coherent, high-quality national education on universities. endured a real terms pay cut of 21.5 per system, accessible to all regardless of age These changes have all chipped away cent since 2009. Pay has failed to keep or background. It is firmly rooted in the at the notion that teaching is a profession pace even with schools under the public idea that education should be a constant in its own right. Professionalism in our sector pay cap, and 15,000 teaching staff throughout people’s lives, and that wher- education service is under attack from a have left the sector in the last seven ever you are learning you should expect culture of managerialism, a lack of respect years. The Association of Colleges’ 2017 to be taught by well-trained professionals. for the expertise and commitment of staff, workforce survey found that 95 per cent and the imposition of ever-increasing of colleges said they had difficulty filling Rejecting the market-based approach workloads. posts during 2015/16; two-thirds (64 per The plans wholeheartedly reject the Coupled with seven years of real-terms cent) cited low pay as a reason for recruit- market-based approach favoured by the pay cuts and the rampant job insecurity ment difficulties. Only through additional Conservatives, which has fragmented the which plagues our colleges and univer- investment will we be able to restore education system in its rush to allow new, sities, it is easy to see why parts of our capacity to our colleges. profit-making providers to compete more education system now face a recruitment Indeed, the National Education Service easily alongside established institutions. and retention crisis. presents a bigger opportunity to address Despite numerous warnings about the the significant funding imbalance which threat to quality, student protections have Making teaching an attractive career sees the average university undergraduate been watered down just as student debt is choice attract over six times the funding of an reaching record levels. The recent Pano- So how can the National Education adult in further education. A fairer funding rama exposé revealing fraudulent student Service turn things around for education system would encourage a greater parity

20 / Life Lessons of esteem across the education system, statutory requirement for 30 hours of assessing good teaching while graduate benefiting staff and students alike. professional development per year was employment was ranked last. revoked in 2012. As college budgets have It also undermines the professional Tackling casual contracts been squeezed, rising workloads have autonomy of teaching staff, and speaks to Across the post-school education sector, increasingly become a barrier to mean- a wider lack of engagement with teaching more also needs to be done to challenge ingful engagement in CPD activities. staff on regulation. Nobody is question- the problem of casual employment. It’s a problem shared by staff in higher ing the need for rigorous quality controls Research by the University and College education – in a 2016 survey of UCU across the education sector, but education Union (UCU) in 2016 showed that 30 per members, 43 per cent of respondents staff should have more of a say in how cent of further education lecturers and 53 said their time spent on professional their work is assessed. per cent of academic staff in universities development had decreased over a three- are employed on insecure contracts. year period, while more than 50 per cent A different approach The impact of these employment prac- of respondents reported spending more Labour’s proposed National Education tices on the lives of staff is alarming – a time on administrative tasks. So, increas- Service is a chance to strike a different YouGov survey for UCU showed that two- ing professionalism is not just about the tone with the education workforce, by ad- fifths (42 per cent) of education staff on availability of good quality CPD, but also dressing their concerns and giving them a casual contracts struggle to pay household about ensuring staff have the time to greater voice in how reforms are designed bills, while a third (34 per cent) reported access it. and implemented. they had trouble getting a mortgage. There We need urgent action to improve pay is also significant evidence that casual Increasing staff engagement and conditions, increase job security and contracts have a real impact on the quality The current problem with workload bolster professional development in the of teaching being delivered to students. speaks to a wider erosion of staff auton- sector so that education staff can build Professional staff scraping by on pre- omy thanks to creeping managerialism successful careers and deliver consistently carious contracts will inevitably struggle to and top-down regulation. Rather than high standards. fulfil their full potential. Quality teaching being trusted to get on with the job and There should also be an independent is underpinned by decent working condi- adjust their practice to meet different inquiry into the teaching excellence tions and job security for staff. Any reform needs, staff across the education system framework and the similarly unpopular designed to improve the education system are too often being asked to engage in research excellence framework. Instead must have this principle at its heart. box-ticking exercises which do little to of these top-down measures, we need a improve the learning experience. new approach which truly enhances the Boosting professional development The teaching excellence framework is a student experience, encourages greater Boosting professionalism