In recent weeks we have seen the launch of two important initiatives designed to get the country out of recession and back on a sustainable economic growth path. The UK Resource Centre (UKRC) for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) has launched its new gender equality award to ensure the inclusion of women in strategically important SET industries, and Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson has set out an ambitious plan for improving the skills of the UK workforce.
The ‘SET Fair Standard’ was launched on November 5 to more than a hundred business leaders and academics. The event was attended by the likes of Halcrow, The Institution of Civil Engineers, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers and The Science and Technologies Facilities Council, all of whom support the Standard as an indicator of good practice.
UKRC director Annette Williams told her audience that gender equality both values and nurtures talent, builds a more inclusive and diverse workforce and helps build better business performance. Science, engineering and technology will be at the forefront of taking the UK out of recession, she says, and women will have a key role to play in all this.
Awarded at three levels – ‘committed’, ‘achieving’ and ‘outstanding’ - the SET Fair Standard has been designed to meet the needs of corporations and large organisations, small and medium sized organisations, professional institutions, research facilities and councils, employer members organisations (such as Sector Skills Councils), and colleges and places of further education. The UKRC hopes that the Standard will have a significant role in developing inclusive workplaces where women have been underrepresented for decades.
According to Ms Williams, women have, for too long, played second fiddle in these important areas. She believes that the SET Fair Standard will prove to be the “dawning of a new age” where both women and organisations will get the best out of each other for the benefit of each other and of the economy. She urges all businesses and organisations operating in the SET arena to sign up for it without delay and start gaining recognition; just as they might do for other forms of accreditation such as ‘Investors in People’.
Meanwhile, last week in the House of Lords, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced plans to overhaul the government’s policies regarding skills delivery and development. Essentially, this will involve a change in the focus of the skills system so that a new premium is placed on what he described as ‘higher skills’, especially the technician skills that will be in great demand as the UK’s low carbon industries start to take off.
In order to drive up the quality of courses, learners are to be ‘empowered’ through ‘personal skills accounts’ that will allow them to shop around and engender a sense of competition among providers. The government says it will more than treble the number of public and private institutions, where these accounts can be used, to more than 1,500, creating not just new options for learners but creating a big incentive for providers to design courses that attract students.
There is also a move to simplify the ‘organisational clutter’ of public bodies delivering skills policy. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills has recommended that the number of separate publicly funded agencies be reduced by over 30, and has promised to work towards this goal. This new model will make the Regional Development Agencies responsible for leading the regional skills strategy in each area, working in partnership with local authorities and others.
Putting some flesh on the bones of this new policy initiative, Lord Mandelson promised that government will work with business to focus funding on the areas of the economy that can do most to drive growth and jobs. This is likely to involve a sum of around £100m to support around 160,000 training places in areas such as life sciences, digital media and technology, advanced manufacturing, engineering, construction and low carbon energy. Some 1,000 new scholarships worth £1,000 each, will be offered on an annual basis to encourage the best apprentices to progress into higher education. And more employers will be given the chance to drive and shape training provision through the launch of a fifth competitive bidding round of the National Skills Academies programme.
Greater autonomy is also to be given to colleges that demonstrate teaching excellence, while at the same time funding will be cut to low priority and poorly provided courses. Lord Mandelson promised investment in the courses employers judge to be in line with their particular needs and requirements. But this investment will not be a one-way affair. The government also expects businesses to make a greater contribution to the funding of skills training for their workforces.
Ultimately, the government hopes to see a culture developing in which all employers take the view that the skills of their staff are one of the best investments they can make. For its part, the government has aspirations of a learning culture that sees the vast majority of the population participating in higher education or completing an advanced apprenticeship or equivalent technician level course before it reaches the age of 30.
There’s more information about the SET Fair Standard at http://www.ukrc4setwomen.org/ and you can get the full report of the government’s strategy to up-skill the population at www.bis.gov.uk/skillsforgrowth
Les Hunt
Editor