The UK’s perennially ailing skills base may yet have a chance of enjoying slightly better health.
Before considering the contents of the government’s World Class Skills strategy, the fact and manner of its publication are positive in themselves.
The plan is a response to the Leitch Review of Skills report commissioned by Gordon Brown’s Treasury. And the implementation plan is an early commitment from his premiership. As such, it signals not only the agenda’s top-level backing, but also the priorities of the new prime minister.
The contents look promising. It is the most comprehensive skills strategy ever produced – ranging from basic literacy to high-level technical training – and commits funding to the tune of £1.3bn per year by 2010/11.
All that remains is the hard part.
Tony Blair’s government was too commonly characterised by an emphasis on strategy rather than delivery. Sadly, more often that not all the effort went into the theory, with interest swiftly waning when it came to practice.
Even with extra money and political support, UK skills faces a steep climb.
There is still a tendency to focus on the basics rather than the high-tech expertise needed by both the IT sector, specifically, and the UK’s global ambitions more generally.
And the split of education policy between two Whitehall organisations – the newly-created departments for Children, Schools and Families; and Innovation, Universities and Skills – may be a double-edged sword.
The changes will help ensure the high-tech agenda is no longer lost in numeracy targets. But there are also dangers in divorcing the needs of the knowledge economy from broader education policy.
It is an indictment of the education system, at least in part, that UK skills are so woeful. The divide must not be allowed to progress further, or no amount of prime ministerial backing will stop the rot.
So far the analysis is comprehensive, the ideas good, and the commitment admirable. Now the new PM needs to keep his eye on the ball.
