House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry ‘A creative future’
Introduction
We were delighted that our President, Corrienne Peasgood, was invited to give evidence at the committee’s recent evidence session on Tuesday 1 November 2022 as part of its inquiry into the creative industries. At the session, there were three areas the committee members requested additional information on – we have outlined this information below:
Request for additional information on defunding of Level 3 qualifications:
The concept of T Levels was first introduced in the 2016 Skills Plan, and they were first rolled out in September 2020. This plan foresaw two main paths for young people coming out of secondary pre-16 education: an academic path and a technical path. Following consultation and more development, the classification of qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds was set out in three groups:
Looking at the digital and creative industries, the following T Levels are currently available for students to study.
From September 2023 the following additional T Levels will be on offer for students
On 11 May, DfE published a list of 160 Level 3 qualifications which will no longer attract 16-18 funding in the 2024-5 academic year. There was an appeals process in the summer, but there are at least 106 courses still due to be defunded in two years’ time.
The defunding of existing qualifications and the new qualification reform involves a staged process.
1. Withdrawal of funding from qualifications that have low or no enrolments. Qualifications with no enrolments and low enrolments have already had funding approval withdrawn
2. Technical qualifications that overlap with T Levels will have funding approval withdrawn for 16 to 19-year-olds:
a. August 2024 for qualifications which overlap with wave 1 and 2 T Levels: Digital
b. August 2025 for qualifications which overlap with Wave 3 and 4 T Levels: Creative & Design and Hair & Beauty
For the list of published existing qualifications which will be defunded in August 2024, there are thousands of students on these courses. From AoC MiDEs data from colleges delivering these courses, we have found that in the digital space there are approximately 4400 students on these courses. There will no doubt be additional students impacted once the courses that overlap with wave 3 & 4 T Levels including those in the creative design and hair and beauty courses once a list of provisional qualifications is published in Spring 2023.
Challenges with the rollout of T Levels
1) Speed of reforms
We remain supportive of the introduction of T Levels but want to see a more considered, more iterative approach. We believe T Levels have the potential to be a long-term success if introduced in the right way, but it will take time and careful consideration of the impacts. Feedback from students and staff on the roll-out of the first two waves of T levels is that they are up-to-date and relevant. Students particularly enjoy and benefit from the extended industry placement with some taking up permanent roles in their placement organisations.
Above all else, the decision to cease funding for qualifications which are deemed to overlap with the new T Levels is risky and based on a presumption that the T Levels will ‘be a success’. We remain unconvinced that the T Levels will be accessible to all of the students ready to do a Level 3 qualification, particularly in their early years – they are big qualifications, with a high degree of written assessments and the work placements will not be available everywhere in the country. To cut off any alternative so quickly looks reckless and will most likely result in fewer young people achieving at Level 3 by the end of their formal, full-time education.
2) English & maths requirements
While English and maths attainment at grade 4 or above is not a Government requirement for T Level entry, colleges are asking for this level of qualification as T Levels are both rigorous and large qualifications; taking English and maths alongside means more work for those students who will struggle the most. Many of the current T Level providers are currently running both T Level and existing vocational technical qualification groups to accommodate those who do not have the grades to progress to and achieve success on a T Level
3) Availability of suitable industry placements
If all, or the majority of, enrolments on current qualifications move to T Levels, this will require significantly more employers to engage in industry placement delivery. The average college engages with over 700 employers on work experience, professional training, placements, apprenticeships, and traineeships. The July 2020 Government commissioned report evaluation of support for industry placements provides a helpful overview of the challenges. For every placement sourced 43% of providers said they were in contact with between zero and four employers; 22% with between five and nine employers; and 15% between 10 and 14 employers. ‘These figures demonstrate the significant resource providers were required to mobilise in order to source their target numbers of placements’
The challenge differs between sectors too. It is easier to find placements in Catering, Education and Childcare and Hair and Beauty as opportunities exist in all towns, cities and even rural areas. Creative, Design, Engineering and Manufacturing and Digital are the most difficult. In Digital the challenge has been compounded as many digital companies and digital functions in non-digital companies have moved to remote working.
