Kate Green responds to Gavin Williamson in the House

Thank you Mr Speaker, and I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his Statement.

On this side of the House we passionately believe in the value of further and adult education, for individuals, for their communities, and our shared prosperity.
And I do think, Mr Speaker, that many of the announcements that the Secretary of State made are a step in the right direction. Indeed, I have no doubt that he does believe we need more investment in further education.

So, I can only imagine that he was appalled to discover which Party has been in office for the last ten years, which party has spent those years slashing funding for further education, cutting maintenance support for learners, and building barriers to further study.

Will the Secretary of State now admit to the House that it was a mistake to cut billions of pounds from further and adult education? And that the advanced learner loan system which has deterred so many adult learners from studying, had a devasting impact on their life chances.

Mr Speaker, I turn to the specific proposals outlined by the Secretary of State.

First, the Lifetime Skills Guarantee.

I am glad that he has finally acknowledged, as Labour has long argued, that more people need access to further education and retraining, particularly given the challenges our economy now faces.

But many learners who could benefit from these new funded courses will not be eligible.

Why will no workers qualified to Level 3 be eligible, when many could benefit hugely from being able to retrain in a new industry?

For those training beyond Level 3, he appears to offer them only a flexible loan system. But his own Department’s research shows that the introduction of loans caused participation in adult education to plummet, so why is he returning to this failed approach?

What about those who do not hold level 2 qualifications? What funding will ensure they can study for Level 2 so they can progress to Level 3 and beyond?

I am sure he would agree that you cannot credibly say you want equality between further and higher education if only one route brings maintenance support.

So, will the learners who study for these new funded courses be eligible for maintenance support?

Next, Mr Speaker, I turn to funding.

Additional investment in further and adult education is obviously welcome, which is why on these benches we spent years advocating for it while year after year his Party cut funding.
The funding he has announced today will not even reverse the damage, let alone mean increased investment

Mr Speaker, funding is supposed to be available for every adult who is not qualified to A-Level or equivalent.

There are nine million of those people in the country.

Can the Secretary of State guarantee that every single adult not qualified to Level 3 who wants to access this support will be able to do so?

His £2.5 billion amounts to less than £280 for each of these learners
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Does he really think that’s sufficient for an adult learner to get the necessary skills and qualifications?

He stated that a full Level 3 qualification would be made available for adults aged over 23 for “courses which are shown to be valued by employers". How is the government determining that? Will he commit to a date to publish these? I think he said T-Levels will be included, will he confirm that?

What conversations has he had with the devolved authorities and metro mayors about these proposals? Will MCAs that have their adult education budget devolved be able to set the eligibility criteria for this spending?

Is the £8m for the bootcamps genuinely new money? Who is expected to deliver these new opportunities?

He talks about increasing apprenticeship opportunities, but since the Government introduced the apprenticeship levy, numbers have been consistently down especially at lower levels. Can he provide more detail on the support available for SME’s and non-levy payers?

Finally, Mr Speaker, I want to talk about the scale and urgency of what is needed.

The government rightly found billions of pounds for the Job Retention Scheme. But when it comes to retraining, their ambitions cannot stretch further than last year’s manifesto - as if the global pandemic has had no impact on the need for workers to get new skills and find new jobs.

Labour called for the government to integrate training into the Job Support Scheme to allow workers on reduced hours to improve their skills. Why has he failed to do this?

The OBR’s central projection is for unemployment to reach 12% before the end of the year. That is when the need for skills and retraining opportunities will be most acute.

So why is this package only available from next April ?

Will courses starting under the new guarantee begin in April or follow the usual academic calendar?

And why has the procurement of the contract for the 30k traineeships announced in July not even begun yet?

Mr Speaker, Labour have spent years calling for investment in the skills of working people and those seeking work. They are, and always have been, the greatest asset in our economy.
It is only by making the most of all of their potential that we can truly recover from the effects of this terrible pandemic, and achieve a lasting and shared prosperity.

We now face a crisis of unemployment that could be the worst in my lifetime. It is vital that government supports those at risk of losing their jobs, and supports them in finding new careers and opportunities.

The government must get this right– and it has one chance to do so. I implore ministers to listen to our concerns. The task is urgent and it is essential.