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《21世纪的技能, 激发我们的潜能》(21st century skills: realizing our potential )

2003-8-9

发文机构：英国政府行政级别：国外国别：英国查看原网站全文

21st Century Skills

Realising Our Potential
Individuals, Employers, Nation

Presented to Parliament by

the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

by Command of Her Majesty

July 2003

Cm 5810
 
© Crown Copyright 2003
The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and departmental logos) may
be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is
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acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified.
Any enquiries relating to the copyright in this document should be addressed to
The Licensing Division, HMSO, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich, NR3 1BQ.
Fax: 01603 723000 or e-mail: licensing@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk 
21st Century Skills

Realising Our Potential
Individuals, Employers, Nation
 
Contents

Foreword 7
Summary 11
Chapter 1 Overview: The Skills Challenge and How We Will Meet It 17
Chapter 2 Skills for Employers, Support for Employees 35
Chapter 3 Skills for Employers – the Sector Role 47
Chapter 4 Skills for Individuals 59
Chapter 5 Reforming Qualifications and Training Programmes 73
Chapter 6 Reforming the Supply Side – Colleges and Training Providers 87
Chapter 7 Partnerships for Delivery 99
Chapter 8 Delivering the Strategy 119
Annex 1 Education, Skills and Productivity – the Reform Agenda 125
Annex 2 Aspirations for the Skills Strategy 131
Annex 3 Sector Productivity and Skills 135
Annex 4 Good Practice in Skills Development in Government and the
Public Sector 141
Annex 5 Response Form 143 
Foreword to the
Skills Strategy
1.  The skills of our people are a vital national asset. Skills help businesses achieve the
productivity, innovation and profitability needed to compete. They help our public
services provide the quality and choice that people want. They help individuals raise
their employability, and achieve their ambitions for themselves, their families and their
communities.
2.  Sustaining a competitive, productive economy which delivers prosperity for all requires
an ever growing proportion of skilled, qualified people. We will not achieve a fairer, more
inclusive society if we fail to narrow the gap between the skills-rich and the skills-poor.
3.  In addition, as the Prime Minister and the Chancellor said in setting out the
Government’s position on the single currency, skills underpin labour market flexibility,
which is an important part of the assessment for deciding whether to join the Euro.
4.  Increased flexibility is necessary to ensure that the economy could respond quickly and
efficiently to changes in economic conditions inside the single currency area, should the
Government conclude that the economic tests for entry have been met and recommend
entry to the British people. An important dimension of that flexibility, identified in the EMU
assessment, is the extent to which the supply of skills in the labour market matches the skills
that are in demand from employers, and the efficiency with which mechanisms are in place
to eliminate mismatches in the demand and supply of different skills when they emerge.
5.  Across the European Union, the importance of skills has been recognised in the
economic reform agenda agreed at Lisbon in 2000. The UK is a strong supporter of
that agenda. Many of the topics addressed in this White Paper are issues of shared
concern for all European countries. As well as setting out a national Skills Strategy, this
document is a contribution to the work we are engaged in with our European partners 
in tackling the challenges of skills and mobility across the Union, where it is vital that
we identify best practice and share our experiences.
6.  We all know that skills matter. But we also know that as a nation we do not invest as
much in skills as we should. Compared with other countries, we perform strongly in
some areas, such as higher education. But we have major shortfalls in other areas such
as the broad foundation skills needed for sustainable employment. The distribution
of skills is uneven across the population. Far too many young people and adults are
hampered by their lack of skills from getting secure, well paid jobs and all of the social
and personal benefits that go with them.
7.  This is a national problem, but it also has to be addressed at both the regional and
local level. Variations in the skills base of different regions are a major factor in
explaining regional variations in productivity. The problems and priorities of one
region are not the same as those encountered in another. Addressing these will
require maximum flexibility and discretion at the regional and local level to innovate,