Request for further information on improving opportunities for adults to upskill and retrain
The ability of adults to retrain and upskill has been decimated with a marked decrease in both government and employer investment in adult education and skills over the last decade. The UK workforce is ageing - 1.3m members of the workforce in England are aged 50 or over (Ageing for Better 2022). In addition, a large number of the existing workforce will need to reskill with CBI finding that 90% of the UK workforce (30 million) will need to re-skill by 2030. There is also the additional issue that 250,000 more over-50s have become economically inactive since the pandemic (ONS, 2022). These issues are contributing to the growing productivity and skills gap the UK faces and it is essential that more investment is given to adult education to help address these, both in upskilling the existing workforce and delivering training to those that are economically inactive.
Lack of government funding
A decade of funding cuts means that government spending on adult learning outside apprenticeships has fallen by 50% in real terms, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimating that by 2024-2025 spending on adult education (excluding apprenticeships) will still be one-third below 2009-2010 levels. This reduction in spending has resulted in a 50% fall in adults taking lower-level qualifications (at Level 2 or below) and a 33% fall at Level 3. This can act as a barrier to employment or to progression onto level 4 and above at a time when higher technical qualifications are a government priority.
There is renewed interest in lifelong learning as a way to overcome some key economic and social challenges such as an ageing population, rapidly changing working environments, AI and automation etc. The government has increased spending via the National Skills Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund and has introduced several new programmes, including an all-age level 3 entitlement (free courses for jobs), skills bootcamps, the multiply programme (adult numeracy) and local skills improvement plans. However, inflation has eroded the value of the extra funding allocated for adult learning.
To enable and encourage more adults to access further education and training, there needs to be a more flexible approach to delivery and to accessing learning. This must recognise the challenges of balancing learning with other commitments (work/looking for work, childcare, other caring responsibilities etc.), affordability, learning to learn again after a significant time away from education and appropriate adult learning spaces in colleges.
Lifelong Loan Entitlement
The Government have committed to introducing the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) from 2025. The LLE will provide people with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime and will be available to use for both modules and full years of study at higher technical and degree levels (levels 4 – 6). The vision behind this is to give people the opportunity to study, train, retrain and upskill throughout their lives. The Government are currently consulting on how to deliver the LLE, but the new DfE Ministerial team have recently affirmed the Government's commitment to delivering the LLE. We hope this will be designed and implemented in a way that properly supports adults to upskill and retrain.
Employer investment
The Learning and Work Institute found that employer investment in training has fallen 28% in real terms since 2005, from £2139 to £1530 per year, which is half the EU average. Additionally, a DfE Skills Survey found that 61% of employers currently believe that they have a skills shortage in their organisation, yet two-fifths of employers have not funded or arranged training for any of their employees. These figures were confirmed by a Phoenix Group report “Never too Late to Learn”, where 56% of business decisions makers said that there should be more emphasis on retraining employers in the middle of their careers, but an estimated 69% of businesses hadn’t offered their employees any formal training in the last 12 months. Employers have a key role to play in supporting their employees to upskill and retrain and investment here is crucial.
Further information on awareness of career possibilities and skill development for students in creative Industries
In relation to teaching students on courses on hair and beauty and other creative industries about entrepreneurship skills and the range of options available to them, it is important to note that each individual colleges and lecturers make the final decision about the exact nature of the lessons taught. However, the courses designed by the awarding organisations (such as Pearson and City and Guilds) at Levels 1 and 2, have a number of compulsory modules that need to be completed. Many of these courses cover modules that explore the opportunities in the industry, highlight the importance of progression plans and how to get to the next stage of where you want your career.
Depending on how students’ progress to higher levels, they can then choose to specialise. For example, in a Level 4 Diploma in Salon Management, students will be taught marketing, PR and business development skills (after they have successfully completed previous levels). There are also a range of modules in the City and Guilds Level 4 Diploma in theatrical and media make-up course that cover sales management, public relations, marketing and human resource management.
December 2022
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