in education case in point. Introduced as a mechanism partnership and enjoys support from the must also mean supporting teachers and to drive improvements in teaching quality sector. lecturers to sustain their professional skill in higher education, in reality it is based Finally, we need to underpin the new set. Labour’s manifesto included welcome largely on metrics including graduate service with a fair and coherent funding commitments to supporting professional employment which have little to do with model which ensures that all parts of the standards and qualified status, but educa- teaching. It has been widely derided by education service are properly resourced. tion staff also need a robust programme higher education staff, and UCU has Staff have an important stake in the of continuing professional development raised concerns that – far from improving system, and should be fully engaged in (CPD) throughout their careers. teaching – it incentivises institutions to shaping the services they will ultimately Ensuring that educators can continue target completion rates and graduate out- be responsible for delivering. We stand to keep up to date with current pedago- comes by raising entry tariffs or altering ready to help foster that collaboration and gy – as well as advances in their field of their subject mix. ensure that, under the National Education expertise – is crucial, especially in this age The imposition of the framework Service, education professionals finally of political uncertainty and accelerating ignores the views of students. In a recent get the respect they deserve. technological change. survey by a consortium of students’ In further education, access to CPD unions, students said the quality of Sally Hunt is general secretary of the has become more challenging since the teachers was the most important factor in University and College Union

21 / Life Lessons purposes – including switching jobs or Learners in charge getting a job – which put the individual in charge and allowed for the drawdown Labour needs to build a flexible approach to lifelong learning. And to do so, of necessary funds when and where it could learn some useful lessons from the past, argues David Blunkett required. In the policy paper the Learning Age, we had endeavoured to set out a clarion call for lifelong learning. We wanted a way to encourage individuals to be able to learn whilst ensuring that both society (through government) and employers – who were benefiting – made a contribu- tion in cash or in-kind. Sadly, the govern- ment – and I carry some responsibility for The aspiration to provide free educa- were benefiting from the construction this – was not bold enough. tion from the cradle to the grave is very and engineering levies which paid for The Treasury objected to anything that laudable. It is however easier promised both part and full-time tuition alongside was out of line with its own thinking – than delivered. Not least, as so much in apprenticeships, on-the-job. which was of course deeply affected by our history teaches us, there is a tendency Today, many people access learning the experience of civil servants, few of to deliver to the well-informed, well- throughout life in all kinds of ways. At whom if any had been through further placed, and well-endowed. present shadow education secretary education never mind an apprenticeship. Aneurin Bevan once talked of the bet- Angela Rayner is a classic example of Instead of an imaginative and creative ter off “sucking at the teats of the state”. someone coming to adult learning from approach to building up accounts which This not very elegant but striking phrase what can only be described (and as I was could be drawn down on (specifically has resonance when we consider the very very similar I can say this) as an incredible for education), the Treasury insisted on successful ’retail offer‘ which attracted back story. Angela, like me, understands what amounted to a voucher system so much attention during the general that when it comes to lifelong learning which could be redeemed for particular election to provide free tuition and free there will be many and varied routes by types of learning including programmes maintenance to those in higher education. which people re-enter the education sys- of learning being sold by companies and The difficulty in delivering a truly tem and where the traditional offer does individuals. It amounted to a rip-off, and National Education Service is not simply not necessarily fit the bill. I’m afraid it set back a flexible lifelong one of money. It is always possible to Online learning, linked with tuition approach for decades. divert resources from other priorities to and associated either with the workplace And then of course the Conservatives fund full-time school or post-school ed- or the potential for in-work progression, came up with the idea of the employer levy. ucation for those accessing learning in a offers a flexible and meaningful road to This would be a bold move if implement- more traditional way – the way that most success but it does not fit with simplistic ed very differently from what has actually of those devising policy have experienced funding channels or neat solutions. happened. Instead of the money being themselves. Crucially, a modern Labour party made available to incentivise employers But it is far more difficult for those approaching the third decade of the 21st to support and work with individuals approaching education later in life and century must not, if it is to succeed, offer a re-entering learning, the levy paid by the accessing it in what would appear to