02 October 2003

The Skills Strategy and the Tomlinson Working Group on learning programs and qualifications for 14-19 year olds are inseparable components of a single, but massive and complex reform program to build the human capital of this nation.

It is a reform that involves every person and every organisation represented at this conference, and will occupy us fully to 2010.

When one looks at the breadth of the representation today it might seem that this is a very crowded field.

But each of us, the Learning and Skills Council, the Sector Skills Development Agency and the Skills for Business Network, the awarding bodies, the regional development agencies, the schools and further education colleges, the employers, the private training providers, the DfES and so many others, have specific and distinctive roles to play.

It is important that we are each very clear about our precise role and exactly what we are accountable for delivering.

The particular piece of this very complex jigsaw which is the responsibility of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is the development of a national qualifications framework which can be employed as a strategic instrument for workforce development - not a fixed and immutable rolled-gold edifice that will endure for the next twenty years, but an agile, responsive, organic and living framework, which can be relied upon to shape and adapt in response to need.

I received the other day from the Vocational Qualifications Working Group a summary of progress on fulfilling the vocational qualifications remit, which the QCA and its partners have received from Ivan Lewis.

I asked for it to be in four columns: the required outcome to 2007; progress to date; issues still to be addressed; and timing and risk rating.

I quote just one of the required outcomes by 2007.

National occupational standards and industry-led curricula (SSDA, National Occupational Standards Board). To achieve this the following reforms are necessary :

• The funding of national occupational standards needs to be sustainable (UK administrations)
• Quality criteria and developmental methodologies for national occupational standards must be adapted so that occupational standards can be used for developing people at work as well as in qualifications (National Occupational Standards Board)
• Access by employers and individuals to a database of freely available occupational standards, which also links to qualifications databases (SSDA)
• The curriculum necessary to reach the occupational needs to be specified (SSDA)
• Appropriate packages of learning materials need to be made available to individuals, employer, other training providers, awarding bodies and regulatory authorities (SSDA)
• High quality, up-to-date sets of national occupational standards must be accessible for use by employers and individuals in human resources systems and for qualifications.

Now, that's just one of the required outcomes. There are others that go right to the heart of the work of the QCA, the awarding bodies, the LSC and higher education, and the DfES.

And I haven't quoted the issues still to be addressed, and the timing and risk rating.

What a task. Are you and I geared up to it? Can we deliver?

The greatest risk to the success of a complex reform program extending over several years is that it can become driven by the sanctity of the process.

I think we are at risk of falling for this.

We can come to believe that if we consult widely enough and frequently enough with all who might have an interest in the reform, meet regularly, draft and consider successive iterations of discussion papers, have away-days, and report back regularly to all our constituencies, then in the fullness of time the right answers will appear and the reform will have been achieved.

We might well get unreliable answers through what we believe to be an impeccable process.

It is important with this reform that we all maintain a sense of urgency about achieving it. I won't rehearse in this company the magnitude of the problems we are seeking to remedy, which we are all fully aware of. In terms of retention to age eighteen, skills acquisition, job readiness, and international competitiveness, England is gravely at risk of losing its edge.

But there is a danger that we will slacken off, given the timeline of 2010, when we will all be seven years older, expecting that we have ample time, and that the ubiquitous implementation of the reform of qualifications across the country and in all industry sectors will inevitably come about because of our earnestness and commitment to process.

The Skills Alliance Delivery Group has a critical role to play in ensuring that this does not occur, and in driving the various articulated programs relentlessly forward. I hope it has the steel to compel it to fulfil this task.

It is also important that we are very clear, in quite precise terms, of what it is we are going to deliver, what the product will be, what is going to be different in 2010.

I am reminded of words that I have heard declaimed on occasion by the Australian historian, the late Manning Clark. He was a larger-than-life character, and a significant figure in left-wing politics and the shaping of the Australian imagination.

The words in fact were not his own - he pinched them from Dostoevsky - but he applied them in the context of radical social, political and cultural realignments which gripped Australia from the 1960s.

He would declare, in an excess of decibels: "I want to be there when everyone suddenly understands what it has all been for".

When the QCA has done its work - with its partners in the LSC and the Skills for Business Network, and the awarding bodies that it regulates - what will everyone suddenly understand it has all been for?

And in particular the three groups which are the subject of this conference - learners, providers and employers.

What will learners understand?

1. When we are successful, by 2010, when the new qualifications framework will be fully operational across the nation, far more people will perceive themselves to be - understand themselves to be - learners, and will be actively pursuing learning, than do so know.
   
   When we are successful, there will be a profound cultural change: the ongoing acquisition of knowledge and skill, formally recognised as accredited qualifications, will be a routine and expected activity for the great majority of people in paid and unpaid employment, for all young people pre-employment, and for older people post-employment.
   
2. Learners will understand what the national qualifications framework says and does.
   
   The language used to describe the framework and its content will crystal clear. The framework will have been stripped of its complexities and mystique.
   
   The categorisation of qualifications into 'general', 'vocationally-related' and 'occupational' will be abandoned by 2004. The three columns in the framework will be gone.
   
