At the fifth national TEC conference, the mood was of a still-young movement maturing and facing the challenges, while a government speakers exhorted them to greater effort.
TEC directors and staff gathered in Birmingham on July 8 – 9 for the fifth national TEC conference which focused on three key policy issues: foundation learning, lifetime learning and enterprise and economic development.
They were addressed by a succession of ministers and civil servants, praising them for past achievements, but urging still greater effort.
David Hunt MP, the new, more interventionist, Employment Secretary, promised a more active role for government in setting the framework for industrial competitiveness. He also said he would publish league tables of TEC performances, now expected in mid August.
Further and Higher Education Minister, Tim Boswell MP, called for employers to get more involved in education, especially help in management skills, measuring performance and recognising and using vocational qualifications.
Sir Geoffrey Holland, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, stressed that National Education and Training targets will not be achieved without TECs and the education service working together.
Peter Davis, Chief Executive of Reed Elsevier and Chairman of National Advisory Council on Education and Training Targets reminded the conference that only 30% of 18 year olds achieve 2 or more A Level passes, compared to 48% in France, 68% in Germany and 80% in Japan; He stressed that catching up was not enough, because the goal posts are moving: while the UK target is 50% by year 2000, France’s goal is 90%.
Figures collated in June and published at the conference showed that the 82 TECs in England and Wales facilitated the training an estimated 660,000 people during 1992/93 by TECs, with one in three young people in training getting in to jobs. They helped 40,000 businesses to start up, with 80% still trading after first year, and provided on-going support for another 500,000. TECs also have links with 80% of schools. Contact DFE on 071 925 5555 or DE on 071 273 6969
Agreement in principle has been reached to set up a new national council to replace G10, the group of ten chairs which currently represents common concerns of TECs to government. The new council will be more broadly based and have an executive chairman, with more resources devoted to coordination. While not expected to start until the end of the year, this change is being interpreted as a desire by TECs to work closer together as a national force. Contact TEC Secretariat on 0527 550955
Most senior managers are ignorant about the main training initiatives, despite the fact that 40% report skills shortages in their own organisations. A survey published on June 28, in association with the employment services company, Manpower, showed that nearly four in ten members of the Institute of Management had not even heard of the Investors in People initiative nor training targets. While awareness of NVQs was better, at over 80%, only 40% were familiar with the details and under 30% currently use them in their training programmes. Contact Gillian Pearce, IM, on 071 497 0580
The first findings from the Employment in Britain Survey show that the level of skills required in work is rising dramatically. Nearly two thirds of employees say the level skills they need in their jobs has risen compared to five years ago. Over half have received training in the past three years, compared to a third when the survey was last taken in 1986. People are also working harder – or so they say – with 63% reporting an intensification of work effort over the last 10 years.
The survey, carried out by Nuffield College and the Policy Studies Institute for a consortium of companies, government departments and the Leverhulme Trust, is based on a sample of 3,500 people in work and also covers employee motivation. Nearly a half say they should have more say over decisions on work organisation, which the survey identifies as the crucial factor affecting commitment and motivation. Employee Commitment and the Skills Revolution (76pp A4) is available price £9.95 from BEBC Distribution, PO Box 1496, Poole Dorset BH12 3YD
Director General of the CBI, Howard Davies, described Britain’s training record as one of the worst in the world, during a lecture at the London Business School at the start of June. He called for a more market-orientated training system, with funding linked to individual trainees. The lecture has been published by the Social Market Foundation.