many top-down approach. largest concerns is now almost exclusively to be ‘unconventional‘ ways. That is why a decade ago the late going back into the very companies who My own education (and much of what Malcolm Wicks returned to an idea which paid the levy. This is usually to cover costs I saw in my early adult life in Sheffield) is we had endeavoured to promote at the that they would have incurred in the first a case in point. Evening classes at further turn-of-the-century: individual learning place – but of course offset against tax. education college, day release from work accounts. The idea was to offer a flexible The result has been catastrophic. (with my wages and fees paid by the way of helping people both to progress We have experienced a massive further employer), alongside many in the city who in work or to return to learn for broader drop in part-time learning, on top of the

22 / Life Lessons calamitous fall from the changes brought up, in order to match their aspiration for and employers. As people live longer, and in 2012, and the plummeting of full-time both job satisfaction and income with as people inevitably (whether politicians apprenticeships particularly among the job that will yield the result. So, this dream differently or not) work longer, younger people. The meagre top-slicing is not just a matter of liberating people combining pension saving with learning of the levy for distribution to small and to continue returning to learn. It is also accounts would make real sense, whilst medium-sized companies (and their about an industrial strategy that links being both equitable and progressive. employees) has therefore failed dismally high-level education with investment in It would be possible to extend the levy to achieve the objectives set out, and at the products and services of the future and have a meaningful top slice which a time of austerity, has done absolutely which will deliver those opportunities. would be used to match funding from nothing to encourage the take-up of post- The Child Trust Fund was intended the individual (much like an ISA) with 16 further education beyond the age of 18. both to offer the beginning of a lifelong a contribution from government. Such All the more reason therefore for account which could be drawn down on a contribution could be in two parts. A Labour to construct an education offer from the age of 18 onwards and to deal direct cash injection for the less well-off throughout life that is not only attractive with the other major challenge – the and extended ISA tax relief specifically in principle but is accessible in practice. It asset divide. For whilst it has been an for a learning account, which would be should be an offer which puts the learner understandable objective of Labour policy universal. Proper lifelong careers advice rather than the provider in charge. It to narrow income inequality, it is the would be necessary to avoid individuals should ensure too that employers have to asset divide that really challenges social being exploited by scam programmes. pay their fair share towards the gains they democrats for the years ahead. Those who There is of course one other factor and make from an ever-increasingly educated have continue to have, those who have that is the role of the trade unions. I was workforce and offer government a way little have little to pass on. very proud to establish the trade union of facing the challenge of increasingly Ironically, there have been many learning fund and to encourage a direct dominant technology, with all the op- initiatives over the last 25 years which approach by the trade unions to making portunities and challenges that artificial would have allowed for an imaginative learning at work and beyond work, a intelligence and robotics will pose over and creative way of delivering lifelong renewed remit. Renewed, because of the coming decades. opportunity with a personalised and re- course the early trade union movement Britain’s dismal productivity compared sponsive approach. The Savings Gateway contributed greatly to adult learning to all our major competitors hides an even which matched pound for pound savings, and to an understanding of the crucial bigger gap between London and the south the more progressive use of ISAs, and of nature of being able to celebrate pride in east and other parts of the UK – particu- course the Child Trust Fund. All of this craftsmanship and continuing progres- larly the old industrial areas that suffered underpinned by the decision taken in sion within the workplace. Youngsters so grievously in the 1980s and 1990s. 2005 but not implemented until the coa- who earned very little in their prolonged So many young people obtaining lition government took office, to bring in apprenticeship knew that there would high-level qualifications now have to auto-enrolment and therefore mandatory be both security and modest but critical leave the area in which they were brought pension contributions by both employees prosperity for them in the years ahead. The craft skills of the past are now the high-level technological skills of the Britain’s dismal productivity future. That is why emphasising availa- compared to all our major bility and accessibility for all has to take competitors hides an even precedence over free provision for those able to avail themselves of it. bigger gap between London And that is why an attractive headline and the south east and other has to be underwritten by a story that is rel- parts of the UK – particularly evant to the nation as a whole and practices the old industrial areas that what we preach on fairness and equality.

