I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. It was a pleasure to serve as a member of the Bill Committee on this important piece of legislation. I support all the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins), but I want to focus my comments on amendments 14 and 15. However, I think it is also right to mention new clause 13, tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) and my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), relating to sharia-compliant lifelong learning loans—something that is very important for many of my constituents.
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A local skills improvement plan that brings together public and private sector employers, further education colleges, independent training providers and those with democratic accountability, such as councils, would create a solid foundation for a skills strategy that covers all the relevant bases. In recognising the strength of such a holistic approach, I believe amendment 14 is incredibly necessary. Under the proposed legislation, employer representative bodies are empowered to lead on the development of local skills improvement plans, but local authorities, mayoral combined authorities and local colleges would be excluded.
Amendment 14 would ensure that local authorities consented to the designation of an ERB by the Secretary of State, a check that would ensure that ERBs were truly representative of the areas they covered, as well as reflecting local authorities’ responsibility to promote and improve economic, social and environmental wellbeing. In my patch, Luton Council has a close working relationship with local employers, helping to shape the skills agenda. A purely centralised approach in which the Secretary of
State designates an eligible body as the ERB will undermine its relationship with local authorities, employers and residents, so I urge the Minister to support this important amendment.
We should consider the overarching direction of local skills plans, and qualifications must meet the ambitions of young people and the needs of employers. Four in 10 young people leave education without the level 3—A-level or BTEC—qualifications that are essential to the modern economy. That is a shocking indictment of this Government’s record. To tackle the skills shortage, we need to protect students’ access to a choice of qualifications that reflect their aspirations and preferred methods of learning and assessment. Young people in England can choose between three types of level 3 qualifications: academic routes such as A-levels; technical qualifications that may lead to a specific occupation; and applied general qualifications such as BTECs that combine the development of practical skills with academic learning.
Amendment 15 aims to prevent the Government from withdrawing support for established level 3 courses, including BTECs, for four years. Replacing the three-route model with a twin-track system of A-levels and T-levels will further weaken attempts to tackle the skills shortage. T-levels are largely untried and untested. They have been operational for only a year, and they are currently studied by only about 1,500 students. T-levels offer a narrow range of qualifications. By September 2023, school leavers will be able to take T-levels in 25 subjects, whereas there are more than 2,000 BTEC qualifications across 16 diverse sectors.
A-levels, T-levels and BTECs can co-exist. This does not need to be a zero-sum decision. They offer different methods of learning and different types of qualifications. The Protect Student Choice campaign is a coalition of 15 organisations representing staff and students in schools, colleges and universities. It has expressed concern that more than 250,000 students would be affected by this decision. The Department’s own equalities impact assessment has stated that
“those from SEND backgrounds, Asian ethnic groups, disadvantaged backgrounds and males”
are
“disproportionately likely to be affected”.
It is crystal clear that the Government’s reforms will level down the opportunities afforded to our young people. Withdrawing support demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what young people need from their education to fulfil their career ambitions.
As a governor of Luton Sixth Form College, I have seen at first hand how BTECs change the lives of young people by offering them an avenue to a good university or employment. On a recent visit, I was thoroughly impressed by the young people studying on a BTEC course who were running a live broadcast studio. Someone was the host; there were guests; and there was a floor manager, a sound technician and a producer. That provides real practical skills that will feed into a future career in media or production in the creative sector, which contributes over £100 million to our economy annually and which is a key export to the world, contributing to our global influence. We cannot allow the Government to narrow opportunities and undermine social mobility in towns such as Luton.