There are very many sensible amendments before us this evening. I am very pleased to support new clause 16 on adult literacy, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood), and to add my name to new clause 13, which my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) has just spoken about, on an issue of great importance to my constituents. Many Muslim families are unable to access non-compliant funding and are forced, as a result, to either wait many years while they save up to pay outright or take out a loan they feel uncomfortable with that is incompatible with their faith. I also know of families who have been able to send only one child to university, an invidious decision for any family to have
to make. As we have heard, it is simply ridiculous that nine years after David Cameron first, and rightly, committed to taking action on sharia-compliant funding, we still have no timeline even for when the Government intend to bring forward proposals.
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I echo what was said about the importance of protecting the option of BTECs. I was very pleased when, on Second Reading, the Secretary of State confirmed at least a one-year extension of funding and said that it would be possible to combine BTECs with A-level study. That combination of vocational and academic study is important in keeping the choices and options open and broad for our young people. Sadly, T-levels will not offer that option. They will take young people uniquely down a vocational route. I urge Ministers, in developing the T-level model, to look at how that can ensure that it does not box off options too early for young people who are forced into a vocational specialisation that limits opportunities for them further down the line.
As a Greater Manchester MP, I also want to talk about the proposals for a role for mayoral combined authorities and local authorities and to support amendment 14, which was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins). The Government amended the Bill in Committee to ensure that due consideration would need to be given to the views of metropolitan combined authorities in developing local skills improvement plans, but that is still too weak, given that the Greater Manchester Combined Authority already has full responsibility for the adult education budget and that its economic and regeneration strategies will drive and determine our skills needs.
I welcome amendment 14 as a means of ensuring that employer representative bodies are representative of the area that they cover. With significant skills gaps in the north, and The Times reporting the other day that it will take 17 years for the north-west to catch up with the skills levels of London, it is really important that we have sensible, strategic planning and the involvement of combined authorities and the adult education budget to achieve effective skills planning that can close that gap. I also politely suggest to the Minister that given that the adult education budget is already devolved to Greater Manchester, that infrastructure enables it to highlight and test early and quickly the effectiveness of some of the proposals in the Bill. I am thinking particularly about how regeneration, economic and skills strategies can be joined up and contribute to levelling up.
The Minister said in Committee that statutory guidance would be provided on how the metropolitan combined authorities would be involved in the development of the local skills improvement partnerships and that that would draw on the learning from the trailblazer pilots. Of course, Greater Manchester is not one of the trailblazer areas and I would be grateful if he could assure me, in responding to the debate, that the trailblazer learning will be sufficiently pertinent for areas that are structured quite differently in terms of some of their economic and skills needs. Greater Manchester already has access to data and labour market intelligence and the knowledge of local providers, so the creation of a national provider register must not preclude the combined authority from contributing its local knowledge and expertise.
Finally, I echo the regrets that Members around the Chamber have expressed that the lifetime skills guarantee will not be available for people to take a different level 3 qualification, when one may be currently qualified to work in an industry where jobs are disappearing and becoming obsolete. I also regret that there is no pipeline to enable the guarantee to be used first to enable people to obtain a level 2 qualification, which would lead to them being able to undertake a level 3 course and progress further in due course if they wish. That is really important for us and for economies such as that of Greater Manchester, where we have seen a very significant shift in the kinds of industries and opportunities that exist not only for young people today, but for workers who have been in the workforce for the past 20, 30 and 40 years and who, in their 40s and 50s, face a real fear that they may not be able to work again. I hope that the Minister will take on board the deep concerns that have been expressed around the House about limiting the lifetime skills guarantee in the way that it currently is.