Press Release

GoSkills' Reaction to the "Re-skilling for Recovery" Report

12 March 2009

Today the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee released their report, "Re-skilling for recovery: after Leitch, implementing skills and training policies", examining the impact of Lord Leitch's 2006 review of skills. GoSkills welcomes this report and the Committee's interest in this topic and we applaud this piece of work. We are taking the opportunity to comment on several of the issues raised by the Committee.

1. GoSkills welcomes the Committee's recommendation to "broaden the Leitch targets to include re-skilling" especially in respect of the current economic climate where individuals may need to be able to promote their skills and abilities to a range of occupations in order to gain employment. We also agree with the idea that "UKCES directly addresses the "structures through which key generic skills will be promoted" as these can be critical for mobility between different jobs, careers and sectors.

2. GoSkills' believes that, in part, the Committee may have misunderstood the role of SSCs in qualifications. Whilst we write the National Occupational Standards for our sector and support the work of awarding bodies in relevant qualifications and have a light touch approvals process in place, we are not responsible for qualifications development. This is the role of awarding bodies with whom we work closely to ensure the quality and relevance of qualifications for our sector.

3. The Committee's work could we feel have benefitted from a wider evidence base. The report highlights the importance of engagement by Sector Skills Councils with all sizes of business, in particular recognising the specific needs of small businesses. However, many SSCs are already doing this. In our Sector, for example, the Taxi and Private Hire industry provides a good example of the impact such SSC work can have with small businesses.

4. We fully support the Train to Gain programme as it is very important in our sector, whose needs have in the past been overlooked by public provision, especially in the Taxi and Private Hire industry. Since the evidence sessions took place, there have been a number of new flexibilities introduced to make Train to Gain even more accessible especially to sole traders and micro-businesses.

5. One of the principles of the Leitch agenda is the capturing of "Economically Valuable skills" in qualifications. We understand the point the report makes. However, we have evidence that in sectors such as our own – passenger transport – the qualifications framework does provide access to such skills. The report also does not appear to address the new qualifications developed by employers such as Flybe and Network Rail. If an employer training scheme certificates such skills we would argue that they must be high priority for the business.

6. The report also recommends that UKCES examines the "regional capabilities of individual SSCs as part of the re-licensing process". We understand that this is indeed a part of the relicensing process. GoSkills has strengthened its team of staff in the English regions and works closely with Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Jobcentre Plus, as well as other key national stakeholders. We are not alone in working in this way. We also support collaborative regional arrangements through the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils.