There are opportunities available for adults to upskill and reskill if they have lost jobs due to the coronavirus, skills and apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan has said.
Speaking at the Learning and Work Institute’s Employment and Skills Convention today, Ms Keegan said everybody in the country would have access to a digital course, the skills toolkit and all-age apprenticeships.
Ms Keegan said: “Some of the jobs that employ a lot of people today will not employ as many people tomorrow, so we’re absolutely focused on that.
“Everybody in the country is entitled to a digital entitlement so we have introduced a digital course which is available to everybody, and that’s new and that’s available from September.”
She said she was “very much a fan” of apprenticeships available to all ages. “I’ve heard some very inspiring stories from people who just didn’t get the shot first time around. I’ve certainly seen that happen myself. They will be incentivised and they are also available. Then, of course, we’ve got the skills toolkit.”
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The skills toolkit was launched in April and the minister said that there had been 136,000 courses started so far.
Ms Keegan also highlighted a speech that the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, is due to give today. She said that he would “set out his vision” about the skills the economy will need to thrive.
“He’s really going to be focusing on the skills that our economy needs to really drive the productivity that we need in our economy,” she said. “He is going to be spelling out how we offer for everybody in our economy the ability to upskill and reskill and to really make sure that we have the right skills across the country.”
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Speaking at the same event, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, stressed the importance of adult education and said more work needed to be done to deliver “conversion courses” for older learners.
He said: “We have devolved control of the adult education budgets in Greater Manchester. We’ve already taken a number of measures to make it more work-focused.”
Mr Burnham added that he would like the government to expand the adult education budget to allow combined authorities to start helping people to “convert their skills into those new areas”.
“We made a start yesterday on the ‘create jobs’ side of this but I think a lot more will be needed,” he said.
Yesterday, the Association of Colleges’ chief executive, David Hughes, expressed his disappointment about the lack of investment for adults in the chancellor’s speech.
“It is disappointing that there was little for adult education today,” he said. “Despite the chancellor’s bonus to retain furloughed workers, we expect many to be facing redundancy in the autumn. For that group and unemployed adults, we wanted to see a stronger package of training to help them be successful in a very different post-pandemic labour market. Their needs are different to young people, with funding needed for more intensive training, higher-level skills and support to move sector.”
