Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation on the Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire Career Learning Pilot.  Staffordshire had been one of six pilot areas selected by the DfE to participate in the pilot, which was aimed at supporting the Government’s ambition for an adult education system that helps people upskill and reskill throughout their working lives.  It was intended to drive up skills levels of people in work and help to improve productivity.  It presented Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire LEP with an opportunity to test out new approaches to improving skills of the workforce in the LEP area.  Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire LEP and partners had worked together to develop and design the pilot to meet local labour and market needs.  The pilot qualifications (level 3 and above) could only be delivered by partners who already had Advanced Learner Loan facilities and premises in Staffordshire.  The key things the DfE wanted to test as part of these pilots were: how best to reach adults who are in work and low skilled, or close to returning to the labour market, this also included the use of face-to-face career guidance by the National Career Service; and whether reducing the cost of courses made targeted adults more likely to do economically valuable learning matched to local need.  Key target audiences were selected and key messages put out to those target groups.

Members received details of campaign activities; priority sectors, qualifications and discounts; delivery partners; delivery plan costs; risks and mitigations; and issues and barriers.  They were informed that the evaluation would focus on different outreach and engagement approaches.  Initial feedback had suggested that the pilot in the Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire LEP area had been one of the most successful.  The pilot in Staffordshire had tested the County Council being the lead marketing authority, whilst in other areas national bodies had been used to market the courses.  The success of the pilot in Staffordshire demonstrated that the local authority was a trusted messenger in our communities, as opposed to a national organisation without a good local understanding.  The pilot had shown that local marketing campaigns, using a broad range of different means, did have an effect in generating interest. A significant item of feedback was that cost was a key issue and people were very concerned about burdening themselves with debt in order to learn, so the offer to reduce the cost in order to encourage people to access training was key.

Members asked what the next steps would be, following the pilot. They were informed that the results would be available in September to indicate how many learners had actually completed courses.  Members commented that it was important for adults of any background to be able to engage with learning and that there are certain skills which were lacking in the County, such as money management.  They suggested the provision of simple courses which help people manage life better.  It was acknowledged that the skills agenda had many facets to it and it was about the total offer and how it connected and fitted together that was important.  For this pilot it was specifically about getting people to access qualifications at level 3 (A level equivalent) or above, so was reaching out to people who already had a core basic skill level, and encouraging them to upskill to hopefully impact on their aspirations and their career development.

A member commented that as a greater proportion of the workforce were self-employed or small businesses these would be the individuals who would find it difficult to upskill, not just due to the financial commitment but the time commitment, and expressed surprise that there wasn’t an emphasis on different types of models of accessing learning to fit the individual.  For small businesses or self-employed people the issue was around managing time which made it difficult to fit in with the more rigid timetable of more formal courses.  For our local economy it was important to think about how we encourage self-employed small businesses to expand.  Members were informed that under the pilot the LEP area was restricted in the number of courses that were approved for a discount by the DfE, and consequently could not choose qualifications that met local needs better, such as vacancies or future demand.  A fundamental flaw had been that the courses had to be completed in 12 months and this was not possible on a part-time basis for learners in full-time employment.  A member commented that it would be helpful to be able to offer courses on a bite-size modular basis.  The Cabinet Member confirmed that there would be a number of changes which would be made should the programme be given back to the local authority to deliver on a rolling basis, or that when the DfE bring the national training programme forward the learning from the pilot will enable the Authority to deliver it very well and will be able to have some influence and credit with them in terms of being a strong partner.

The Chairman requested that feedback be provided for the Committee when the results were received in September.

RESOLVED – That:

a)    The presentation be received; and

b)    Feedback on the results in September be provided to the Select Committee via a Briefing Note.