respond to local conditions and meet differing consumer demands.
8.  We are under no illusion about the scale of the challenge. To raise our skill levels to
compete with the best in the world requires millions of people, as employers,
employees and individual learners, to see skills, training and qualifications as helping
them to realise their goals in life and at work.
9.  This Skills Strategy aims to address that challenge. Our ambition is to ensure that
employers have the right skills to support the success of their businesses and
organisations, and individuals have the skills they need to be both employable and
personally fulfilled.
10.  Success will not come quickly. This is an agenda for sustained effort over the long
term, through to 2010 and beyond. It will not be gained through piecemeal initiatives.
What is needed is a sustained and co-ordinated effort. By building upon what is
already there and setting a framework within which the various players are clear about
their contribution, we can make much faster progress towards the shared objective.
11.  To achieve that, we need to act in five key areas:
●  We must put employers’ needs for skills centre stage, managing the supply of
training, skills and qualifications so that it responds directly to those needs.
●  We must raise ambition in the demand for skills. We will only achieve increased
productivity and competitiveness if more employers and more employees are
encouraged and supported to make the necessary investment in skills. We need a
new social partnership with employers and unions, and a much stronger focus on
driving up skills and productivity in each sector of the economy and in each region. 
●  We must motivate and support many more learners to re-engage in learning.
For too many people, learning is something that stops when they leave school.
Learning new skills, at work and for pleasure, must become a rewarding part
of everyday life.
●  We must make colleges and training providers more responsive to employers’ and
learners’ needs, reaching out to more businesses and more people, and providing
training in ways that suit them. Creating a truly demand-led approach means
reforming qualifications, reforming the way we fund colleges, and reforming
the way we deliver training.
●  We must achieve much better joint working across Government and the public
services. This is not just a strategy for the Department for Education and Skills, but
a shared strategy involving the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department
for Work and Pensions, the Treasury and the range of agencies involved in training,
skills, business support and productivity. Government must lead by example, in the
way that we work and in our own role as employers.
12.  As a Government, we have an ambitious agenda for transforming our society and
economy. Much of that agenda is dependent on developing ever higher skills, in our
young people, in the workforce and across the community. In preparing this Skills
Strategy, we have consulted widely to identify the major obstacles and build on the
many creative ideas for improvement. We welcome the commitment of many partners
who have helped to shape this strategy. We will carry forward that partnership in
turning the strategy into action.
Tony Blair
Prime Minister
Charles Clarke Patricia Hewitt
Secretary of State for Education and Skills Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
Gordon Brown Andrew Smith
Chancellor of the Exchequer Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Summary of the
Skills Strategy
AIM
1.  The aim of this national Skills Strategy is to ensure that employers have the right skills
to support the success of their businesses, and individuals have the skills they need to
be both employable and personally fulfilled.
CONTEXT
2.  Since 1997, the Government has developed policies based on the interdependence
of social justice and economic success. Record low levels of unemployment have
been achieved, with low inflation, and high investment to modernise public services.
Nonetheless, our economic productivity and competitiveness remain well below those
of major competitor nations. One reason is that there are some serious gaps in our
national skills base.
3.  The global economy has made largely extinct the notion of a ‘job for life’. The
imperative now is employability for life. Competing on the basis of low wage costs
is not an option. We must compete on the basis of our capability for innovation,
enterprise, quality, and adding greater value through our products and services.
All of that is dependent on raising our skills game.
4.  Over the past six years we have made major progress. From Sure Start and universal
nursery provision through to higher education, we have developed a reform agenda
to raise standards for children and young people throughout their initial education.