suffered so grievously in the Lord Blunkett is a former Secretary of State 1980s and 1990s for Education and Employment

23 / Life Lessons capable of flexing to respond to the varying In the right place needs of individuals and communities, focused on securing better outcomes and A cradle to grave education service needs to be local as well as national and narrowing gaps in life chances. councils could play a vital role in making it work for their communities, The detail so far set out in this autumn’s writes Jessica Studdert National Education Service charter looks promising: it recognises the need for ed- ucation to be aligned with health, sustain- ability and industrial policy; the need for cooperation across boundaries and sectors; and for the national service to be rooted in communities with democratic oversight. Yet it is rather more explicit about elements which are to be nationally prescribed than it is on the nature of local accountability or he NHS holds a special place within model of provision is struggling to adapt the role of devolved responsibility per se. Tthe lore of the Labour party as an to the demands of an ageing population. There are several tensions at the heart of enduring achievement. So it’s perhaps not The NHS is now shifting towards a more the proposals for an NES: between national surprising that plans to create an equiva- place-based approach, integrating health inputs and outcomes for people, between lent for education have elicited excitement with social care. And there is widespread national direction and local accountability, and a renewed appetite to use the full force recognition of the need to shift capacity and between national standards and the of state levers to affect social change. towards prevention within communities, different starting points of different places. But as a framework for a National reducing demand on acute services. How these play out in practice will be Education Service is developed, it will be The challenge of being responsive to crucial in determining the impact of the important to ensure it is based not on nos- modern realities is similar for education as service. talgia for a past model, but on a clear un- it is for health. While the rhetorical frame of National policy is frequently blind to derstanding of how to achieve impact now a National Education Service might pull at local geography, and the role of place is and in the future. Our whole public service the heartstrings politically, what’s needed in rarely approached strategically. As a result, infrastructure is currently grappling with practice is almost the opposite on all three separate directives from different Whitehall the need to be more effectively focused on counts – local learning systems. Building a departments create a complex local land- outcomes amid increasing and ever more ‘cradle to grave’ lifelong approach means scape with fragmentation between servic- complex demand pressures – pressures addressing how different parts of the sys- es. For example, Sure Start and childcare which exist regardless of austerity. tem are knitted together in practice, from are locally provided. Schools are increas- Over the decades since the NHS was es- the perspective of the individual’s learning ingly academised, accountable within their tablished in the 1940s, the national model journey. This would shift different services chain and directly to the DfE. The further of healthcare has not overcome entrenched and tiers that currently operate in relative education sector has gone through a series health inequalities. Today a hospital-led isolation towards a collective ecosystem, of area-based reviews. Meanwhile univer- sities consider themselves to have national or even international reach, although many Building a ‘cradle to grave’ are increasingly recognising their role as lifelong approach means anchor institutions intrinsically part of their local economy. addressing how different Rather than interfacing with places as a parts of the system are whole ecosystem, education policies tend knitted together in practice, to create their own cohorts of people who from the perspective of the pass through different services, based not on their needs and lived experience but individual’s learning journey on their age and entitlement: pre-school,

24 / Life Lessons school age, post-16 and 19+. Because of government could add to a revitalised ed- To close the gaps that these categorisations, the riskiest time for ucation offer would involve moving away exist, the funding model learners is at key transition points between from an expectation of traditional notions of education needs to be services, where they stop being the respon- of the local authority role as a bureaucratic sibility of one and become the responsibili- enforcer, and recognising their potential focused on creating a system ty of another. To create a coherent cradle to to play a more active role at the heart of a grave approach, these artificial gaps in the wider ecosystem. needs to be focused on creating a system. system need to be closed, so that the learn- To foster the development of local Currently, the financing of different servic- er journey is personalised. Three elements learning systems, local government is well es reinforces their separation. For example, will be especially important to get right. placed to coordinate the range of local schools are currently incentivised to provide First, an NES must maintain a sharp services that will need to be better aligned ‘value added’ only from the point a child focus on outcomes for people, not the to ensure a ‘cradle to grave’ approach in starts at school, rather than invest in school interests of the providers. There are strong practice. Beyond the need for existing readiness during pre-school years, which is and vocal interest groups within educa- services to collaborate more closely, it will known to be critical to child outcomes. FE tion, and frontline professionals can feel also be important to engage a wider set of colleges are funded for the courses they put fairly aggrieved at having been buffeted by stakeholders such as employers and local on, regardless of whether these are linked successive waves of structural educational businesses. There are examples of where to actual employer demand and job out- reforms which have a habit of undermin- councils are already building links and comes. There would be merit in exploring ing their expertise and autonomy. Yet a patching together parts of the system that how new place-based investment models system shift towards lifelong learning will are currently unconnected. For example, between currently separate services