Speaking at the CBI’s Careers Education and Guidance conference on June 22 to mark publication of a CBI paper A Credit to your Career – an employers’ view of education and guidance, he repeated his theme, and called for individual credits for careers advice which could be used to buy guidance from TECs. Contact CBI on 071 379 7400 or Anna Josse, SMF, on 071 222 7060
Voluntary sector training organisations are having to “cram and cream” trainees through selection to meet funding relation targets, claims NCVO in analysing the findings of a survey published on July 8. TECs have reduced funding for adult training providers by 16% compared to last year, with a 28% reduction in places, while the amount of output related funding has doubled to 33%, based on a sample of contracts. A wide range of practice on funding for special needs training is reported, with 60% of organisations saying their TECs support it, although only 6% report enhanced funding levels for it. However funding for youth training contracts has increased by 12%, as TECs try to tackle the YT waiting list. Conducted during May after the start of the new TEC contracting round, 78 organisations participated covering 63% of TECs. Contact Martin Ayton, NCVO, on 071 713 6161
Northumberland TEC has become the first TEC to establish a venture capital fund through which to make direct equity investments. Announced on June 11, the fund has £5 million to invest, with a £200,000 maximum per project and will seek to realise a capital gain over five to seven years. Contact Lisa Holt on 0670 713303
East Lancashire TEC has started a club to address the special needs of disabled people in business. Launched on June 28, the CanDo Business Club is believed to be the first of its kind and grew out of an earlier initiative based at a local college. Contact Jean Hoyle on 0254 678391
The £25 million allocated in the budget to TEC Challenge will go to 27 schemes, David Hunt MP, the Employment Secretary announced on July 14. Examples include Merseyside TEC offering a recruitment package linked to customised training and AZTEC in south west London providing a grant of up to £75 per week for twenty weeks to help individuals build up a portfolio of part-time jobs. Schemes which prove successful may receive funding after next March for replication nationally. Contact DE on 071 273 6969
Small firms minister, Baroness Denton announced on July 8 that Leicestershire Partnership will be the seventh pilot scheme in the “one stop shop” small business advice initiative, which has been renamed Business Link. A set of accreditation criteria with regular assessment is being developed to sustain the quality of the programme. Contact DTI on 071 215 5000
Over 11,000 new jobs were created last year by British Coal Enterprise, up 50% on the year before, making a total of 87,500 since the mining industry’s work creation arm was set up in 1984. BCE also lent £5.4 million in business funding during a year that saw a major coalfield close-down programme. Contact Peter Stevens, BCE, on 0773 532555
Each year about 1.4 million new small business start-ups are registered across the EC, with some 60% surviving into their fourth year, according to the first Annual Report of a research project European Observatory for SMEs. Commission by the EC from the twelve partner research institutes of the European Network for SME Research (including Warwick Business School in the UK), it provides a structured overview of the whole small business sector in Europe. Contact Rob van der Horst or Jacqueline Snijders on 010 31 79 413634
TECs are failing to reach small businesses because top-down schemes are not appropriate and few owners know enough about TECs to approach them for direct help, according to a report from Kingston University’s small business research centre published in July. TECs and Small Firms: can TECs reach the small firms other strategies have failed to reach? recommends training and enterprise councils abandon ready-made schemes and concentrate on sectors where small firms are expanding rapidly, going out to visit firms directly. Contact James Curran on 081 547 7218
A 26-year old LGV driving instructor from Glasgow, Gary McEwan, has been named 1993 Livewire Entrepreneur for his success in starting his own business after being unemployed for a year. Livewire, now in its eleventh year, is a Shell UK-funded scheme to help young people consider the self-employment option. Contact Brian Butcher, Livewire, on 091 261 5584
Comment
Annual conferences are good times to take stock and think of the future. For the TECs, the early teething troubles are behind them and they feel they are getting results. The league tables which the government is planning to publish in August should provide some evidence, albeit by comparing one TEC with another. But for the future they face three issues.
Just as they are rising to the training challenge, government is urging them to do more in two directions: first, to broaden their links with education, and second, to address the enterprise part of their brief. The response from the TEcs is to ask the government to join in a common strategy, not simply to pile on more work without increasing resources – flexibility in TEC budgets and tax relief for companies pursuing best training practice were among the demands in Birmingham.
If the first two issues facing TECs for the future are external, the third is internal – the need to build a coherent national movement, capable of lobbying government together. The move to set up a more broadly-based national council is a step in the right direction.
If any evidence is necessary to prove the urgency of the task facing TECs, it can be found in a recent International Institute of Management Development study of the extent to which education and training systems are meeting the needs of a competitive economy: out of 22 industrialised countries, Britain came twentieth.
COMMENTS