These reforms, coupled with record investment, will deliver a future flow of higher
skilled, better qualified young people into the labour market.
11 
5.  We have also worked to raise skill levels amongst adults already in the workforce.
The Learning and Skills Council is bringing a new coherence to the strategic planning
and funding of adult learning across colleges and work-based training. Regional
Development Agencies are focusing on knowledge and skills as key drivers of
economic regeneration.
THE CHALLENGE
6.  Despite these real improvements, our skill gaps remains stubbornly persistent.
Output per hour worked is around 25 per cent higher in the US and Germany and
over 30 per cent higher in France than in the UK. While we compare well at higher
education level, our percentage of the workforce qualified to intermediate skill levels
(apprenticeship, skilled craft and technician level) is low: 28 per cent in the UK
compared with 51 per cent in France and 65 per cent in Germany.
7.  The recent Treasury assessment of the five economic tests for UK membership of the
European single currency noted that a highly educated workforce with a culture of
lifelong learning is more likely to adapt to economic change.1 Improving the level
of skills, particularly among those with the lowest skill levels, is a focus of the
Government’s agenda for enhancing flexibility in the UK.
8.  We have particular skill gaps in basic skills for employability, including literacy,
numeracy and use of IT; intermediate skills at apprenticeship, technician, higher craft
and associate professional level; mathematics; and management and leadership.
Employers have long been concerned that they are not getting recruits with the skills
they want.
9.  So we must do more. In developing this strategy, we have listened carefully to the
concerns of employers, trade unions, colleges and other partners. They have
challenged us to create a coherent policy framework focused on the needs of
employers and learners. We need to mobilise the full commitment of Government,
its agencies, education and training providers, employers, unions and individual
learners. Isolated endeavours will not be enough.
10.  The strategy is not predominantly about new initiatives. It is about making more
sense of what is already there, integrating what already exists and focusing it more
effectively. Our overriding goal is to ensure that everyone has the skills they need
to become more employable and adaptable.
1 HM Treasury (2003) UK Membership of the Single Currency: An assessment of the five economic tests
12 
WHAT WILL WE DO TO HELP EMPLOYERS AND LEARNERS?
11. We will work with employers and employees to:
a.  Give employers greater choice and control over the publicly-funded training they
receive and how it is delivered. Evaluation of the current Employer Training Pilots
will inform the development of future national programmes to support skills
training.
b.  Provide better information for employers about the quality of local training by
introducing an Employer Guide to Good Training.
c.  Improve training and development for management and leadership, particularly
in small firms centred around the new Investors in People management and
leadership model.
d.  Develop business support services to ensure that employers have better access to
the advice and help they want, from the sources best placed to provide it, bringing
in a wider range of intermediaries.
e.  Expand and strengthen the network of Union Learning Representatives as a key
plank in encouraging the low skilled to engage in training.
12. For individual learners, we will:
a.  Create a new guarantee of free tuition for any adult without a good foundation
of employability skills to get the training they need to achieve such a qualification
(known as a ‘level 2’ qualification).
b.  Increase support for higher level skills at technician, higher craft or associate
professional level (known as a ‘level 3’ qualification), in areas of sectoral or regional
skill priority.
c.  Pilot a new form of adult learning grant, providing weekly financial support for
adults studying full-time for their first full level 2 qualification, and for young adults
studying for their first full level 3 qualification.
d.  Safeguard the provision in each local area of a wide range of learning for adults,
for culture, leisure, community and personal fulfilment purposes, with a better
choice of opportunities to encourage adults back into learning.
e.  Provide better information, advice and guidance on skills, training and
qualifications, so that people know what is available, what the benefits are, and
where to go.
f.  Help adults gain ICT skills, as a third basic skill alongside literacy and numeracy
in our Skills for Life programme.
13 
13.  A key means of raising our game on skills is through the Sector Skills Council network.
