Skills Funding Agency chief executive Peter Lauener has said that “radical, radical changes” facing the
FE sector will force people to adapt “to their new world”.
In a speech to delegates at the annual Skills Summit in central London yesterday, Mr Lauener said: “There are lots of opportunities in FE, but also lots of risk. This is a radical, radical change programme, and in any radical change programme there are some organisations who will adapt. Those who don’t won’t do well.”
Encouraging signs
Despite this message of caution, Mr Lauener also identified plenty of “opportunity for innovation”, and highlighted encouraging signs of the government’s commitment of creating 3 million new apprenticeship starts by 2020 and a surge in public sector apprenticeships as reasons for optimism.
“Provided the money’s there, [the target] feels to me like an achievable target,” he said. “I see no reason why that won’t be achieved with the tools that the government have put in place. It gives me enormous pleasure - it’s certainly not happening everywhere - but I think we’re now seeing a stronger commitment now to apprentices in the public sector. The SFA is already at the public sector target of 2.3 per cent, but we’re not doing that because it’s the target but because this a vital part of developing skills that we need for our organisation.”
Focus on skills
Also speaking at the event, Iain Wright, chairman of the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, said: “The really key area that we’ve tried to focus on more than anything was if we’re going to really raise productivity, if we are going to remain a leading economic power in the 21st century, we need to focus on skills.”
The MP welcomed the fact that the Government has had its target of 3 million target at the centrepiece of its skills policy, but said there was a “fog of uncertainty” about how to actually reach it. “It seems to us that the government has announced the destination, but the actual pathway to get [to 3 million new apprenticeship starts by 2020] hasn’t been built yet,” he added.
