Skills for the future: apprenticeships and training inquiry

Digital and financial skills are central to meeting the needs of the UK economy in the future. More should be done to help widen access to high quality digital skills training to support upskilling for adult learners in particular, and this should be aligned with a more concerted focus on financial education and skills including its current quality and applicability. 

Policy stability and consistency is essential. The constantly changing policy and regulatory environment for skills and training continues to pose serious issues for awarding organisations and other delivery organisations within the sector, who have struggled to adapt sufficiently quickly to the changing landscape. This is made more difficult due to insufficient coordination 
between government and regulators when devising and implementing reform initiatives.

The Growth and Skills Levy is welcome, but reform should have SMEs at its heart. In particular, any reform in this area must protect or enhance the funding support available for SMEs. Better guidance should also be made available to SMEs to provide clarity on how Levy funds can be accessed. 

Flexible learning is key to achieving the government's skills objectives. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in changed student preferences and learning styles, and it is important that the government and learning providers lean into this and better promote the use of digital technologies to help deliver training and upskilling opportunities nationwide.