1. The Skills Challenge

The Leitch review and progress on the 2020 targets

The 2006 Leitch review was launched in response to concerns over the ability of the UK to compete in increasingly globalised markets because of poor levels of literacy and numeracy in some sections of the workforce, as well as the UK’s relatively poor international position in intermediate level skills and productivity. It found that:

• over a third of adults in the UK did not have a basic school leaving qualification;

• five million people had no qualifications at all; and

• one in six did not have the literacy skills expected of an 11-year-old and half did not have these levels of functional numeracy.

The review also found that the UK currently ranked 12th out of 18 comparative members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It set out that by 2020:

• 95% of adults should have achieved the basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy, an increase from 85% literacy and 79% numeracy in 2005;

• more than 90% of adults should be qualified to at least Level 2 (equivalent to five good GCSEs or their vocational equivalents), an increase from 69% in 2005, with a commitment to achieve 95% as soon as possible;

• the balance of intermediate skills should have shifted from Level 2 to Level 3 (equivalent to two or more A-Levels), which means achieving 1.9 million additional Level 3 attainments and 500,000 apprenticeships by 2020; and

• more than 40% of adults should be qualified to Level 4 and above (equivalent to degree-level qualifications), increasing from 29% in 2005.

The TUC says that the previous Labour government’s investment in skills resulted in considerable progress. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) Ambition 2020 report, published in July 2010, shows that over the past decade, the number of people achieving high level qualifications increased by more than three million (44%) and the number of people without any qualifications fell by more than 1.5 million (26%).

However, the report also showed that 10 million people needed to improve their skills if the UK is to achieve its ambition of being in the top eight countries in the world for skills, jobs and productivity by 2020, but predicted that just half that number would do so. It also said that while the UK situation has been improving, other countries were progressing further and faster. The report called for measures including:

• an increase in the number of apprenticeships available for young people and adults;

• prospective students being given more and better information about the range of courses and qualifications on offer; and

• more encouragement for businesses to create highly-skilled jobs.

The scale of the skills challenge

The scale of the skills challenge facing the UK is immense, according to the TUC, which highlights a lack of employer investment in skills as a key issue. In its September 2010 response to the government’s consultation on the future direction of skills policy, Skills for sustainable growth, it points to the 2009 National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) which shows that:

• a third of employers do not train their employees;

• training that is done is often minimal, on-the-job and informal;

• small businesses are less likely to invest in the training of their workforce; and

• 44% (10 million) employees were not offered any training by their employer over the previous 12 months.

It also points to a training divide in the workplace. According to Labour Force Survey (LFS) data, less than one in 10 employees without a qualification are offered regular training, and the situation has worsened over the past decade. In 2009, while 9% of unqualified employees said that they received regular training, this was the case for 38% of graduate employees.

The TUC report also highlights barriers facing particular groups of workers that it says government policy urgently needs to address. Older workers, disabled workers, some groups of black and minority ethnic (BME) workers, such as Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers, those in lower level occupations, part-time employees and agency workers are all less likely than other groups of workers to access job-related training.

The time and cost of training is another barrier — an issue also highlighted by unions, including retail workers’ union Usdaw. It says that the occupations carried out by many of its members do not attract a significant amount of job-related training and that courses which could help them in their career or personal development are often inaccessible, costly, or take place at times which would make it difficult for them to attend. “Learning therefore features highly on our agenda because losing out on access to learning damages members’ employability, job security and quality of life,” the union said.

The TUC’s consultation response also raises concerns about the quality and duration of training. It says that there is evidence that much is minimal and informal and that for many workers, training often only comprises that which is required by law — such as health and safety or induction training.

The NESS survey shows that, for example, around one in 12 employers providing training provide only health and safety training and around a quarter provide only health and safety or induction training. Less than a quarter (24%) of workers receiving training were being trained towards a nationally-recognised qualification.

The role of unions in meeting the skills challenge

Unions and their learning representatives (ULRs) play a unique and vital role in workplace learning that is increasingly being recognised by both employers and government.

A June 2010 UKCES research review, Employee demand for skills: a review of evidence and policy, reported that people who work in smaller or non-unionised workplaces tend to be less likely than others to engage in, or demand, skills development.

The UKCES review — as does the government’s skill strategy, Skills for sustainable growth — acknowledges the role of unions in learning: “The unionlearn programme has engaged trade unions, their members and employers in promoting learning activity linked to the workplace”. It also reports that the development of ULRs has been a hugely significant development in supporting the “articulation and fulfilment of employee demand for training.”

The TUC’s learning and skills organisation, unionlearn, 2011 annual conference report reveals that 26,040 ULRs have been trained since 1999 and that 224,599 learners were supported through the union route in 2009-10. Around 20,135 of these learners were embarking on Skills for Life (SfL) — the skills needed for everyday life, such as reading, writing, maths and IT.

The Union Learning Fund (ULF) was set up in 1998 to promote trade union activity to increase take-up of learning in the workplace and to boost trade union capacity as learning organisations. (The Scottish Union Learning Fund (SULF) was established in 2000 and Wales and Northern Ireland also have their own union learning funds.)

An evaluation of the first four years of the ULF by the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC) at Leeds University Business School, included a survey to which more than 400 employers responded, covering almost a million workers. It found that learning agreements had been signed in around a half of the workplaces and half had established workplace learning committees. Employers reported that union learning had addressed basic skills gaps, increased the number of employees attaining qualifications and increased job-related training.

The government skills strategy, Skills for sustainable growth (see Chapter 2), recognises the unique role of unions, particularly ULRs, in encouraging the take up of learning in the workplace and the ULF will receive funding of £21.5 million in 2011-12 — the same amount as the previous year — to support union-led learning projects.