Reflecting on 2024’s FE + Skills Collective Conference: ‘Bridging Policy and Pedagogy: Shaping the Future of Skills in the UK’

This year’s FE + Skills Collective conference ‘Bridging Policy and Pedagogy for a Stronger Skills System’ provided a timely opportunity for the sector to step back and reflect in an holistic way on our role, impact and the opportunities that lie ahead.

It certainly is an exciting and pivotal time to be in FE and encouraging to note that the sector is poised to play a critical role in helping the new Government achieve not just one but all five of its policy missions. I can’t think of many sectors which can claim this accolade, although… with great power comes great responsibility.

The panellists set the stage, from both a localised and national decision-making perspective, sharing a wealth of collective expertise and offering a realistic roadmap and key considerations for our sector’s success, themes we explored throughout the day.

The scale of the challenge before us is considerable, for example:

• £35 billion: the cost of skills shortages to the UK economy.
• At least 1m individuals are ‘economically inactive’ and either looking for work or would like a paid job in future, many of whom require upskilling.
• 857,000 ‘live’ vacancies.
• 75% of businesses are either unaware of or disengaged with the FE sector.
• Adult education funding is nearly two-thirds lower in real terms than in 2003/04 and 50% lower than in 2009/10.
• Certain sectors, such as Health & Social Care, face an acute paradox; significant skills gaps coexisting with low wages and poor retention rates.
• The ongoing skills gap is impacting productivity and growth across multiple sectors such as Cyber Security, Health & Social Care and Advanced Manufacturing.

These challenges become increasingly complex when viewed through the local, regional and national lens, further compounded by the increasing number of constituent parts in our system (e.g. Mayoral Combined Authorities and Combined County Authorities) each with distinct needs and varying degrees of devolved powers and this is all taking place in an environment where devolved powers are being accelerated alongside a broader ambition of integrating skills, employment and health.

Dr Coupland’s (CEO, IfATE) Q&A session offered a positive outlook and unique insights into the ongoing formation of Skills England and how this will act as a vehicle to streamline and improve the FE landscape at a local, regional and national level by working collaboratively and developing a coherent skills strategy to support future skills needs.

Later in the day, the working groups, which tackled a broad range of topics such as skills and employability and dual professionalism to high-quality teaching and learning, were particularly effective. These facilitated sessions identified key challenges and developed practical, realistic solutions that could be put forward to the Government. From my perspective, representing Maximus (an Employability Provider and ITP), it was refreshing to work alongside FE partners such as colleges, prison education providers, awarding organisations and fellow ITPs. The consensus was clear; we share many of the same challenges and by working together, we can amplify our voice for change.

Some of the most insightful takeaways, actions and requests for the Government and Skills England that emerged during the day included:

• The need to improve employer engagement across FE, which is critical in enabling learners to access and progress within the labour market.
• A renewed focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning across the sector.
• The rising demand for modularisation of longer programmes and the provision of shorter, more flexible apprenticeships.
• To identify and introduce new flexibilities to increase FE participation by individuals who are in receipt of benefits.
• A greater awareness of and need to use neurodiversity assessment tools across FE.
• A contemporary understanding of broader industry trends and priority sectors (e.g. Engineering, Health & Social Care, Green/Net Zero, Creative Industries and Services) and the acute shortages we are already experiencing in sectors such as Cyber Security.
• The urgent need to find innovative ways to significantly increase the investment in Adult Skills Funding to meet existing and future skills needs.
• The embedding of AI literacy as a mandatory component of both teacher training and learner curricula.
• Equitable access to high-quality Labour Market Information (LMI) to ensure informed decision-making across the sector.
• The need to develop and agree a unified approach for embedding “essential skills” (e.g. resilience, adaptability, questioning, problem-solving) in FE.

A recurring theme throughout the conference was the importance of consistently advocating for our sector, fostering trust and promoting collaboration. This is the only sustainable way to secure the best outcomes for learners and to strengthen the sector as a whole. I was able to share how at Maximus, we have seen this in action, through our Community Partnership Network, which brings together 400+ local and regional partners, many of whom are from the FE sector e.g. Colleges, ITPs, VCSEs, which has successfully delivered personalised interventions to 12,000+ individuals, without these critical partnerships and trust-based models, participants could be left behind.

Looking ahead, the sector anticipates the FE + Skills Collective’s report in November 2024. As for next year’s conference, I’m already looking forward to celebrating the progress we will have made together!

By Mohammad Naqi, Business Development Manager (Public Sector) at Maximus