Awarding body AAT launches manifesto for skills

A skills-focused manifesto has been published by AAT, the UK’s largest awarding body for vocational finance qualifications, to cut “unnecessary bureaucracy”.

Delivering skills to power the economy outlines five key recommendations to improve efficiency in the skills delivery framework.

Jane Scott Paul, chief executive of the AAT, says: “The revival of the British economy depends on a robust skills policy that delivers a tangible return on investment, which we believe can only be achieved with some significant and wide-ranging changes to the current skills delivery framework.??

“Less bureaucracy and more employer involvement in the development of skills training needs to be a priority, but one size most certainly does not fit all.”

The recommendations the manifesto outlines are:

1. Create a single Further Education funding body and regulator
2. Qualifications should be judged on outcomes
3. Make encouraging access to professional development a key objective of skills policy
4. Reform Sector Skills Councils with a focus on quality rather than quantity
5. Revise specifications for Apprenticeships to reflect diversity across sectors

Mrs Scott Paul continues: “The system needs to be more flexible to take account of different sectors, and different learner needs – particularly in a cross-sector profession like accountancy – and focus on the practical outcome that the training delivers, not the hours spent in a class-room.”?

AAT awards more than 300,000 skills-based qualifications each year. Its learners range from students preparing for a career in finance to seasoned professionals keeping their skills fresh in the fast-changing business climate.

Jason Rainbow

(Pictured: Jane Scott Paul, chief executive of the AAT)