could involve all existing organisations operating Southwark council’s employment and en- be brought together to underpin stronger differently and outside current comfort terprise development scheme helps SMEs local accountability. This would be based zones – territorialism and reluctance to take on 16 to 24-year-old apprentices. on securing better outcomes for people at adapt will need to be challenged. Sheffield council has developed a Skills transition points such as children starting Second, to shift the system around Made Easy brokerage system across the school, or young adults leaving full-time the needs of the individual, effective local wider city region, which connects employ- education to seek employment, rather than accountability needs to be established ers to the training providers that best meet only rewarding progression within individ- that actively fosters collaboration and their skills needs. A national service should ual services for a fixed duration. reorients existing resources, assets and encourage and embed this role. Education policy tends be dominated institutions towards a lifelong approach. We can also begin to think more crea- by forceful debate like no other area. Local government has a chequered history tively about how places can be recognised Personal experience, professional passion, in education policy – it has been a feature more strategically as the core convening political ideology and academic evidence in recent decades for national initiatives to site, generating new connections and seem to fuse together to create entrenched persistently bypass and undermine coun- learning opportunities for people. An positions and make widespread buy-in to cils, and then declare them inadequate. interesting approach is Cities of Learning, radical reform almost inconceivable. Yet Rather than appending new structures originally developed in the US and being there is an opportunity to create a system of onto an already complex landscape, which piloted by the RSA in the UK. This seeks provision that is more intelligently suited to previous Labour education policies have to galvanise mass engagement around the needs of individuals and the challenges favoured, it makes more sense to work with learning and skills, drawing in learners, of the 21st century. While the framework what is there already. There might well be institutions, employers, civil society and might be a National Education Service, in a need for measures to strengthen the the voluntary and cultural sectors. This practice it will need to foster “local learning democratic oversight of local government approach seeks to develop and fuse a systems” which are responsive to people where it is opaque or unresponsive, and sense of place-based identity and collective and adaptive to places, relentlessly focused to create new opportunities for people to ambition around learning, activating the on improving outcomes and narrowing the exercise their voice within the system. But widest civic and cultural energy around gaps in life chances that persist. the role of local government needs to be that mission. reinforced in principle, rather than neglect- Third and finally, to close the gaps that Jessica Studdert is deputy director of ed or sidelined. Rethinking the value local exist, the funding model of education New Local Government Network (NLGN)

25 / Life Lessons students and white students at 27.4 per Principles for a purpose cent. For a National Education Service to be truly transformative equity will need Shakira Martin sets out how a National Education Service to be one of its key drivers. can meet the needs of all students Class barriers must be addressed too. We should aspire to a really integrated system of careers information, advice and guidance which supports people from all backgrounds to navigate the educational system, and to find appropriate employ- ment upon graduation. A system will best meet the needs of all when everyone is able to have a say in that system. This means looking at governance models, abour’s National Education Service as well as formal education for example. ensuring that students and workers are L(NES) would mean radical change to Third, the NES seeks to create an in- represented on governing bodies, but also the way that education – both compulsory stitution, rather than simply drive policy that representation is ensured throughout and post-compulsory – is delivered and change. An institution represents a vision the institution. Strong students’ unions accessed. Scrapping the broken tuition fees of who we are as a community, and as a and trade union branches are critical, and systems in further and higher education, country. should be embedded through all levels reintroducing maintenance grants and The NES must work for everyone. This of decision-making, including but not significant investment in childcare support means challenging the popular media limited to the top. We should ensure too will all improve the way students experi- picture of the student who attends a that institutions are really reaching out ence the education system. campus-based university full-time at age into their communities. We need to open But it is the basic concept itself of an 18, and ensuring that our system is not the doors of learning, share resources and NES that truly begins to address the structured to the disadvantage of those encourage active engagement. This must serious policy failings of the Conserv- who do not match this picture. be a significant part of any access agenda, ative-led government of the past seven Transport cost and availability must but it also is important if we want to create years. The NES is the antithesis to current be addressed too. NUS research in No- a national institution which is grounded Conservative education policy-making: it vember 2015 found that more than half in our communities. is principled, cohesive and institutional. of college students cannot always afford The NES offers great potential for a The principles laid out in Labour’s their travel costs, while one third spend radical transformation in the way we manifesto are the starting point. As it says: between one and two hours just getting approach and view education. It will allow “Governments have the responsibility to to college. This research was conducted individuals to reskill and upskill through- make lifelong learning a reality by giving before the government’s ‘area reviews out their lives, and ensure that the UK has everyone the opportunity to access edu- process’ of forced college mergers across the skills it needs in the context both of cation throughout their lives,” and “every the country, which has