A recent report in the Financial Times tells us our skills crisis is damaging growth and holding people back. Sadly, lack of understanding among the public as to which courses are valuable contrasts starkly with the size of the problem.
Recent polling from Public First shows an overwhelming majority (86 per cent) of people aged 22 to 45 are interested in employer-recognised skills education. Yet only a minority (27 per cent) can explain what Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are. Once HTQs are explained, most (71 per cent) say they would be interested in studying for one.
Furthermore, for most adults, the prospect of accessing skills education remains daunting, often hindered by significant barriers such as time, cost and accessibility. Among respondents aged 25 to 44, 46 per cent thought qualifications too expensive, 38 per cent were unsure about how to access financial support and 48 per cent thought it difficult to fit education around their daily lives.
As Labour sets out to reform the skills system, these problems of understanding and access must be tackled head-on. This will require urgent thinking on the infrastructure needed to meet this challenge.
In its manifesto, Labour announced a new post-16 skills strategy promising to better integrate further and higher education, creating clearer pathways between institutions.
Currently, there is a missing middle between level 3 qualifications like BTECs, A Levels and T Levels, and degrees where people fully commit to three years of study up to level 6. HTQs at levels 4 and 5 are ideal to bridge that gap and to address pressing skills needs.
A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said level 4 and 5 qualifications can lead to earnings that compare well with degrees (in some cases higher). But too often, these valuable higher-skills courses are poorly understood, and policymakers struggle to boost their uptake.
In the meantime, more than half the adult population have no degree. HTQs are the perfect qualification for them since they are career-focused, shorter than a degree and, if delivered flexibly online, don’t require a substantial commitment to campus-based learning.
This could spell a renaissance in adult learning
They’re good for employers too. Today’s job market demands flexible ways for people to gain new skills and qualifications.
Colleges – and the courses they deliver – therefore play a vital role in making access to learning simple, agile and responsive to local and national needs. Now is the time for them to take their rightful place alongside universities as the core pillars for driving skills for growth and economic prosperity.
Labour is right that greater collaboration between colleges and universities is central to creating a more cohesive and accessible skills system. HTQs can help bridge this gap too.
One (even) lesser-known fact about HTQs is that they can form part of a degree. They therefore provide not only a direct pathway to well-paid, skilled employment, but also a stepping stone to a career-focused degree.
The key is to ensure they are accessible to everyone. What’s more, we must promote their worth loudly, since they are relatively unknown.
We can do this with support from government, but we can also do more ourselves.
That is why several leading colleges have formed an innovative, collaborative network through a new enterprise, College Online. College Online is investing in course development and marketing to enable colleges in the network to significantly widen access to the HTQs they deliver.
The first course will start in early 2025, with more to follow throughout the year and beyond, with a focus on shortage skills qualifications in levels 4 to 6. The network is national as well as local, enabling the provision of local support even for fully online courses.
This could spell a renaissance in adult learning not seen since the heady days of Tony Blair and David Blunkett’s The Learning Age, empowered by flexible, accessible options like HTQs.
However they are delivered, developing a more resilient economy and improving people’s lives depends on them.