Agenda item

Please introduce yourself and outline the roles and responsibilities which your post involves.

My current role is as the KEB Skills Manager, but I have previously taught for more than 20 years in secondary, further and higher education.  I have also run small businesses and employed 9 staff, so have experience from both the provider and employer focus. My current role is as an interface between businesses and educators, and my experience has enabled me to reflect on these connections in the short-, medium- and long-term.  By short-term, I mean the day-to-day issues in staffing a business, maintaining staff turnover, etc.  Medium-term planning would be to look ahead and plan for developments likely to occur over the next year, e.g. opening a new facility. Long-term planning would be to look at the future investments from the business that required new skills and start to build now those skills which would be needed to achieve this future direction.

In my role within KEB, KCC and with other partners, we have arranged 3 sector-themed business growth events; for the rural economy, construction and low-carbon energy generation sectors. These have been well received, with more than 400 business in attendance.  More are planned, to cover health and social care, digital and creative media, advanced manufacturing (engineering manufacturing) and partnering with VisitKent on one for the tourism/leisure sector.

From these events, trends are emerging around the shortages of certain skills which are both generic and specialist.  Generic skills so far identified include leadership, management and ‘attitude’, and specialist skills include technician skills and ICT as well as skills which apply more specifically to particular industries. For example, businesses at the rural event reported a shortage of trained chainsaw certificate holders. There is a strict minimum-age limit on being able to train for and hold such a certificate, and hence few colleges offer these courses.  Also, young people aiming for jobs at a wind farm will need a very precise mix of hydraulic and electrical qualifications, working at height and working in confined spaces. Whilst these are available separately, few providers are currently offering them as a package.  Generally, employers identify the skills they require to fill a post and then seek to attract good candidates by using competitive salary levels, etc. Business is telling us that there is generally a shortage of young people qualified at levels 3 and 4, and that there is a shortage in research and development.

New certificated training courses are difficult to introduce and establish. There is a long and involved process to gain funding, ratification and accreditation, and it can be several years between starting to set up a course and turning out the first students ready to take up jobs.  In some industries, much can change in that few years, and there is a danger that the skills of new students might already be partly out of date, especially in fast-changing sectors like computing.  One way to bring courses online quicker is to combine existing ratified modules together in new ways as happened in Folkestone, where SAGA were looking for IT graduates. Their aim was to keep jobs local and they were able to put together bespoke training, using the existing modules they needed.

KEB works closely with partners from local businesses, including the Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Directors and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In a report from the CBI, published recently, they list what they look for in a new recruit; they value attitude first, then social skills, then business literacy, all ahead of specialist/academic knowledge.  This further demonstrates that there is a mismatch between what employers are looking for and what schools seem to be preparing young people for.  There was a pilot scheme called ‘The Work Ready award’ which emphasised the value and importance of non-academic skills such as attendance, punctuality and self-discipline. This pilot was only run for students interesting in joining the construction industry.  One key aspect was the continuous assessment which took place, which meant that a consistently high standard was required if the young person was to achieve this award. If the standard of one of the measured skills lapsed, the award could be withdrawn. As someone who ran a small business, the skills I most looked for in a new recruit were self-discipline and social skills, sometimes called customer focused skills.

The CBI research also identified the weaknesses that still exist in basic skills that employers are looking for.  The research showed that 41% of employers were concerned by recruits’ basic literacy, 39% were concerned about levels of basic numeracy, and 73% were concerned about basic sentence construction and grammar.  Another factor that is affecting qualifications is the way we assess young people, and then the way in which they apply for jobs.  Most application processes now use an online form, which has spell-checking and grammar checking facilities. Handwriting or punctuation get little practice.  I cannot remember the last time I received a handwritten letter. 

Two questions I would pose for the Select Committee to consider would be; what are the key influences over young people’s choices? and what are the key influences over educational providers’ choices?

I would suggest that, for young people, parents and peer pressure are both very important.  However, for education providers, making the best use of their existing staff would seem to be a key concern, as well as which courses attract most funding to maximise income.  The number of students who take up employment upon completing their studies is not currently measured.  The careers service does not appear to play a strong role in shaping providers’ choices.

As a result of the sector meetings, KEB, through its Skills for Business growth group, is establishing a business-led group to examine the mismatch between what employers need and what providers at School/Further and Higher Education prepare young people for, and how local businesses communicate these issues to local schools and colleges.

How could the voluntary sector fit into this process, for instance to allow young people to work and gain experience to help them find paid employment?

