Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I welcome this Bill which represents a further commitment by the Government to training and skills development. There are already more 18 to 24 year-olds working or engaged in full time education compared to 1997, record numbers of people now receive training and this year’s Budget provided for £1.2 billion to be invested in creating jobs and providing training to young people who have been unemployed for 12 months. Investment in higher education has been increased by nearly a quarter in real terms since 1997 and more than £5 billion is being spent on adult skills this year, helping 3 million learners. The Train to Gain budget has increased to more than £900 million this year and the budget for apprenticeships is more than £1 billion, with 250,000 starts planned. The Government have a record of which they can be proud. However, I do not wish to spend the rest of my brief contribution highlighting what the Government have achieved. I want instead to raise an issue that is being pursued by at least one sector skills council. I refer to the need to identify in precise terms the tangible benefits to businesses in terms of performance of developing and improving the skills of their staff. The skills council in question recognises that it needs to collect evidence of the impact on businesses of skills development, qualifications and apprenticeships in a more systematic and reliable way. It is important that it can be demonstrated that money spent on training and skills development is an investment and not a cost. Many existing surveys and case studies in the sector concerned—passenger transport—while valuable, tend to be more of an anecdotal nature relating to specific businesses and tell only part of the story. They focus more on activity than on outcomes, with less evidence than one might like on the economic impact of qualifications that have been created in conjunction with awarding organisations. Measurement of the indirect and wider economic contribution is currently difficult to achieve. I suspect that at least some other sectors are in a not dissimilar position. Investment in skills and training produces real benefits. In one major passenger transport operator, 1,200 level 2 NVQs were achieved in 2007, with a target of more than 2,000 set for 2008. Another aspect is that staff injuries decreased from 115 to 87 per 1,000 employees in 2006-07, and staff time lost in consequence has fallen from 49 hours to 35 hours per 1,000 employees. Vehicle collision rates have decreased by 31 per cent, and there has been a further reduction in driver turnover. Of the need for further investment in skills and training there can also be little doubt. Research by the sector skills council concerned indicates that 23 per cent of UK passenger transport businesses recognise that they employ staff with gaps in their basic skills. In addition, 64 per cent believe that those staff members hinder productivity. The creation of the Young People’s Learning Agency means that there will be a body with a role in providing what is described as "strategic data and analysis", but it appears that such work will be at up to age 19 only. We also have the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which provides comprehensive research and data in relation to those undertaking and completing university-level degree courses. These data include information on the numbers studying and what kind of work those who have graduated are actually doing in the months and first few years following completion of the studies, thus enabling a picture to be formed of the relevance of the course and the direct and indirect benefits arising to the individual and employers from the study undertaken. As I understand it, there is no similar body for further education. Some of the awarding organisations do their own surveys and collect their own data, and some do not. Inevitably there is no consistency of approach, which makes comparisons difficult, if not impossible, and creates a problem in forming an accurate overview of the situation and of the direct and indirect benefits arising from the investment in training and skills development. The picture is further complicated by the fact that while, as I understand it, the Higher Education Statistics Agency covers the United Kingdom, for further education, separate research and statistics from a multitude of bodies are prepared for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England with, once again, no consistency of approach or method of evaluation. There can be no doubt that investment in apprenticeships, training and skills development brings considerable benefits, but we need to be sure that we are directing resources to areas that produce the maximum impact for the individual taking the course, the employer and the consumer, as well as in indirect and wider economic contributions. Full and complete data, as well as analysis of those data, are needed for each sector and within each sector on the benefits and economic contribution of different work-based qualifications. We need a consistency of approach in obtaining and analysing those data to ensure that proper comparisons can be made that will enable reliable conclusions to be drawn on the actual benefits of a multitude of different courses from a variety of awarding organisations in further education. We need information on the outcomes of the qualifications that have been achieved and the economic and other benefits that have materialised, as well as on numbers undertaking such studies and success rates. I should be interested to hear the comments of my noble friend the Minister on this issue. I accept that I may have misunderstood the situation, or that it is addressed within the Bill—in which case, I am sure that that is what my noble friend will say. However, if the point I am making has some substance, as at the moment I believe it does, I should like to know whether the Government consider that the situation in respect of research and data analysis in the field of further education needs addressing.