Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Like other noble Lords who have spoken, we feel that the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, has brought forward some very important amendments in this group. The support from these Benches for Amendments 93, 104 and 105 will be clear from the fact that my noble friend Lady Verma and I have added our names to them. We have already expressed concern that the involvement of employers and the sector skills councils should be more explicitly laid out in the Bill. Will the Minister not accept that it would be sensible for the authority responsible for securing suitable education and training in the local area to have to consult with local employers and their representatives? It seems to me that this holistic approach would help to ensure that training was suitable not only for those who are going to receive it, but also for those local employers who hope to benefit from having an increasingly skilled workforce. As the Bill stands, the local authority must already "have regard to" a number of sensible measures, including encouraging diversity in the education and training available, and increasing opportunities for people to choose the programme most suited to them. These are admirable provisions, but they are all from the focus of the learner as the receiver. We think it would also be helpful to have an employer-led influence on this process. The Government themselves have used the expression "demand-led". We think this is what "demand-led" means. Amendment 93 would secure that, at the very least, consultation with employers and their representatives would have to take place. In this way, employers could hope to have a direct influence on courses of training and education. Does the Minister not accept that this approach would help local communities match skills to real jobs, which would then help to increase employment? We would argue that, particularly at this time of economic difficulty, it seems not only appropriate, but, indeed, urgent that the Government should do all they can to increase the education, training and skills of our population. The critical focus of this skilling-up should be on how best to match these skills to real jobs, so it seems appropriate that the LEA should have to consult employers and their representatives on the availability and suitability of provision within their area. Amendments 104 and 105 further develop this point. As the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, has pointed out, the Bill already states that LEAs must encourage employers to participate in the provision of education and training, so we support the idea that this should also include consultation with employers and their representatives. As it stands, the Bill seems to require only a one-way dialogue. The LEA must "encourage" employers to participate in this provision. We on these Benches would argue that this is completely to miss the point. It is important that there is a two-way conversation between employers and their representatives on the one hand, and the LEA on the other. We should not presume that the LEA is always in a position to command the employer to interact with the education process. It is not inconceivable that the employer might sometimes be better informed as to what new provision would be useful or necessary. So we fully support the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, to make sure that the LEA must also consult employers and their representatives. Amendments 182, 183 and 188 mean that employers and their representatives must also be included in the consultation process for those areas where the chief executive of Skills Funding is responsible for education. This also seems to be a sensible approach to an area that, after all, must be employer-focused and employer-led. I look forward to the Minister’s response.