We are on track to establish 23 Councils by summer 2004. The Councils will be a major
new voice for employers and employees in each major sector of the economy. We will
support the development of sector skills agreements, setting a longer term agenda for
raising productivity in each sector, the skills needed for international competitiveness, and
how employers might work together on a voluntary basis to invest in the necessary skills.
14.  The Sector Skills Councils need to be major contributors at regional as well as national
level. There is a strong regional dimension to the skills problem. Variations in the skills
base of the regions are a major factor in explaining regional variations in productivity.
Regional Development Agencies lead in producing Frameworks for Regional
Employment and Skills Action (FRESAs) designed to address the skills and
employment needs of employers and individuals in the regions within an economic,
demographic and social context.
HOW WILL WE BRING ABOUT THESE CHANGES?
15.  To achieve these gains, we need to take concerted action to reform the supply and
delivery of publicly-funded education and training.
16.  We will reform the qualifications framework so that it is more flexible and responsive
to the needs of employers and learners by:
a.  Strengthening and extending Modern Apprenticeships, as a top quality vocational
route designed to meet the needs of employers. We will lift the current age cap,
so that adults will be able to benefit.
b.  Reviewing, through the work of the group led by Mike Tomlinson, the vocational
routes available to young people, and strengthening the focus on their
employability and enterprise skills.
c.  Making qualifications for adults more flexible by dividing more learning
programmes into units and speeding up accreditation of new qualifications.
d.  Introducing a credits framework for adults, to help both learners and employers
package the training programmes they want, and build up a record of achievement
over time towards qualifications.
e.  Making it easier for people to gain the skills they need by reviewing in each sector the
need for new adult learning programmes to develop generic skills for employment.
17.  We already have in place the major Success for All reform programme to raise the
effectiveness of further education colleges and training providers. We will build
on that by:
a.  Reforming the funding arrangements for adult learning and skills, to give training
providers stronger incentives to work with employers while reducing bureaucracy.
This will include introducing a new approach to setting fees and raising income.
14 
b.  Supporting the development of e-learning across further education, with more
on-line learning materials and assessment.
c.  Helping colleges build their capability to offer a wider range of business support
for local employers.
d.  Broadening the range of training providers, by bringing within the scope of public
funding those private providers who have something distinctive and high quality
to offer.
18.  We recognise that Government must lead by example, showing that we and our
delivery agencies can work more effectively together at national, regional and local
level in providing coherent services for skills, business support and the labour market.
We will:
a.  Form a national Skills Alliance, bringing together the key Government departments
with employer and union representatives as a new social partnership, and linking
the key delivery agencies in a concerted drive to raise skills.
b.  Link implementation of the Skills Strategy with the conclusions of the Department
of Trade and Industry Innovation Review, so that both skills and innovation work
together as two key drivers enhancing productivity.
c.  Integrate the work of Regional Development Agencies, the Sector Skills Council
network, the Small Business Service, the Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre
Plus, inviting the Regional Development Agency in each region to develop
innovative proposals for effective collaboration. The focus will be on simplifying
the system for employers and learners, improving value for money, raising
aspirations and responding to local and regional skills needs.
d.  Strengthen the partnership between the Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre
Plus, with a stronger push to support skills and training for benefit claimants, and
provide a better integrated service for employers.
e.  Build up education and training opportunities for offenders through closer
working between the Prison Service, the Probation Service, the Learning and Skills
Council, Ufi/learndirect and other partners.
f.  As a major employer in our own right, the Government will invest in the skills of our
staff to achieve our public service objectives.
15 
16
 
