The UK government has adopted the ‘big bang’ solution to improving performance among business-led training and enterprise councils – by unilaterally abolishing them. Now it is again asking business to be in the driving seat of the new structures.
POST SIXTEEN AGENDA
In a dramatic shake-up of post 16 education and training in England, the Government is abolishing the 72 training and enterprise councils, less than a decade old, and replacing them with a network of 50 local learning and skills councils. These will report to a national Learning and Skills Council which will also incorporate the current Further Education Funding Council. Delivery of enterprise will switch to the new Small Business Service.
The plans were published in a White Paper, Learning to Succeed, issued on June 30. TECs were created by the previous Conservative government in 1990/91 to put local employers in charge of training and enterprise development in their areas.
The new LSC’s remit includes further education, community and adult education, work-based training for young people, workforce development and information, guidance and support for adults. It will oversee spending of approximately £5 billion, compared with the current TEC budgets of £1.3 billion. LSC boards will be around 15, with employers the largest single group, holding about 40% of the seats.
Boundaries of the 50 or so local LSCs are still be determined, based on travel to work areas. They will develop strong links with agencies commissioned by the new Small Business Service to deliver enterprise support locally, and with regional development agencies, as well as assuming responsibility for education business partnerships. The government hopes to introduce the new system by April 2001. Contact DfEE Enquiries on 0171 925 5555 (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/post16) or, for copies of the White Paper, Stationary Office Enquiries on 0870 600 5522
SMALL BUSINESS SERVICE
Government plans to establish a national Small Business Service also became clearer on June 30 when it published a consultation paper on ideas for the new œ100 million body. Unlike existing Business Links, the remit is expanded to include start-ups and micro enterprises, not just those with 10+ employees. Among specific proposals are:
a high profile chief executive, with the SBS as a ‘next steps’ agency to give it greater independence;
a single gateway for access to most government SME services at local level, contracting with local Business Links and/or others;
a national Enterprise Council consisting of small business people and entrepreneurs to offer independent advice;
local advisory panels of business users to help identify needs.
Existing Business Link bodies will be subsumed within arrangements for the single local gateway, and reduced from the current 81 areas to the same 50 areas planned for the new Learning and Skills Councils which replace TECs. Contact DTI Publications Orderline on 0870 150 2500 or DTI Enquiries on 0171 215 5000 (http://www.dti.gov.uk)
MIXED RESULTS FOR TECS
Just over half of all employers (54%) are aware of the TEC in their area, but two thirds of these are unable to name a TEC service without prompting, according to research published in July. The survey of 3,000 establishment was carried out by Research International for the DfEE to assess the success of TECS. Only one in five firms (18%) has ever used one or more TEC service, but three quarters of these were either very or fairly satisfied with the service. Only a quarter of all respondents know that TEC boards are made up of local employers, with just 23% expressing interest in becoming involved themselves. Contact DfEE Publications on 0845 602 2260
UK NEEDS MORE
Lack of respect for entrepreneurs and low levels of business start-up activity by women are holding back UK economic growth, the London Business School has found as part of an international research project. The report, released on June 21, found that the UK has the highest rate of business start-ups in Europe – 3.3% of adults are actively trying to start a business compared with 1.8% in most continental countries – but the US, Canada and Israel are still significantly ahead, with an average 6.9%. The LBS wants the Government to boost entrepreneurial activity, for example by introducing the subject into primary and secondary curicula and developing more entrepreneurial networks through regional development agencies. Contact Kate Pope Hodel, Kaufman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, on 00 1 816 932 1043 (http://www.entreworld.org) or Helen Ross, London Business School, on 0171 262 5050 (http://www.lbs.lon.ac.uk)
LOTTERY TALENT
The new National Lottery fund, NESTA, will have an endowment of œ200 million to help young inventors turn bright ideas into profitable businesses, as well as increasing public understanding of science, technology and the arts. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts announced on June 30 its first eight schemes, including support for Young Engineers. Individuals supported by the fund whose inventions prove profitable will return a proportion of their royalties to the fund to finance other projects. Contact Department for Culture, Media and Sport Enquiries on 0171 211 6200 (http://www.culture.gov.uk)
PRINCE TO RAISE £100 MILLION
The Prince’s Trust has announced a £100 million new initiative to get 30,000 young people started in business by 2005. The UK government has pledged to match pound for pound funds raised from the private sector, up to £50 million. The Prince’s Trust helps would-be entrepreneurs aged 18-30 who are unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged, offering mentoring, advice and funds. Contact The Prince’s Trust on 0171 543 1234
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT PACKAGE
Henry McLeish MSP, minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, announced in June a package of new initiatives to promote Scotland’s knowledge based economy, including plans to develop business mentoring for start-up firms and a strengthened technology ventures association to ensure Scotland maximises on its scientific base.
