White Paper

This research brief summarises responses from public sector bodies to the apprenticeship target and future plans for delivery. The public sector apprenticeship target was introduced in 2017. Public sector bodies with 250 or more staff in England have a target to employ an average of at least 2.3% of their staff as new apprentice starts annually over the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021.

Building on individual country Spotlights, this publication brings together the main features and data of VET in the EU, Iceland and Norway. While countries share goals and challenges, their VET systems are diverse, shaped by socioeconomic contexts and traditions. Information on VET’s main features, its role and status, are a prerequisite to understanding developments and learning from another country. This compilation addresses all those who need a quick overview of essential features of VET in Europe. Clarifying the place of VET in countries’ overall education and training systems, it presents main accession and progression routes for learners; types and levels of qualifications they lead to; types of programmes, delivery modes, work-based learning ratio and duration. The approach and terminology used for the systems charts and descriptions aim for a balance between national and international readers’ understanding and for some comparisons between systems. This publication is a useful starting point for work by policy makers, social partners, experts and researchers. It provides orientation to a range of other actors involved in VET-related activities: VET providers, teachers and trainers; guidance, qualifications and validation staff; and other readers who want to familiarise themselves with VET systems across and beyond Europe.

In this report, we look at the adult skills landscape – by examining who invests in, and who participates in, job-related training and education. We consider how these trends have changed over time and to what extent adult skills affect social mobility. We uncover evidence that people from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds are the least likely to receive adult skills investment. First, there is growing evidence to suggest that those whose parents were working class are less likely to do training than if their parents were middle class – even though they are doing the same type of job. Second, employers are more likely to invest in those with higher skills while better-off individuals are also more likely to fund their own training. This results in widening existing skills gaps as people from working class backgrounds are less likely to have higher skills – and are less likely to earn high wages – than their peers from better off backgrounds.Only state-funded training targets support to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but this makes up a tiny proportion of all training courses undertaken (around 7 per cent). The gender training gap, at the headline level has been closed.Indeed, women may be more likely to participate in training – largely because a higher proportion of women than men work in the public sector, where the provision of training is higher than in the private sector. We also found mixed evidence of the returns to investment in adult skills. Research consistently suggests that the highest qualifications tend to lead to the highest returns, that academic qualifications lead to higher returns than vocational ones at the same level, and that qualifications gained later in life tend to secure lower returns than the same qualifications earlier on. Adult skills provide second chances to individuals, but those who benefit most are overwhelmingly those who already have higher levels of adult skills.

Professional apprenticeship programs can help address the skills gap facing most companies, provide greater opportunity to people who are underrepresented across industries in the innovation economy, and reskill those whose jobs have been—or will be—disrupted by technology. Bridging the Gap Between Talent and Opportunity: An Apprenticeship Playbook for Professional Jobs explores why professional organizations should consider apprenticeship programs for their workforce needs, and details how to get started.

The Flexibility and Innovation in Apprenticeship Technical Training (FIATT) project funded ten pilots. Each pilot experimented with alternate delivery technical training. The majority of these involved a combination of in-person instruction and online courses. Other pilots experimented with upfront training, mobile labs and/or simulator training. The FIATT pilots shared goals linked to common apprenticeship challenges, emphasizing the applicability and importance of the initiative to: (1) help apprentices progress and complete their training; (2) reduce wait-lists, time away from the workplace and the number of weeks on Employment Insurance (EI); (3) create access to hands-on training, especially for rural and Northern apprentices, through simulators and mobile training units; (4) engage apprentice learners, instructors, employers and/or underrepresented groups in online training; and (5) support apprentice learning and skills development.

In 2019, COAG agreed a vision for vocational education and training (VET) to position the sector as responsive, dynamic and trusted. To deliver on this vision, COAG tasked Skills Council with developing a VET Reform Roadmap (the Roadmap). Skills Council has asked senior officials in all jurisdictions to work together to develop a Roadmap for consideration by Ministers and endorsement by COAG by the middle of 2020. Skills officials have developed a consultation draft of the Roadmap. This draft is a working document of the Skills Senior Officials’ Network: it has not been reviewed or endorsed by governments or COAG.

This inquiry explores the impacts of new and changing technology on the quantity and nature of work. It builds on research and modelling carried out by governments, academics and other organisations in New Zealand and throughout the world. The inquiry aims to answer two main questions: What are the current and likely future impacts of technological change and disruption on the future of work, the workforce, labour markets, productivity and wellbeing? How can the Government better position New Zealand and New Zealanders to take advantage of innovation and technological change in terms of productivity, labour-market participation and the nature of work? The Terms of Reference asks two specific questions related to the education system: How can New Zealand’s education and training system be more effective in enabling adaptation to technological disruption? How can we address the digital divide in New Zealand?

This report is about the role of the Independent Training Providers (ITPs) within the wider skills system and their contribution to national skills, economic and inclusion priorities. The role of ITPs is often unrecognised and is an under-researched area of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) provision, and with this research we aim to prompt national policy makers to reconsider whether they are making the best use of them in their country. We also aim to raise awareness among ITPs about the work undertaken by counterpart organisations in other countries and encourage them to consider whether there may be commercial or operational benefits from international collaboration. ITPs are private or charitable non-state providers of technical training provision and as noted they represent an under-researched and poorly understood sub-sector within wider TVET. Yet, as will be argued from the research evidence in this report, ITPs play an increasingly important role in delivering government policy priorities in the development of TVET systems, and they often contribute towards global development priorities as set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015) – particularly with regard to: » the elimination of poverty through creating jobs via sustainable economic growth » the provision of quality education » revitalising global partnerships for sustainable development. The report is based on research conducted by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), the UK’s trade body for work-based learning providers with over 900 companies in membership, supported by the British Council. The research started from the premise that the UK system of embedding ITPs within the formal TVET system was relatively unusual in world terms, and prompted discussion about which characteristics of ITPs had led this to happen, and whether they might have a role to play in newly emergent economies. In addition to the UK therefore, research was undertaken into TVET systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, both of which are regions that are hoping to benefit from a demographic dividend in terms of poverty reduction, employment generation and economic growth. In this context, the importance of skills development as a driver of socio-economic development is paramount, and governments in these regions have recognised the importance of TVET in this process.The study does not try to present a comprehensive view of policy and practice globally, but instead aims to give an overview and series of insights into the ways in which our researchers found ITPs to be positioned to help meet national policy priorities. We selected six countries overseas – Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka – for research into the contribution that ITPs played, or could play, within each country’s TVET systems; systems that we felt were broadly representative of a spread of emerging economies. The study used qualitative methods – desk-research, 18 telephone interviews and a UK policy expert workshop – to address the research aims and objectives.

This publication focuses on questions related to: 1. Career concentration: the extent to which young people’s occupational expectations are concentrated in the ten most commonly cited jobs, how they have changed over time and how they vary between different types of learner. 2. Labour market relevance: how young people’s occupational expectations are related to national projections of labour market demand. 3. Job realism: the risk that the jobs young people expect to be pursuing at age 30 will become automated. 4. Career potential: whether occupational expectations reflect the academic potential of students. 5. Career confusion: the extent to which students are misaligned in their educational and occupational expectations. 6. Providing guidance: whether participation in career development activities can be seen to make a difference to career thinking. 7. Career participation: how participation in career development activities has changed over time and varies between different types of learner.