Chapter 1

Overview: The Skills
Challenge and How
We Will Meet It
AIM AND VISION
1.1  This strategy seeks to ensure that, across the nation, employers have the right skills
to support the success of their businesses and organisations, and individuals have
the skills they need to be both employable and personally fulfilled.
1.2  We aim to:
a.  Improve the UK’s productivity and standard of living. That will contribute to the
Government’s central economic objective of raising the rate of sustainable growth
across all English regions, to achieve rising prosperity and a better quality of life,
with economic and employment opportunities for all. It will also support our wider
efforts to encourage economic reform in Europe.
b.  Build a better society by helping people gain the skills to work productively in the
private, public and voluntary sectors, supplying the goods and services people want.
c.  Help individuals acquire and keep developing the skills to support sustained
employability, more rewarding lives, and a greater contribution to their
communities.
1.3  A better skilled workforce is a more productive workforce. We must improve our
productivity, and our ability to support sustainable development, if we are to compete
successfully in today’s global market. Improving skills will not be sufficient on its own
17 
to drive greater productivity. But taken together with enterprise, competition,
investment and innovation, it has a crucial role to play.
1.4  Government cannot do this alone. We need to build a new Skills Alliance, where every
employer, every employee and every citizen plays their part. No business should be
left behind because it lacks the opportunity to improve the knowledge and skills of
its staff. No individual should be denied the chance to realise their potential for want
of opportunities to invest in their own skills.
1.5  This is not only an economic challenge. It is just as much a social one. By increasing the
skill levels of all under-represented groups, we will develop an inclusive society that
promotes employability for all. When people are better educated and better trained,
they have the chance to earn more and use their talents to the full, both in and out of
work. They are better able to use their skills for the benefit of their families and their
communities. There is strong evidence to suggest that improving skill levels can
reduce the risk of unemployment, and bring broader social returns in terms of reduced
crime and better health.
WHY DO WE NEED A SKILLS STRATEGY?
1.6  We have many strengths in the way we develop skills, learning and qualifications
in this country. Thanks to recent school reforms, our young people compare well
internationally in their literacy, numeracy and science skills.2 We are as good at
developing highly skilled graduates as the best in the world.3 Our universities have
greatly improved the spin-out benefits from their research, in supporting innovation
and new product and company development. There is a rich range of opportunities
for adult learning. We have a highly flexible labour market, and low levels of
unemployment.
1.7  But despite these strengths, the way we develop skills and their contribution to
productivity remains a serious weakness. French, German and US workers produce
between a quarter and a third more in every hour they work than their British
counterparts.4 Output per worker is 16 per cent higher in France, and 31 per cent
higher in the US.5 The recent Treasury assessment of the five economic tests for UK
membership of the European single currency noted that a highly educated workforce
with a culture of lifelong learning is more likely to adapt to economic change.
Improving the level of skills, particularly among those with the lowest skill levels,
is a focus of the Government’s agenda for enhancing flexibility in the UK. Inside
2  OECD (2002) Programme for International Student Assessment, Reading for Change, OECD
3  OECD (2002) Education at a Glance, OECD
4  Office for National Statistics, (2003) International Comparisons of Productivity
5  HM Treasury (2003) Budget report. US skills levels may be substantially understated by the conventional data, due to the
lack of nationally recognised qualifications. Some studies classify US high school graduates as low-skilled. This is true of
some, but others receive high quality vocational and general training. US data rarely include workplace training, cited by
over 35 per cent of US workers as a significant source of skills.
18 
or outside the European Monetary Union, but particularly within a single currency
area, individuals need the skills to adapt to increased competition and to compete for
a wide range of jobs in a changing economic environment.6 Table 1 summarises the
key skills gaps.
Table 1 Labour force skills, total economy, 1999
Percentage of the workforce with
qualifications at levels:
Higher Intermediate Low
US 27.7 18.6 53.7
France 16.4 51.2 32.4
Germany 15.0 65.0 20.0
UK 15.4 27.7 56.9
Relative skills
UK=100
100.5
105.5
105.3
100
Source: O’Mahony and De Boer (2002) Britain’s relative productivity performance: update and extensions, NIESR
1.8  In March 2003 we published an analysis of the nature of our skills challenge.7
The key problems we identified were that:
a.  Employers feel they are not getting recruits with the right skills.
b.  We have particular skills gaps in:
i.  Basic skills (including literacy, language, numeracy and computer skills)
which provide the foundation for further learning.
ii.  The percentage of the workforce with intermediate skills (associate
professional, apprenticeship, technician, or skilled craft or trade level).
iii. Mathematics – which is an essential basis for further technical training.
iv.  Leadership and management skills.
c.  There is too often a mismatch between what employers and individuals want,
and the courses and qualifications available through publicly-funded colleges
and training providers.8
d.  Equally, many private and public sector organisations undervalue how a better
skilled, trained and qualified workforce can improve their ‘bottom line’ performance.
Such organisations can experience a ‘low skills equilibrium’, producing low valueadded products and services, making it harder for us to compete internationally.
6 HM Treasury (2003) UK Membership of the Single Currency: An assessment of the five economic tests
7 Department for Education and Skills (2003) Developing a National Skills Strategy and Delivery Plan: underlying evidence
8 The term ‘colleges and training providers’ refers to colleges, work-based learning providers, specialist providers,
employers and others delivering learning funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for England
19 
