good morning i'd like to thank you for including me among your speakers today you could not have picked a more important issue to discuss or a more important time to be discussing them the kovid pandemic has been brutal but it has also seen great innovation and resourcefulness as we have all had to change the way we live and learn as well as work so i'd like to begin by thanking you and congratulating all association of college of members for your magnificent response i know the challenges it has placed on college leaders and their teams the extra work the added pressure none of this has gone unnoticed already we are seeing the beginnings of a post covered legacy which will be of lasting benefit i hear for example that the heart of worcestershire grimsby institute and dudley college have been have between them produced more than 400 hours of digital content for a range of subjects which is being shared via our get help with remote education site while western college and gateshead college have teamed up to deliver over 370 well-being sessions and 13 new health and well-being video toolkits by coming together to tackle our shared challenges we're going to emerge stronger and your resilience is going to help the recovery effort in so many ways further education is going to be vital to helping this country grow economically and improving our productivity after this pandemic i can say without any hesitation that the future is further education i'm sure that my passion for further education is not news to any of you if there is ever an opportunity to bang the drum for this sector i am there i make no apologies for this it's something i believe with a total conviction and covid has only confirmed that belief about how important all of you are we are going to continue our great rebalancing between higher and further education which began at the last spending review and which we have now continued in the white paper skills for jobs this will make going to college or taking an apprenticeship a compelling an option as studying for a degree at university the development of technical skills for greater embedding of digital skills the ability to retrain or upskill at any time all these have never been more important than they are now than they are today we need to get people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic back into work as quickly as possible your colleges are poised to offer the kind of flexible practical training that leads directly to high quality skilled jobs which is exactly what this country needs because colleges deliver the skills that deliver the jobs that deliver the greater productivity but we need you to continue to approach this proactively and our skills for jobs white paper developed in partnership with so many of you sets out how we see you doing exactly this i want this white paper to reshape the whole system of learning and acquiring skills in this country and it is going to do this by putting employers firmly at the center of a local skill system firmly at the heart of our colleges working together with you our colleges as well as other local partners to shape technical skills provision so that local economies thrive and local businesses benefit we know that education and training must develop hand in hand with business partners if we are ever going to beat our chronic skill shortages so we need to think local we need local solutions for local skills needs we need you to work with local businesses and employers so that the courses you offer are those as a likely to lead to jobs there will be more information coming soon on the year-long strategic development fund pilot that we are going to be launching this 65 million pound fund will support colleges as they reshape what they do for example by piloting the changes we expect to see in the local skills improvement plans or setting up business centers we are confident that once it's open there'll be plenty of strong proposals from colleges right across the country we will also move to a more coherent simpler funding model that we're going to test with the sector and we will be consorting on this later in the spring the consultation will be looking for a simpler model with greater flexibility for providers and more accountability this will in turn lead to a stronger focus on outcomes and will allow providers to achieve more it is part of our commitment that wherever people live or whatever their background they can get the skills they need to get a fulfilling and satisfying job through their lifetime skills guarantee we will help people train and retrain at any stage in their lives this will be achieved through our new flexible skills boot camps kick-starting the expansion of higher technical education and getting the lifelong loan entitlement up and running from 2025 the lifetime skills guarantee will also include our new level 3 offer for adults which is backed by new money from the national skills fund and will enable tens of thousands of adults to benefit from hundreds of free qualifications from april colleges will be absolutely key in delivering this new offer and ensuring adults across the country can develop the skills they need to get ahead in the labor market i want to thank you for all the hard work you've already put in to scale up this offer ahead of april i strongly encourage you to take up this level three entitlement offer and thank those who've already embraced it i would now like to look at a number of the other specific measures that are going to help our recovery covid has made existing disadvantage more acute whether that is in a town that has been hard hit by redundancies or in communities where people were already facing financial hardship and sadly the young are often the first to suffer the latest data shows us that young people are more likely to work in sectors that have been shut down by covet by last autumn those in the 16 to 25 age group were twice as likely as older employees to have lost their job and most of them had seen earnings fall to navigate for worst of a pandemic and steer a course to recovery the government is delivering its plan for jobs this includes a number of programs to address the long-term impact of covid such as the catch-up premium and the skills recovery package in july 2020 we announced additional investment for a reformed and expanded traineeship program to help young people into work this will make an additional 30 000 traineeship places available this year i know your members have already worked with us on providing traineeships so you'll be familiar with the benefits and positive impact that these can have we're also making more funding available to existing traineeship providers and have awarded nearly 65 million pounds in new contracts with providers for these traineeships for those