06 Feb 2009
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New legislation to help deal with the country’s long-term economic and social needs, was published today by Skills Secretary John Denham and Children’s Secretary Ed Balls.
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill provides the first complete overhaul of Apprenticeships legislation for nearly 200 years. The new legislation will put apprenticeships on a statutory basis, establish the entitlement to an apprenticeship place for every suitably qualified young person who wants one and will ensure a good quality apprenticeship for apprentices and employers alike.
It will help to meet Ministers’ ambitions that one in five young people will
undertake an apprenticeship by 2020, building on the startling transformation in
numbers starting an apprenticeship in the last decade - rising from just 65,000
in 1997 to a quarter of a million this year, with overall Government investment
soon to top £1bn annually.
The legislation also gives all employees the right to request training
during their working lives and puts in place a stronger, more accountable and
effective infrastructure to oversee further education and training. Local
authorities will take on responsibility for securing education and training for
all 16 to 19 year olds, to create a single, joined up offer for all children and
young people from 0 to 19, while the new Skills Funding Agency will oversee a
new demand-led approach to education and training provision for adults, better
tailored to the needs of businesses and learners themselves.
And it also includes new measures to build on the huge improvement in
school standards over the last decade - including putting in place lighter touch
inspections for successful schools; stronger powers to intervene where schools
need more support; further equipping schools to take on poor behaviour; and
strengthening the school workforce by establishing a new School Support Staff
Negotiating Body.
For babies and young children, the Bill will place new duties on local
authorities to ensure that they ensure that sufficient Sure Start Children’s
Centres are provided to meet local needs.
Skills Secretary
John Denham said:
“Everyone deserves the best chance to reach their potential throughout
their lives. This new Bill will put in place new rights so that at whatever
stage you are in life, you can continue to improve your skills and get training,
to improve your career prospects.
“Enshrining apprenticeships in law and introducing a new right to request
time to train, coupled with proposals to improve our schools will help deliver
the skills in the economy we need when the upturn comes.”
Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said:
“We need to equip the country to meet the economic and social needs now
and in the long-term. It is vital we build a motivated, highly skilled workforce
to take us through the current challenging economic times and build a secure,
prosperous future.
“We have invested in and transformed skills training and on-the-job
training in the last decade - but giving every young person who wants one the
right to an apprenticeship will allow young people to fulfil their working
potential and allow us to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“There have been undeniable huge improvements in school standards over
the last decade - but I have always been clear that we have more to do until we
have the world-class education system. This Bill delivers a clear package of
measures to build on teachers and pupils’ achievements - strengthening exam
regulation and assessment; give schools the help and powers to drive up
improvements; and ensuring that teachers and support staff get the recognition
and support they need.
”We are also legislating to ensure that every local authority has a
Children’s Trust Board with responsibility for improving the well being of
children in their area. This will allow us to strengthen local arrangements to
support children as they are growing up and their parents.”
Some of the other key measures of the Bill are:
- Requiring schools to provide information, advice and guidance on
apprenticeships where they consider this would be in the best interests of
pupils;
- Strengthening Children’s Trusts by putting Children’s Trust Boards
on a statutory footing and extending the duty to co-operate to promote
children’s well-being to include all maintained schools, Academies, Six Form
Colleges, FE colleges and Jobcentre Plus;
- extending the powers schools and
colleges currently have to search for weapons to cover alcohol, drugs and stolen
items;
- enabling Ofsted to publish a new health check statement for schools
which will reward successful schools by paving the way for a move from a three
year to a five or six year inspection cycle, and enable attention to be focused
on schools more in need of support;
- placing responsibility for securing
education for young people in juvenile custody with local authorities to align
more closely the education that young offenders receive while in custody with
that available in the mainstream;
- giving all employees the right to
request time away from their core duties for training which will improve the
employee’s effectiveness at work and the performance of the employer’s business
and;
- establishing Ofqual as an independent regulator of qualifications and
assessment, reporting to Parliament, to improve confidence in standards, and
transfer the Qualification and Curriculum Authority’s non-regulatory functions
to a new Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency.
Extracted from the DCFS News website
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