forced students to Brexit and of ongoing dramatic techno- child – and adult – matters”. We must travel further still. logical advances. always begin with a vision of the type of We also need to commit to closing Labour must continue to be bold and society we believe in, and build on that. attainment gaps that people experience unashamedly ambitious, not just about its Second, the NES looks at education in our education system if they are policies, but also about its vision. In that from “cradle to grave”. It recognises that women, LGB or trans, students of colour, way, we can ensure the development of a putting boundaries between different or disabled. We have known for more coherent, holistic institution which recog- kinds of study, or different institutional than 20 years that a student’s race is a nises the importance of partnership and is settings, is a major obstacle to ensuring determining factor in their likelihood to truly embedded in our communities and that people can access education in a way receive a first or upper second in higher in our national life. that is appropriate to them. There is a education. The data released last month lot more that can be done to deepen this by the Equality Challenge unit puts the Shakira Martin is president of the National approach: looking at the role of informal attainment gap between black African Union of Students

26 / Life Lessons employees and institutions are all ena- tion of closing the huge funding disparities Conclusion bled and respected across the education system. Labour’s 2017 calculations are likely to be the floor for how By Andrew Harrop and Kate Murray • Genuinely lifelong – with opportu- much a future NES might cost. nities for retraining and chances to A debate is needed, then, about how re-engage at every stage, and parity for much funding will be required and where part-time and digital distance learning it should come from. And however much eople will always remember Labour’s money is on offer, budget-setters will need P2017 election campaign for the party’s • Coordinated – flexible pathways for to decide how many places, and at what promise to scrap undergraduate tuition learners between providers and strong cost, should be provided. Just responding fees. But Labour’s pledge of free higher partnerships involving providers, to learner demand is unlikely to maximise education was just the standout feature of a employers, unions and technology national economic and social outcomes, if broader vision for an integrated nationwide platforms in many instances education is ‘under-con- system of education for all, free at the point sumed’, while at the same time an enthusi- of need – the National Education Service. • Outcome-focused – designed to meet astic minority accesses whatever provision The proposal for an NES did not come social and economic needs, with far the system will allow. as a complete surprise, since Jeremy Corbyn more adults receiving productivity-en- The roles and responsibilities of employ- had first promised it in his 2015 leadership hancing education but also recognising ers also need to be thought through. One campaign. But until last summer’s election, that learning brings wider benefits proposal is for the new apprenticeship levy he had said little about what this idea to be expanded into a scheme for funding would mean in practice. Now, with Labour The challenge for the National Educa- almost all recognised qualifications ob- drawing closer to power, it is time for the tion Service is to recreate the best of the tained through the workplace. This would left to turn stirring words into a practical NHS, not the worst of it. Labour must strive be a parallel track within the NES, standing blueprint. to establish the strong values, ethos and alongside the taxpayer-funded tuition Labour has started that process by entitlements of a national institution, but delivered directly by FE and HE institutions. publishing for consultation a draft charter not the top-down silos and inflexibilities. And as there should be no limit on our for the new NES. In this report, the Fabian Instead the NES should be based on local aspirations for people’s learning – even if Society has picked up the baton, by bring- networks of diverse providers – as Jessica there must be a cap on publicly funded free ing together leading voices from the world Studdert puts it in her contribution ‘local places – the left should explore whether of education to propose how Labour’s new learning systems’. there is also a role for learner accounts (or service might be brought to life. To create an integrated, learner-centred other new social security entitlements) to Labour’s charter makes it clear that the NES, other contributors call for a national subsidise and incentivise learning outside left’s ambitions for education stretch much system of credit accumulation and transfer, the core public entitlement. Similarly, further than simply providing for free what across all forms of provision; families or income-contingent loans might still have is currently available at a price – or than re- clusters of different institutions, with shared a place, if they can enable inclusive access versing the recent collapse in participation responsibility for smooth transitions; and to maintenance costs and second degrees. across many forms of learning. Between a personalised digital portal, that should The promise of free tuition raises as them the contributors to this report argue include guidance, records of qualifications many questions as it answers and the for a National Education Service that is: and credits, online learning tasters, applica- debate about money and entitlements tion systems and networks of support. will continue. But the decisions Labour • Accountable – democratically account- But money still matters and Labour politicians take on funding can now be sub- able and open at every level needs to think further about what an NES servient to a broader vision – of a national ‘free at the point of use’ should mean. The service designed to deliver true lifelong • Devolved – with local decision-making party’s 2017 election policy was for free learning and a huge increase in the skills of which delivers coherent, integrated tuition for a first degree and for learning in the British workforce. local provision, albeit within a national an FE college, and the manifesto costings framework assumed no change in the quantity of pro- Andrew Harrop is general secretary and vision. But free education will presumably Kate Murray is editorial director of the • Empowering – ensuring that learners, increase demand and there is also the ques- Fabian Society

27 / Life Lessons