The Government’s recently announced Levelling Up White Paper contained several key missions, medium-term ambitions which highlight the most important areas where the Government believes more progress is needed over the next decade.
These missions are intended to galvanise the efforts of government, the wider public sector, the private and voluntary sector, civic society and the whole community to direct our efforts and resources towards achieving these goals to improve access to opportunity across the country.
The missions around education and skills are ones that I was particularly pleased to see – plans to ensure people get the best possible education and maximise their chances of getting on in life, no matter what part of the country they are in.
In the area of education more generally, by 2030, the number of primary school children achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths will have significantly increased. In England, this will mean 90% of children will achieve the expected standard, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas will have increased by over a third.
Meanwhile, when it comes to skills, by 2030, the number of people successfully completing high quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK. In England, this will lead to 200,000 more people successfully completing high quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas.
To make the Government’s skills mission a reality, thousands more adults will soon be able to access free, flexible training and get the skills they need to secure careers in sectors including green, digital and construction as part of up to an additional £550 million boost to expand the popular Skills Bootcamps across the country.
To better understand skills gaps, the Education Secretary has established a Future Skills Unit which will look at the data and evidence of where skills gaps exist and in what industries. The Government is also working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to roll out higher technical qualifications (HTQs) from September 2022, to provide learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for a given occupation.