e. Many individuals do not see how better skills, training and qualifications can help
them achieve their personal goals, whether for financial rewards through better
jobs and higher wages, for supporting their families and communities, or for their
own personal fulfilment. We are concerned that skills and learning initiatives are
not reaching all of society. We want to increase the skill levels for all underrepresented groups and encourage all individuals to improve their employability.
This is crucial for women workers who now constitute 44 per cent of the workforce,
yet are typically locked in a narrow range of low level manual occupations and in
part-time work where training opportunities are limited. It is also an issue for
ethnic minorities, agency workers and other disadvantaged groups who have low
skill levels. Lack of investment in training can restrict their career options and
ability to achieve rewarding, stable jobs.
f. Many believe that the Government and its agencies do not approach skills and
productivity issues coherently. That makes it difficult for employers and learners
to understand what support is available and how to access it.
g. The respective roles and responsibilities of Government, employers and individuals
in terms of paying for and organising training and qualifications remain unclear.
HOW WILL WE TACKLE THIS CHALLENGE?
1.9  The Skills Strategy aims to address these deep-rooted and pervasive problems. During
the course of the past six years, significant progress has been made in our quest to
make high quality lifelong learning a reality from the cradle to the grave. Annex 1
draws together the main strands:
a.  In schools, our literacy and numeracy programmes have achieved real
improvements in pupil performance.
b.  At GCSE and A level, exam results have risen significantly.
c.  Our specialist schools programme, and curriculum and examination reforms, have
increased the emphasis on equipping pupils with the skills, knowledge and
understanding they need for employability.
d.  In higher education, there has been a major expansion in student places. We have
introduced Foundation Degrees as a new vocational option. We have encouraged
universities to work closely with business and employers.
e.  In further education, student numbers have increased. We are reforming the quality
and responsiveness of colleges and training providers. We have established the
Learning and Skills Council as a powerful new body for planning and allocating
over £8 billion which the state spends each year on post-16 education and training.
20 
f.  Our Skills for Life9 programme is tackling poor levels of literacy, language and
numeracy skills among adults.
1.10  All of this represents a lot of hard work by schools, colleges and universities, resulting
in real improvement.
1.11  The White Paper builds on the extensive skills and adult learning reforms put in place
since 1997. It addresses frequently articulated concerns of employers, trade unions
and providers. They have challenged us to create a coherent policy framework which
supports frontline delivery and develops an education and training system which is
focused on the needs of employers and learners. Isolated individual initiatives will not
be enough, since such endeavours have not had sufficient impact in the past. We need
to draw together all the major partners. We need also to connect the many existing
programmes and activities, so that they form a shared, sustained and determined
programme for change.
1.12  So this strategy is not predominantly about new initiatives, but rather about making
more sense of what is already there, integrating what already exists, and focusing it
more effectively.
1.13  The key themes which characterise this strategy are:
a.  Putting employers’ needs centre stage. Skills are not an end in themselves, but a
means towards supporting successful businesses and organisations. We must give
employers more support in accessing the training they need, and more influence
in deciding how that training is provided. This is what we mean by a ‘demand-led’
system.
b.  Helping employers use skills to achieve more ambitious longer term business
success. The Skills Strategy is not just about meeting the demands for skills that
employers already have. We must also help those employers who want to increase
productivity, to upgrade to higher value-added products and services, or to set up
new, higher value businesses, to secure the higher level skills needed to achieve
those ambitions. Our new sector skills agreements described in chapter 3 will be
central to this.
c.  Motivating and supporting learners. We will make it easier for those adults who
most need extra skills by offering them a new entitlement to learning. We will
prioritise our resources, with the ambition that over time we help everybody who
wants them to gain at least the foundation skills for employability, with better
support for young adults to gain more advanced craft, technician and associate
professional qualifications.
9 Department for Education and Skills (2001) Skills for Life – the national strategy for improving adult literacy and
numeracy skills,
21 
d.  Enabling colleges and training providers to be more responsive to employers’
and learners’ needs. Our best colleges and training providers already show
abundant creativity and commitment in meeting local needs. But too often ‘the
system’ gets in their way – the framework for planning, funding, monitoring,
qualifications and student support does not give incentives or clear signals to
support active, effective reach-out to meet needs.
e.  Joint Government action in a new Skills Alliance. We will link up the work of the
key Government departments involved with economic and skills issues – the
Department for Education and Skills, the Department of Trade and Industry, the
Department for Work and Pensions, and the Treasury. The same collaborative
approach will apply at regional level, between the Regional Development
Agencies, the Learning and Skills Council and their partners. We will establish a
new Skills Alliance, bringing together Government departments, agencies and
representatives of employers and employees, to create a new social partnership
for skills.
1.14  The Skills Strategy is primarily a strategy for England, reflecting the devolution of
responsibility for education and training to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Each has developed its own strategies for skills and lifelong learning.10 However, some
elements of this strategy have implications for the Devolved Administrations, notably
the work of the Sector Skills Councils (which have a UK-wide remit) and the proposed
sector skills agreements. The strategy has been developed in consultation with them
and is consistent with t