Skills for Sustainable Growth Strategy

The strategies 'Skills for Sustainable Growth' and 'Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth' were launched in October 2011. Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/s/10-1272-strategy-investing-in-skills-for-sustainable-growth.pdf BIS announced that from the 2011/12 academic year the following changes to funding will apply for all new and existing learners. - We will focus fully-funded provision on people who are unemployed; people on Jobseekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (Work Related Activity Group) to help them obtain work. - We will fully-fund ESOL for individuals on the benefits listed above. Co-funding for those who are settled here. ESOL delivered in the workplace is no longer eligible for funding. - We will co-fund Level 2 provision in small and medium enterprises of up to 250 employees only. - We will reduce funding rates by 4.3% compared with 2010/11 levels. - We will remove the Skills for Life uplift for literacy and ESOL. - We will focus public funds for ESOL on In line with the increased accountability to their local communities, FE colleges and training organisations will be tasked to identify particularly vulnerable learners in their communities as part of their business planning and local engagement. NATECLA STATEMENT NATECLA is disappointed that a Skills for Sustainable Growth policy that aims to improve the skills of the workforce, the performance of the economy and engagement in learning makes no reference to supporting learners' language needs. Whilst we welcome the fact that basic skills courses for individuals without basic reading, writing and mathematics will be fully funded,the exclusion of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) is an unacceptable omission. NATECLA is urging the government to revisit this and recognise and prioritise students of ESOL. We will be seeking the support of members to make the case for ESOL students. In a letter to members NATECLA said The Government published its strategy on skills 'Skills for Sustainable Growth' and 'Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth' in November 2010. The strategy proposes changes to funding for ESOL to start in 2011/12. We have checked our facts with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and believe the government’s proposal is as follows: - Full funding will be only be available for ‘settled’, unemployed people on job-seeker’s allowance (JSA) or on employment support allowance (ESA), described as ‘active benefits’. People on other benefits, described as ‘non-active benefits’, such as income support or on low income, or spouses of people on low incomes will not be eligible for fee remission. They will have to pay the co-funded rate of 50% of the full cost of the course. - Asylum seekers and those on ‘Section 4’ support will be excluded from public funded for ESOL classes. - There will be no public funding for ESOL in the workplace. Learners or employers will be expected to pay full cost. - Since 2007, ESOL learners on benefits or low incomes have been able to get help towards fees from the discretionary Learner Support Fund for ESOL. We understand this will be unavailable in 2011-12. - The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) grant, which provided support for-16 - 18 year old ESOL learners is being withdrawn. - The weighting for ESOL and Literacy, which was reduced from 1.4 to 1.2 in 2009, is to be further reduced to 1.0. Implications These changes and reductions will drastically affect our learners, our local communities, our jobs and our profession. Several colleges from around the country have already conducted a quick survey of ESOL learners on their courses. They find that, on average, only 30% ESOL students are on one of the ‘active benefits’ - JSA or ESA. 70% are on ‘non-active benefits’, such as income support, working tax credit, housing benefit or council tax benefit. We predict devastating effects on ESOL provision, teachers' jobs and ESOL students with people on low wages, women and asylum seekers likely to be worst hit. A copy of Skills for Sustainable Growth and Investment for Sustainable Growth is available to view on the BIS website: http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2010/Nov/skills-for-sustainable-growth Minister John Hayes dicusses ESOL http://www.fenews.co.uk/general/john-hayes-discusses-esol 'Funding for English language classes is being cut by half and for literacy and numeracy by a third over two years' http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6064257 Coalition announces cuts in ESOL funding http://www.irr.org.uk/2010/december/ha000017.html Analysis by a FE lecturer of the implications for ESOL teaching of the new strategy for FE. NATECLA responds Safeguard ESOL's future http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6066211 NIACE Comment http://www.niace.org.uk/news/skills-strategy-lacking-on-esol?src=fp1st-more WEA Comment http://www.fenews.co.uk/featured-article/esol-in-the-community-challenges-ahead http://www.lsect.co.uk/updates/24-11-10.asp Lsect update

External Link: http://www.bis.gov.uk