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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 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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This paper builds on the analysis set out in ‘New industry, new jobs’ in April 2009 [report indexed at TD/TNC 97.225] and sets out the wide ranging work program that has flowed from that analysis over the last year. To maximise Britain’s potential, the role of public institutions and public policy alongside the powerful dynamics of the market in supporting the development of a diverse economy based on knowledge, innovation and productive investment needs to be well understood and fully exploited. This paper identifies those basic capabilities and sets out how the government has invested in them over the last six months. It also makes it clear how the commitment to continued investment in Britain’s industrial competitiveness will be taken forward. Seven core capabilities in the British economy will underpin the government’s drive to restore strong, sustainable, long-term growth: (1) supporting enterprise and entrepreneurial activity, including the access to finance required for starting and growing firms; (2) fostering knowledge creation and its application; (3) helping people develop the skills and capabilities to find work and build the businesses and industries of the future; (4) investing in the infrastructure required to support a modern low carbon economy; (5) ensuring open and competitive markets to drive innovation and rising productivity; (6) building on our industrial strengths where we have particular expertise or might gain a comparative advantage, and where government action can have an impact; and (7) recognising and employing the right strategic role for government in markets that allows us as a nation to capitalise on new opportunities.

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[This report] explains the benefits for business investment in leadership and management skills. [It is] based on evidence about current practice and the UK's position relative to key competitor nations.

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This document reports on research on the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers of 16 to 24 year olds, also known as the 'AGE 16 to 24' program, which supports businesses to recruit young apprentices. The program provides grants to employers with an individual value of GBP 1,500, subject to eligibility and availability. This report describes the findings of the research, which involved talking with participating employers, government agencies and training organisations involved in the administration of the grant. All aspects of the policy are covered, from the way it was run, whether the grant amount was set at the right level, to satisfaction with the learning and training.

The grant was especially targeted to small and medium sized employers and those that had never taken on an apprentice before. The evaluation shows that 80 per cent of grants were given to businesses that employed up to 25 people, and 85 per cent of the grants went to employers that have never had an apprentice before. On the basis of the positive findings of this evaluation, the Department for Business, Education and Skills (BIS) has decided to extend the program to December 2014.

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This paper sets out what the [UK] Government has done since 2010 to promote a quality system of vocational education and training for adult learners and explains how the government has positioned skills as a core component of industrial strategy, introducing the concept of a dual mandate for adult vocational education. The paper analyses how and why England’s performance on higher level vocational education is weaker than many of its comparator nations and sets out the challenge that this poses to productivity. It also highlights higher level skills shortages in some of the sectors identified in the Industrial Strategy as critical to growth. It describes how the government has approached three key themes associated with higher level vocational education under the core themes of: funding; institution building; and the ownership and development of qualifications, standards and curricula. It identifies options for further development and poses a series of questions designed to develop thinking on the three themes stated. It focuses on the second part of the dual mandate: the importance of adult and vocational education’s role in ensuring that individuals are given a second chance to gain the fundamental skills required for life and work. The implications of the dual mandate for adult further education colleges are examined, against a background of wider change in the way in which the Government funds education for adults, and the Government’s wider strategy of empowering local places to make decisions on economic development.

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The UK further education (FE) and skills system has seen record investment. The challenge now is to complement this commitment to basic skills with investment that supports the UK's strategic future skill needs. In light of the inevitable constraints on the public finances over the coming years, skills policy must focus resources even more closely on skills that support economic growth and high value-added employment. This strategy document describes how the UK government will invest in skills training critical to the recovery and long-term success of the UK economy. The strategy underpins the priorities announced in the recently published national skills strategy, 'Skills for growth' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/IRD 88.441]. Total government investment in further education and skills for 2010-11 will be GBP4.4 billion. Show less

Under the Equality Act 2010, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), as a public authority, is legally obliged to give due regard to equality issues when making policy decisions - the public sector equality duty, also called the general equality duty. Analysing the effects on equality of these regulations through developing an equality impact assessment is one method of ensuring that thinking about equality issues is built into the policy process, and informs Ministers' decision making. The general equality duty covers the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

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[This paper] reports research findings on the [UK] government's proposal for adults aged 24 and above, who study for qualifications at level 3 and above, to make greater contributions to the costs of their learning. The government proposes to remove grant funding for these further education learners and courses. This will allow the government to focus investment on younger and lower-qualified learners who are less likely to invest in themselves. Instead, the government will provide income-contingent loans to cover the resulting upfront costs, in line with its principles of promoting fairness and personal responsibility. These 24+ Advanced Learning Loans will be made available to new learners from the 2013 to 2014 academic year, with the first full year expected to be the 2014/15 academic year. [Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] BIS carried out an impact assessment to show the economic costs and benefits of this proposal, and an equality impact assessment to look at how the proposal will affect different types of learners. This research provides a greater understanding of four specific learner groups: those aged 40+, and particularly those out of work; those with mental or physical disabilities or learning difficulties that have particular needs regarding communication and information; those seeking to take up Advanced/Higher Apprentices; and Muslim learners. This research indicated that most learner groups are unlikely to be put off by the loans proposition, provided it is communicated effectively. It also highlighted groups which are likely to face specific issues and challenges.

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This release presents information on adult (19+) government-funded further education (excluding schools and higher education) and all age (16+) apprenticeships in England, between 2008/09 and 2012/13. It also includes provisional data for the first three quarters of the 2013/14 academic year. The release also presents key statistics on the highest level of qualification held by adults in England from 2006 to 2013, calculated from Labour Force Survey (LFS) data. Figures relating to 2013 are provisional and are subject to revisions.

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