SENSE & INSTABILITY

THREE DECADES OF SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT POLICY FROM THE CITY & GUILDS GROUP

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City & Guilds deliver incomparable qualifications, I've taken GCSE's A Levels, and a degree. However, I took several City & Guilds qualifications to better myself, and gain skills I needed to conduct myself in a white collar industry. I praise the work City & Guilds do, as I have been able to skip the ever-heightening wall called 'lack of experience' - it's always a pleasure to read about and from City & Guilds. The sense and Instability report was one of the most informative pieces.

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10 Reasons Why UK Skills And Employment Are No Better Off Now Than In Thatcher’s Time

Constant change over the past three decades has damaged the UK’s skill system, according to a major new report published by the City & Guilds Group.

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Why is the UK still behind in the global skills race, despite politicians' promises?

“We knew it was going to take time to make the necessary changes. It was going to take time to evolve,” said David Moyes after being unceremoniously sacked as Manchester United manager having failed to survive even a full season. “In the end, I don't feel I was given time to succeed or fail.”

Now every armchair football pundit – myself included – has a view on Moyes’ time at the top, and many would say he deserved to be sent off. But we’ll never know what would have happened had he had the time to mature in the role, and see some of those ‘necessary changes’ take effect. Perhaps he would indeed have restored the club to their former glory.

Skills and employment policy tends not to captivate attention in quite the same way as premier league football, but the two have something in common. Both attract an unhealthy focus with short-term results at the expense of long-term planning. In football, it’s all about this week’s game, not about the next season. And when it comes to upskilling British adults, it’s too often all about keeping the unemployment figures down or having a policy to point do when asked how you are ‘solving’ the problem, and not implanting sustainable reform.

Read more from NewStatesman >

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Ditch the drama: it's all about stability in the skills system

We always talk about the need to raise awareness of FE; to change perceptions and be held up alongside academia. However all too often, we just see change. New policies here and there, skills and employment policy switching between Government departments, new ministers at every reshuffle.

Ok, there are the headlines accompanying this, which brings skills education into the public eye. But is it for the right reasons? I'm not so sure.

Read more from FE News >

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Three decades of going round in circles on skills policy is damaging UK PLC

Constant change over the past three decades has damaged the UK’s skill system, according to a major new report published today by the City & Guilds Group.

Sense & Instability: three decades of skills and employment policy, scrutinises the policies of successive administrations on skills and employment.

The report draws on insight from senior civil servants and experts in the skills and employment industry. It has broad political, employer and sector support, including Lord Adonis, the CBI, the Association of Colleges (AoC), the 157 Group, TUI UK and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP).

Read more from City & Guilds >

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The simplest way to fix education

We usually blame our problems on one of two things in this country: the Government or the weather.

But I’m serious when I say that the Government is a major threat to the future of vocational education in this country. The proof? Just look at the past thirty years of vocational education and skills policy.

You’ll no doubt recognise the academic route because it hasn’t changed much; you choose your GCSEs at 14 (or O-levels back in the day), then A-levels at 16, and then you apply to university. Pretty straightforward.

Read more from the Telegraph >

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