For me, there would appear to be more opportunity for graduates to benefit from this experience, as they have other skills apart from their academic ability.  The same would not necessarily be true for some 16 – 18 year olds.  Employers see voluntary work as evidence of a good attitude towards using time constructively and gaining experience, and they do view it kindly.

If you could bring in new policy, what would be the best way to structure services to benefit young people?

In the current system, attitudinal and academic aspects are disconnected. It tends to pick out young people’s shortcomings rather than emphasise what they are good at and enhance it. We operate a deficit model, identifying what a young person is weak at and then attempting to remedy this.  What is needed is a positive model, identifying what the young person is good at and then building on this success, picking up new skills on the way.

What often shapes what you do as a job is ‘happenstance’; you fall into something that you hadn’t studied for or hadn’t planned to do.  That’s how I got my first job and I’m sure other Members had similar experiences.

We need to look at who influences young people’s choices.  Parents seem to be the key, so we need to try to influence them, although this is proving very difficult.  As a teacher those parents who you most need to speak to are the hardest to reach, and do not seem to turn up at parents’ evenings.  Perhaps information, advice and guidance on careers options needs to be more aimed at parents?  A young person’s peer group is an important influence on choice, but we are very poor at affecting this. We also have limited scope to influence what providers offer.  Businesses also need some help to become more in touch with recent changes in education (eg. many still refer to young people doing O-levels), so we also need to educate them.

Is there a difference between what employers want and what they actually need?

Employers now increasing have the scope to offer bespoke training. What they require are young people with sufficient basic skills to make the most of this training.  What schools need to provide is the well-prepared clay for employers to mould.  Employers see the strengths that young people have and how they can use them. 

Many companies have very specialised needs.  Can the KCC encourage smaller industries to train recruits themselves, so they meet the company’s needs?  In that way, they would be helping themselves.

At the sector events KEB have arranged, there has been a strong message that the networking aspect has been very valuable, and we could look to extend these opportunities.  KCC, with a range of partners, helped establish a business network for the Creative Industries called ‘media tree’. This is now developing into a social enterprise company.  It might be worth looking at other sectors and whether networks such as this might be profit them.  Some industries do not get together to share best practice and knowledge, but at the Business growth meetings, our feedback would indicate that they found it a useful opportunity. 

We encourage young people to go to University, but some do not suit this and do better if they enter work at 18 and train with the help of an employer.  They could also use some sort of sandwich-type course if this is still available.  Are we missing an opportunity by not doing this?

Some courses do mix practical work with business skills and input from an employer. However, careful planning is required if these are to give the students a good experience and working environment.

Some employers seem to demand certain skills without offering to train young people to develop them.

In some industries, health and safety regulations place a minimum age limit at which a young person can take part in practical work, eg on a building site.  Young people need to be able to make a contribution to the work of the business for their presence to be useful.  Traditional ‘work experience’ arrangements don’t appearing to be working.

When I was young, apprenticeships were something which young people went into as soon as they left school.  Does this still happen?

In some sectors which traditionally used apprenticeships – eg construction – this does still happen, although there is now more choice of training and a greater choice of sectors to enter.  Employers have been keen on the idea of apprenticeships when it has been clearly explained to them, but this is where we need to establish better communications.

Do they still last for five years?

Most are linked to qualifications and last for a maximum of two years, but if taken from a Level 1 to Level 4 this might easily take 5 years.  There is a mix of academic and vocational qualification and training, and a debate over the relative merits of academic study and breadth of practical experience gained is still going on.  Employers seem to prefer breadth of experience over academic qualification.  Vocational training is highly valued in Germany, which is still very much an industrial nation. The type and range of vocational opportunity has expanded much recently, eg IT has now become a basic skill which is needed by most businesses.

Skills Centres are a good initiative, but how are these viewed by and supported by business?

Employers are interested in understanding the new training offers. Centres that offer employment opportunities and stepping stones to Higher Education are particularly good news. Swale Skills Centre in Sittingbourne is a particularly good example as it is based very close to local business, both geographically and in terms of relationships.

I think it would be good for the Select Committee to make a recommendation for more of such locally-placed centres. 

Yes, it is widely recognised that students do not travel far for Level 1 and 2 courses, whereas they would for higher skills. Therefore, it follows that more local centres offering the lower skills are required.

Can you comment on what the Wolf report cautions about young people specialising too early?

Young people cannot specialise as early as they used to be able to. In the days of O levels it was normal to only take 6 or 7, whereas now it is common to take 12 or more GSCEs.