Learning & Skills Agencies
Involve Yorkshire & Humber maintains up to date information on key learning and skills agencies, VCS learning and skills providers and current issues in VCS learning and skills provision. We also facilitate the Learning and Skills VCS Network (LSVN) to help you make sense of it all!
Skills – Third Sector
Skills - Third Sector, the voluntary and community sector’s body that equates to a Sector Skills Council, has begun to establish voluntary and community sector-specific qualifications and career routes to meet emerging skills needs. Apprenticeships in the sector are here to stay, with sector-specific qualifications such as Managing Volunteers, Fundraising, Campaigning and Project Management becoming available from Spring 2011.
Third Sector National Learning Alliance
The TSNLA was set up in 2009 to provide a national link for Yorkshire and the Humber voluntary sector workforce and skills interests, with an influencing role for voluntary and community sector providers to and from government departments. It is a membership organisation that charges a subscription for members to receive information and opportunities to be involved in consultations on issues affecting VCS learning and skills providers.
Adult and Community Learning Provision
In the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ report ‘Skills for Sustainable Growth’ (2010) the role of skills in promoting social inclusion and mobility is underlined, as well as recognition that learning and skills development is not always about qualifications.
Local authorities have responsibility for planning 14-19 and 19+ (adult) provision, including people with learning disabilities up to age 25, and for identifying local need and skills gaps that can be met through education and training. Local authorities are no longer required by law to bring together relevant partners to plan provision. Some local authorities are continuing these arrangements on a voluntary basis, and there are opportunities for VCS representation on some of these groups.
Adult informal learning, a traditional VCS area of interest that had become increasingly marginalised, is recognised as valuable by the SFA and promoted by NIACE through Adult Learners Week and the Campaign for Learning.
Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
LSIS works closely with the SFA to ensure that FE colleges and VCS providers deliver high quality provision. Each recipient of an SFA contract has access to an LSIS account for training staff so that they meet guidelines for maintaining quality to an agreed minimum level. Quality standards, teacher and trainer qualifications, and inspections by OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills), remain in line with those applied to FE colleges.
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
Within the Local Growth White Paper, there is a clear expectation that the new Local Enterprise Partnerships will develop effective working relationships with the further and higher education sector, including the voluntary and community sector. Local Enterprise Partnerships – Local Enterprise Partnerships are private sector and local authority-led partnerships, effectively replacing the Regional Development Agencies, with a remit to develop local economies.
LEPs are presently still under development, but they will have responsibility for skills development in their areas of operation and are therefore poised to become contexts for influence. An example of the strategic role of the LEPs in Learning and Skills is the Leeds City Region Partnership, which has a public and private-sector led Employment and Skills Board, with responsibility for decisions on the funding for skills provision across the economy. The Board has produced a strategy for increasing employment and skills in the Leeds City Region.
Links to LEPs:
- Humber: LEP arrangements for the Humber have yet to be confirmed
Work Programme
The new Work Programme from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) replaces all previous welfare to work programmes. The Work Programme offers greater flexibility and incentives to private and voluntary sector organisations to work with partners to help unemployed people back into work. The prime contractors for the Work Programme are presently (at the time of writing) open to sub-contracting with voluntary sector providers, and have a particular interest in niche providers such as services for people with barriers to employment such as substance misuse, homelessness, caring responsibilities and a wide range of others.
The route for potential VCS providers of welfare to work services is to seek a sub-contract with the prime contractors assigned to Yorkshire and the Humber. One way to do this is to join one of the sub-regional learning consortia that are seeking a contractual relationship. Some of the prime contractors also have specific innovation funds for VCS providers to get involved.
