Aim 2: training provision meets employers' business needs and employers can recruit people with the vocational and employability skills needed to increase productivity.
By employers we mean people running businesses, voluntary and public sector organisations who want to increase their productivity and competitiveness and who want to ensure that new and returning entrants to the labour market have the skills for the jobs that are available.
| Reference | Actions and tasks showing how the above objectives will be taken forward | Owner(s) | Date to be achieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Employers increasingly become strategic partners of colleges and providers to ensure that their skills and training needs are met | ||
| 2.1.1 | Those colleges and providers who have identified that employer engagement is relevant to their missions will set out in their plans how they will respond to employer needs, including (but not only) those identified in Sector Skills Agreements, in regional statements of skills priorities and through their own knowledge of their local market. For LSC-funded providers, this will inform the development of the 'responsiveness to employers' key performance indicator (KPI) within the Framework for Excellence. | Colleges and providers working with LSC | September 2008 |
| 2.1.2 | Set up a steering group to include the SSCs and employer representative organisations to ensure that the implementation of the National Improvement Strategy and the development of improvement support services are informed by the needs of employers. Engage the Commission for Employment and Skills in the Implementation of the Strategy. | QIA working with LLUK, CEL, LSC and DWP/JCP | From April 2007 |
| 2.1.3 | QIA will work with Working Ventures UK (WVUK) to explore how support can be provided to voluntary sector providers in the area of employer engagement. | QIA working with WVUK | September 2007 |
| 2.2 | Standards for excellence in employer engagement are rationalised so that colleges and providers are clear what is expected of them and employers can choose provision that suits their needs | ||
| 2.2.1 | The new standard for employer responsiveness and vocational excellence will provide employers with a clear mark of quality provision that is responsive, of high quality and flexible in nature and which will inform the development of the 'responsiveness to employers' KPI within the Framework for Excellence. | LSC in consultation with SSCs, colleges and providers and employers | Roll-out from February 2007 |
| 2.2.2 | Through their Sector Skills Agreements, SSCs will increasingly identify developments needed in the provision for their sectors and ensure any excellence accreditation they provide is consistent with and complementary to other standards intended to provide guidance for employers on quality provision. | SSCs working with employers and the further education system | Ongoing |
| 2.3 | National partners work together through the Sector Skills Agreements, with employers and their representatives and with colleges and providers, to support colleges and providers deliver provision to meet the needs articulated by employers | ||
| 2.3.1 | The Development Programme for Train to Gain, which is a national programme delivered regionally, will work with providers to develop high-quality, responsive provision which meets employers' needs. The programme will target providers with current Train to Gain contracts but will also be open to all providers wishing to improve the quality and responsiveness of their work with employers. There will be targeted activity to meet the needs of different groups of staff - senior managers, delivery staff and administrative and support staff - and to provide development opportunities for organisations with a great deal of expertise in this area of the work and for those who are at an early stage of development. | QIA working with LSC, colleges and providers and employers and their representative bodies | Launched from September 2006 |
| 2.3.2 | Diploma Development Partnerships (DDPs) who have developed the content of the first phase of 14-19 Diplomas, will represent the employers' voice and be responsible for ensuring that the Diplomas meet the needs of employers and provide the opportunity for employers to be actively engaged with the Diplomas' curriculum development and delivery. QIA, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), LLUK and CEL will continue to work closely with the DDPs, through an agreed protocol, to develop the content of the support programmes. At the same time, 14-19 partnerships will identify how they can most effectively engage directly with employers to provide high-quality work-related learning, including relevant work experience. | SSCs have set them up under lead from QCA and DfES. QIA is working with the DDPs. DDPs are working closely with 14-19 partnerships and colleges and providers. | November 2006 |
| 2.3.3 | Support programme for colleges and providers will be introduced to support the introduction of the 14-19 curriculum reforms, ensuring they meet employers' needs. In broad terms the support for 14-19 will include:
Specialised Diploma Support Programme for those partnerships that have passed through the Diploma Gateway process
|
QIA delivered jointly with Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the National Strategies for Schools, SSCs and DDPs. | Summer 2007 |
|
Functional Skills Support Programme
|
QIA delivered jointly with Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the National Strategies for Schools, SSCs and DDPs. | For Functional Skills pilot centres Spring 2007 | |
| 2.3.4 | Effective practice guidance on employer engagement, based on existing effective practice already in the further education system and on the needs of employers, will be launched. | QIA working closely with the further education system and employers | December 2007 |
| 2.3.5 | The Excellence Gateway will be launched. This new web-based portal will provide access to a wide range of improvement products and services to support training providers to become more responsive to employers including:
|
QIA working with colleges and providers and with employers and their representatives | Launched in Autumn 2006 with features being added from then on |
| 2.3.6 | National Skills Academies will be employer-led, sector-based national centres of excellence and will build on the excellence developed through the network of Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs), and related innovations such as the Fashion Retail Academy. National Skills Academies will be positioned at the apex of vocational networks linking to providers in both the further education system and also in HE and schools. They will explore new forms of organisation and management and be based on high-levels of sponsorship from employers. Employers in turn will have greater influence over curriculum, strategic management, national consistency of delivery, and collaboration with approved providers. | DfES | First launched in October 2006 and then ongoing |
| 2.3.7 | Work with specialist networks (including National Skills Academies, New Standard providers, next generation CoVEs and other specialist providers) to ensure that good practice developed by them is shared throughout the sector. | QIA working with colleges and providers | From April 2007 onwards |
| 2.3.8 | Develop the 'Business Interchange' programme to offer teachers, tutors and trainees structured experience and training in relevant business sectors and create parallel opportunities for industry experts to give time to local colleges and providers. | LLUK with QIA and LSC and staff in the further education system | From 2008 |
| 2.3.9 | The CEL/AoC work-shadowing scheme will continue to enable sector leaders to broaden their experience and skills through working with leaders in other sectors, thereby giving them the opportunity to gain insights into those sectors and organisations and providing them with what they need from the sector and its learners. | CEL, AoC and Leaders in the further education system | Ongoing |
| 2.3.10 | Ensure the Qualifications and Credit Framework reflects employers' needs in the revised qualifications. | QCA, SSCs and LSC working with employers | Roll-out from September 2008 |
| QIA will develop support programmes for colleges and providers to implement the new Framework. | QIA | ||
| 2.3.11 | Jobcentre Plus/DWP will continue to operate its account management structure with employers that can enable close working between providers and employers to develop quality provision. | Jobcentre Plus/DWP | Ongoing |
| 2.3.12 | LLUK will work with the Training and Development Agency for Schools to develop new and existing staff in the generic skills they will need to deliver the 14-19 diplomas, including engaging with employers and securing appropriate industrial or commercial experience. | LLUK | Ongoing from 2008 |
| 2.3.13 | The national partners working with colleges and providers and employers will revise this Strategy in the light of detailed consideration of the Leitch report and will incorporate actions to take them forward in the first revision of this Strategy. | QIA to co-ordinate | By Spring 2008 |
| 2.4 | The profile of skills and training is raised and their value to the economy and society as a whole is more widely recognised | ||
| 2.4.1 | Stage the WorldSkills 2011 competition to change positively and permanently public attitudes towards skills, re-energising skills competitions in each sector of the economy and using skills competitions to deliver teaching and learning excellence. | A WorldSkills Partnership led by UK Skills | 2011 |
| Use the WorldSkills 2007 and 2009 competitions as a platform for UK success in 2011 by engaging with partners throughout the further education system to identify the contributions that individual partners can make. | UK Skills, national partners, college and providers | 2007 onwards | |