He was supported by the deputy first minister, Jim Wallace MSP, who called for close partnership between business and the new government and Parliament in Scotland to help create the environment for more entrepreneurial activity. Among the goals for the partnership are minimising regulations on businesses, developing a well-educated and trained workforce through education and lifelong learning, and promoting environmentally and socially sustainable development. Contact Scottish Executive Enquiries on 0345 741 741 (http://www.scotland.gov.uk)
EDUCATION WORKS
Employers and employees both benefit from workplace education programmes which address fundamental skills such as reading and maths, according to a report from The Conference Board and the US Department of Education. The report, Turning Skills into Profit: Economic Benefits of Workplace Education Programs, was released on June 25 and is based on a survey of practice in 40 workplaces. Significant benefits can be gained, such as improved employee morale, better quality work, increased customer retention and increased output and productivity, because more than half of US high school graduates lack the basic skills to do their jobs. Contact Conference Board on 00 1 212 759 0900 (http://www.conference-board.org)
Comment
Let’s leave aside the considerable and understandable frustration many in business will feel at the government sweeping aside up to a decade of effort in setting up and then running TECs and Business Links. Instead, let’s assess the effects.
On the positive side, the merger with the FE sector will result in more business input into the direction of that huge but poorly performing sector. The new national LSC should also offer more opportunity for input into the national strategy for skills. Increased scope to involve local authorities, trade unions and others at local level is welcome too.
On small businesses, expanding the remit to start-up and micro enterprises is welcome too – but reverses the policy view that growth in 10+ employee companies is where the real gains in competitiveness can be achieved. It’s a pity then so many enterprise agencies, set up with big corporate support in the 1980s, have withered away.
More worrying, there is no sign local LSCs will have any more autonomy than TECs, as the CBI has warned, nor that the national SBS will flexibly vary provision to meet local needs. Will local delivery of SME services be customer focused or simply follow national SBS funding. The split of skills (supply) from enterprise (demand) makes sense only if there is a clear coordinated strategy locally. Yet the agencies best placed to offer this, the RDAs, appear to have been sidelined, with neither strategic responsibility nor an obvious role in organisational coordination.
All in all, some good will come of the new arrangements. But it is hard to see that outweighing the costs of upheaval, loss of momentum and a two/three year hiatus until things settle down again. Community affairs managers, charged with finding executive `volunteers’ to serve on the new bodies, would be well advised to skip a generation and find directors for whom the prospect of working on government-funded bodies still sounds fun.
The UK government has adopted the ‘big bang’ solution to improving performance among business-led training and enterprise councils – by unilaterally abolishing them. Now it is again asking business to be in the driving seat of the new structures.
Let’s leave aside the considerable and understandable frustration many in business will feel at the government sweeping aside up to a decade of effort in setting up and then running TECs and Business Links. Instead, let’s assess the effects.
On the positive side, the merger with the FE sector will result in more business input into the direction of that huge but poorly performing sector. The new national LSC should also offer more opportunity for input into the national strategy for skills. Increased scope to involve local authorities, trade unions and others at local level is welcome too.
On small businesses, expanding the remit to start-up and micro enterprises is welcome too – but reverses the policy view that growth in 10+ employee companies is where the real gains in competitiveness can be achieved. It’s a pity then so many enterprise agencies, set up with big corporate support in the 1980s, have withered away.
More worrying, there is no sign local LSCs will have any more autonomy than TECs, as the CBI has warned, nor that the national SBS will flexibly vary provision to meet local needs. Will local delivery of SME services be customer focused or simply follow national SBS funding. The split of skills (supply) from enterprise (demand) makes sense only if there is a clear coordinated strategy locally. Yet the agencies best placed to offer this, the RDAs, appear to have been sidelined, with neither strategic responsibility nor an obvious role in organisational coordination.
All in all, some good will come of the new arrangements. But it is hard to see that outweighing the costs of upheaval, loss of momentum and a two/three year hiatus until things settle down again. Community affairs managers, charged with finding executive `volunteers’ to serve on the new bodies, would be well advised to skip a generation and find directors for whom the prospect of working on government-funded bodies still sounds fun.
COMMENTS