aged 19 to 24 right across england as we celebrate the start of national apprenticeship week i'm delighted to tell you that as of today more than 20 000 applications have been submitted from employers for a cash boost of up to 2000 pounds to hire apprentices as new employees businesses know when they're on to a good deal and there is no clearer proof of value apprenticeships can bring take emilia reyes papon she's an apprentice technician scientist at oxford university who is supporting production of a covid19 vaccine while we've all been focusing on the end product this has been amelia and others like her who are making sure that lab equipment is maintained tested and cleaned correctly or jack day christopher robinson and christopher young their advanced engineering apprentices at the science and technology facilities council they helped produce 20 years worth of mechanical ventilators in just 12 weeks these young people are showing us the future and really leading by example i spoke earlier of how we're going to reset our thinking for a post-covered world and another way we're going to build back better is by building back greener the green jobs task force is part of the government's ambitious plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. we need to make sure that we have the skills for a greener economy such as in offshore wind and supporting workers in high carbon sectors like oil and gas to retrain in green technologies the task force will report next year on its findings future generations will judge us on how we build back after the pandemic they'll judge us on how we came together to work for each other and the country they'll judge us on our vision and our ambition is it bold enough are we looking far enough ahead i'm confident that the white paper will be our first step so that those who come after will say that we did what was needed what we had to do to make sure that we build back better for future generations and to get it right thank you for everything that you have been doing and everything that you will continue to do for future generations good morning education secretary and thank you very much for that speech um i think it's fair to say that the white paper was broadly welcomed by the sector but can you tell us a little bit more about how you see that work by the further education colleges to get people ready for work fund it in the long term well for so long we've all talked about the importance of skills uh but what i see is the white paper is sort of setting out the real vision as to how we're going to drive our skills agenda forward and how colleges can play an absolute and total pivotal role in terms of doing that the focus very much been in making sure that every young person that comes whether into college taking an apprenticeship but the real focus is um about how we skill up the whole nation so that we're in the very best possible place to compete globally and making sure that young people when they do come into college are getting the skills that they need in order to be able to walk into a job so that they're in the best possible place that britain is going to be able to compete on a global stage and colleges are that beating heart if we are to deliver that and can they look forward to a bit more long-term funding are you looking forward to setting that in store soon well what what we did in terms of a skills uh for jobs white paper is sort of set out that image of not a view of uh how colleges are not just going to be in the next sort of uh 6 12 18 months but where we see things going to be in the next 20 uh 30 years which i think is really important so that the sector can start gearing around that i always understand and appreciate people would like multi-year settlements uh this year uh we weren't in a position where government didn't do the comprehensive spending review but we're looking forward to stepping uh into a comprehensive spending review for the future financial years but what we have seen uh not just uh last year where you saw a substantial increase in the amount of funding that was going into the 16 to 19 sector and into skills uh we saw a net increase of 600 million pounds this year you've seen the government's commitment to the 2.5 billion pounds uh national skills fund so you're already starting to see the emergence of a clear commitment by the government for skilling of the nation and you know the skills for jobs white paper is really that sort of laser-like focus um about how we actually deliver those skills this is so necessary for our country but also the fact that there have been commitments there have been the government already putting the money where their mouth is but i do understand that people would like to see that longer-term commitment but that's what we'll be moving to as part of the comprehensive spending review it's not long at all now until the spring statement and of course there are an awful lot of financial challenges facing the country at this point what are you going to be pushing for well you'll appreciate that that's part of a sort of a a delicate budget negotiation and as you'll also be aware that the budget isn't usually the spending round that will be sort of primarily focused on um the comprehensive spending review uh but as always uh the key issue and key points i'm always pushing is uh skills for jobs uh without putting that in place uh uh we're always um you know we want to put people in the the best possible position and we saw last year the chancellor uh announcing uh numerous measures in terms of helping not just young people but people of all ages go into the world of work and that will continue to remain a key focus and a key key element of everything that the government does there is much talk at the moment about how the further education sector can reopen for more learners how can you make sure that that is done in a way that is safe for both staff and also for students and what lessons can we learn there from the last 12 months yeah well i it's such an important point that you raise uh i think there's all uh lecturers all staff in colleges are really just very much wanting to welcome back uh all youngsters but all people of all ages back into college to be able to continue their studies in more traditional ways and being face to face again but every step we take is always based on the best scientific health and medical advice and of course uh we take those sort of uh decisions very very carefully the prime minister has indicated um the prime minister has indicated that sort of a settings aren't going to be further opened until uh the 8th of march there's a number of uh you know it is important that young people get back into the uh the classroom back into the lecture theater at the earliest possible moment and we'll