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This document sets out the UK Government's suggestions for improving the system for recognising professional qualifications across the European Union (EU). Recent evidence suggests that there is significant untapped potential in EU services, both in terms of productivity and employment. Reforms that improved the single market in services could have a significant impact on growth within the EU. Reforming the process for mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the EU is a key achievable priority in improving the single market in services, and creating growth.

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Equality impact assessments are an important framework for demonstrating due regard through considering evidence and analysis to help identify the likely positive and negative impacts that policy proposals may have on certain protected groups of consumers and to estimate whether such impacts disproportionately affect such groups. This assessment takes a summary view of the equality impacts of the changes to the apprenticeship program outlined below: (1) new incentive payments for small employers to take on a young apprentice for the first time; (2) measures to make it quicker and easier for employers to take on an apprentice, including reducing the time it takes an employer to advertise for an apprentice to one month, and stripping back any unnecessary health and safety requirements; (3) requiring apprenticeship providers to offer training in English and Maths up to the standard of a good [General Certificate of Secondary Education] GCSE to all apprentices, and publishing their progress; (4) launching a new employer-led review into the standards and quality of apprenticeships, to ensure every apprenticeship delivers professionally recognised qualifications which employers value; and (5) prioritising the efforts of the National Apprenticeship Service where apprenticeships deliver greatest value, including on younger adults, new employees, higher level qualifications and particular sectors, whilst maintaining a demand-led, all age program open to all sectors across the economy where high quality apprenticeships can be offered.

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This review looks at the framework for determining employment status and provides a snapshot of the UK labour market in 2015. In order to gain a greater understanding of some of the issues being faced, officials were asked to consider what the UK labour market looks like and suggest ways in which government could deliver a framework that strikes the correct balance between the rights of the individual and the needs of business, supporting growth and prosperity in the 21st century. The review involved discussions with a number of stakeholders and this report represents the findings of that review.

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The national strategy for access and student success in higher education has been developed at the request of the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Minister for Universities and Science. The vision of this national strategy is: that all those with the potential to benefit from higher education have equal opportunity to participate and succeed, on a course and in an institution that best fit their potential, needs and ambitions for employment or further study. This final report to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills sets out what the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will do to carry out the strategy.

Part one summarises the vision, overall approach and key actions that are proposed across the three broad stages of the student lifecycle: (1) access - preparing for and entering higher education; (2) retention and student success - staying on and achieving a qualification; and (3) progression to further study or to/within employment. Part two describes the strategy in detail and the evidence that it is based on. It brings together new and existing research on access and student success, including evidence gathered through commissioned research, a call for evidence and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders. The first three chapters discuss issues, evidence, and recommendations relating to the three broad stages of the student lifecycle. The concluding chapter describes in detail the proposed implementation of the strategy and outlines the types of indicators that will be developed to measure progress against the priorities it identifies.

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Higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) is a successful public-private partnership of government funding and institutional autonomy. This White Paper sets out the government's reforms for higher education with a view to tackling three challenges. The first is to shift public spending away from teaching grants and towards repayable tuition loans, to ensure that higher education receives the funding it needs even as substantial savings are made to public expenditure. The second is to ensure that higher education institutions (HEIs) deliver a better student experience; improving teaching, assessment, feedback and preparation for the world of work. The third challenge is to ensure that HEIs take more responsibility for increasing social mobility. The reforms are designed to deliver a more responsive higher education sector in which funding follows the decisions of learners and successful institutions are freed to thrive; in which there is a new focus on the student experience and the quality of teaching and in which further education colleges and other alternative providers are encouraged to offer a diverse range of higher education provision. The overall goal is higher education that is more responsive to student choice, that provides a better student experience and that helps improve social mobility.

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This document reports on a project which has been investigating further education provision for older people in the State of Victoria. The project has been supported through the Active Seniors Grants Scheme of Sport and Recreation, Victoria and the Victorian Adult Community and Further Education Board (ACFEB). The project involved four major phases during 1995: 1. The creation of an annotated bibliography; 2. A series of fifteen focus groups held state-wide; 3. A survey of 580 sites providing learning programs for adults in Victoria; and 4. A symposium including older adults where major findings and potential recommendations were presented and then discussed and/or ratified. Major issues which have emerged from the study include: Relatively lower levels of funding to support older adult learning; Significant difficulties in acquiring and sharing resources; the unrecognised degree of voluntarism amongst older adults; The lower levels of participation in learning activities in some ACFE regions (particularly in rural areas); The under-representation of certain groups such as migrants, men and carers; and The need to consider how technology can be used to enhance older adults' learning. The report discusses benefits for, and barriers to, older people's participation in learning, and concludes with a model which demonstrates where barriers to older adult learning may occur. Show less

The UK government has published this consultation in response to the ‘Richard review of apprenticeships’, published in November 2012. It sets out the government’s long term vision for apprenticeships, together with proposals for achieving this. The review looked at how apprenticeships in England can meet the needs of the changing economy. This government response accepts the review’s assessment of the challenges and opportunities to come and endorses its recommendations for reform, in particular to: place control of apprenticeships more firmly in the hands of employers; and ensure that all apprenticeships are rigorous and responsive to employers’ needs. The government’s response also launches a consultation on the practical steps needed to turn this vision into reality. The government invites contributions from those interested in the future of apprenticeships by 22 May 2013. These will be considered and used to inform the government’s future approach and implementation plan in 2013.

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[This paper] draws on recent surveys of part-time students and their employers in the UK in order to investigate the extent and nature of employer support for part-time higher education study. [It] looks at the perceived advantages and disadvantages of this kind of study for the organisation concerned.

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This document describes the next generation careers advice service that will be launched in England in August 2010. It will supersede the current Careers Advice Service telephone service (formerly learndirect advice) and local nextstep face to face services, by creating a single, national service available online, by telephone, or face to face. It will provide access to better information about the labour market and new tools to help adults plan their career development; a new professional development framework for careers advisers; and a new brand to raise the service's appeal to the public.

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This report summarises findings from the 'Going into HE' qualitative research project, conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The aim of the project was to develop a clear understanding of: (1) the role and importance of finance in the decision-making process of English-domiciled people from different groups who are considering entering full-time higher education (HE) in the UK; and (2) the impact of the support arrangements on their decisions. The research found that financial factors tend not to dent HE aspirations among those planning to apply. Indeed, they tend to be outweighed by a range of non-financial factors, especially for younger people. Insofar as finance is important in decision-making, it is in determining where to apply and study rather than what to study or whether to study at all. Applicants tend to underestimate the amount of student financial support for which they will be eligible. Some of them arrive at key HE decisions having accessed very little information and having cursorily discounted certain options. Insofar as fees are seen as an inevitability, there is broad support among students for financing these through loans for tuition. Preferences regarding loans for maintenance, however, are more divided: some students are receptive to bigger loans as a means of financing study while many mature and non-traditional students would be prepared to contemplate a lower total support package within which non-repayable support such as grants and bursaries would make up a higher proportion, leading to lower indebtedness.

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