be working with our colleagues across government to see uh when that at that moment is to welcome them all back but we're we're very keen to do that at the earliest possible moment but we saw the fe sector um really leading the way uh leading the way in terms of welcoming youngsters back into and you know all students uh back into the classroom uh we also saw vfe sector really leading the way in terms of online learning as well and actually uh trailblazing as uh how it can be done and i think that's something that i just really want to take the opportunity to thank all those who work in our colleges for the work and commitment they put in not just to welcoming their students back but also making sure that online provision was of the highest possible quality and supporting youngsters and students of all ages in terms of their learning now the government has announced a range of initiatives to support catch up for children and young people and all students how do we ensure that that support is given to those that need it and how do we then ensure a long-term impact of that well we've got to make sure that this is all evidence-based um there's often so often uh wonderful initiatives this aren't actually based on uh evidence and the signs and clear sense that this is going to be um working and so this is why i was uh so delighted when uh sir kevin collins uh accepted the uh invitation to to really look at leading the work in terms of ensuring that all measures uh from the youngest age to adult learners all the way through that the interventions that we put in place um are really really really driving uh the attainment and uh catch-up of of all of our students um we've already um been working with the college sector and putting support there in order to be able to help them put catch-up initiatives in place and i would see the college sector being the heart of um other catch-up initiatives that we also put in place but and i really do hope i i know the college sector and uh david has already been uh leading the way in terms of uh reaching out to kevin to uh work with him and uh and government to make sure that those initiatives that we're putting in place work for students uh but of course also can be as best implemented by the sector as simply and as easily as possible you already mentioned david hughes's letter to kevin collins uh from this morning i'm asking for a task group to make sure that up uh initiatives go to the people that need them the most is that something that you are willing to look at willing to consider well i think what the government's actions already shows i think we got to look at education as a whole and we don't want to be looking at sort of uh we don't want to be sort of saying that sort of uh siloing different sections of education off and this is why it's got to be part of uh broader catch-up initiatives uh not done separately but if you look at what the government is already doing in many ways many ways our colleges are already um ahead of so many other uh sectors of the education um field because we've already got our skills for jobs white paper which is absolutely the center point of what the government is going to be doing in terms of cap you know making sure that um our the systems are in place in order to be able to um rebuild uh build that better out of this pandemic and colleges are slap bang in the center of that initiative so in in many ways where the college sector has stolen a march on all other parts of government uh the key question is as to what follows you've already sort of tried to tease out of me as to what extra money or what extra resources are going to be there but as you'll see from the skills for jobs white paper it's not just about cash it's about how we're this is the largest body of reform in the post 16 uh world for a number of decades and that's going to have to be underpinned by legislation and other measures and so i think that um you know the the uh skills sector which of course colleges are the beating heart of that is right front and center of the government's efforts and focus in terms of recovery out of this pandemic there's much more work to do but colleges are just right there and yes the work that kevin is going to be doing in terms of uh covered catch-up is vital but i think colleges should be just fully aware that they are going to be playing a much much bigger and more significant role in terms of you know this skills revolution that we're going to deliver for this country and this should be an exciting opportunity for them to embrace and we're we're very much down that road white paper what will follow in terms of that these are cementing colleges at the heart of our economic recovery part of our skills recovery and that for very much of the heart of being able to compete on a global level with the right type skills and start closing that productivity gap that says you know sadly um sort of uh widened over the last decade and more thank you very much for that and thank you so much for your time this morning secretary of state we very much appreciate it pleasure thank you for having me and and just to just sort of finish off by saying how much i truly truly value what all colleges are doing and the whole teams are doing for me colleges uh i i remember um it seems a long long time ago into a a packed room in the house of commons wherever the midlands association of colleges were were meeting and they very kindly invited me to come along and uh address them and i i i slightly ripped off tony blair by saying when he said education education education and i said further education further education further education and for me our colleges have this amazing moment in their history you know colleges were created usually to meet the the important needs the important economic needs of the communities that they were built in and and in many ways it is rediscovering which actually not rediscovering may but putting that mission right back at the center point of what colleges do and this is why further education is so vital for the country's economic recovery and actually as we come out of this pandemic and we shouldn't lose sight of how important that was and the skills for jobs white paper i hope sets a clear blueprint of what we're wanting to deliver but we can only deliver that we can genuinely only deliver that by working together with our brilliant colleges up and down for countries but by doing that we can deliver a revolution in post-16 education a revolution for the 50 of young people who don't go to university that i think so many of us have so long to see but i i so look forward to working with colleges to deliver on that ambition and thank you so much for inviting me along and giving me the opportunity to speak with you thank you very much
2021-02-19