   The purpose of each qualification will be explicit and clear. The title, level, content, assessment scheme and awarding arrangements will fit that purpose.
   
   The qualification will be what it says on the box.
   
3. Each learner will understand the point at which he or she should best enter the framework.
   
   The framework will offer qualifications at progressive and sequential levels from entry level through to the equivalents of higher degrees.
   
   The challenge - that is the level of demand associated with each level - will be set down clearly in a series of short indicator statements. This will happen from 2004.
   
   The higher levels will read directly across to qualifications in Scotland, and to higher education across the UK. This will happen from 2004.
   
   Over the period to 2007 and beyond, there will be increasing convergence with European frameworks: work with the Republic of Ireland is already underway.
   
4. Learners will understand that they can undertake their learning and acquire their qualification in convenient steps and stages.
   
   By 2005, virtually all qualifications will be made up of a series of units, some of which will be prerequisites for other units, thus ensuring learning is progressive and sequential.
   
   The size and level of each unit will be specified, so that learners have a clear idea of what they are taking on.
   
   If the box represents the qualification, the units are the packets within it. The size and the weight of the contents of each packet might vary, and some packets will need to be opened before others.
   
5. Each learner will understand exactly the progress he or she has made towards completion of the qualification, because each unit will carry a number of credit points, which in aggregate give the qualification.
   
   We will provide to Ministers, by March 2004, an implementation plan to produce a credit framework that is aligned by 2007 to other credit systems operating in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
   
   By 2010, every qualification in the United Kingdom will be included.
   
6. Learners will understand that you can put packets from other boxes in your box, if you want that knowledge and skill to equip you for your employment or aspiration.
   
   For each qualification there will be a core set of units, with options that might be added.
   
   So, if the qualification is in web design, or electronics, or plumbing, or hairdressing, you might like to add to the core some generic units from other qualifications, such as marketing or small business management.
   
   The framework will be flexible and adaptable.
   
7. Learners will understand how to obtain all the information they need about qualifications.
   
   The current database, the NDAQ website (Formerly openQuals website), will develop in line with the reform of the qualifications framework.
   
   Over the period to 2007, there will be a series of new interactive features to allow learners (and also employers and providers) to interrogate and navigate the system confidently.
   
   Individuals and organisations will key in a career intention or business need and have instant access to a road map of available training and qualifications.
   
   At the same time, the SSDA will link to this database its own database of national occupational standards, and both will be linked to the employer guide to good training which will be delivered through the business.gov website.
   
   There will be portals to other related websites, including those of UfI and the awarding bodies.
   
   There will thus be a rich source of on-line information and services for learners (and providers and businesses), which will include evaluation from each local Learning and Skills Council about the performance of local colleges and training providers.
   
8. Finally, learners will understand that barriers to vertical or lateral progression have been removed.
   
   Pathways to higher education will have been opened up.
   
   Progression to higher education will no longer be constrained by stereotyped and erroneous perceptions of the relative worth of their programmes of study.
   
   Attainments though school and college courses and through modern apprenticeships will be judged in terms of the relevance of their context, content and level to future learning and performance.
   
   Similarly, it will be commonplace for university graduates and post-graduates subsequently to take qualifications within the national qualifications framework.

What about providers - the schools, the colleges and the training companies - what will they understand it has all been for?

All I have said in relation to learners also applies here. But there are two extra dimensions.

1. Providers will understand that they are basing their teaching on a curriculum that is authoritatively derived from business needs and occupational standards.
   
   A strong sector skills network, closely in touch with the needs of business and industry, will have prepared curricula for the workplace, benchmarked against the best international practice.
   
   There will be clear specifications and guidance material, and learning materials to support effective delivery of the qualifications.
   
   Vocational education in schools will be based on the contents of some of the smaller packets in the boxes.
   
   It will be a genuine first step on the lower rung of the ladder of curriculum endorsed by industry, just as general education in schools is a genuine first step on the lower rung of the ladder of curriculum endorsed by universities.
   
2. Providers will also understand much more about the performance of awarding bodies, and will have the capacity to be far more discriminating in their choice.
   
   Only awarding bodies that are capable of meeting high standards of customer service will be recognised by QCA from 2004 for the purpose of awarding qualifications in the national framework.
   
   To retain recognised status, an awarding body will have to demonstrate consistently impeccable service, a willingness to innovate in response to customer demand, and a readiness to follow up speedily any enquiry or complaint.
   
   By 2005, we will publish regular public reports on the performance of awarding bodies.

And employers - what will they understand this has all been for?

1. They will understand that qualifications can be tailor-made for their business or industry.
   
   While the total number of qualifications will be reduced, there will be greater choice and diversity within each of them.
   
   There will be greater flexibility in the way that units of different kinds, sizes and levels can be packaged and assessed to meet specific workforce development needs.
   
   This is the notion already mentioned - a core set of units, plus options, to produce a designer qualification that meets the particular needs of the employer and the employee.
   
2. Employers will understand that these qualifications and units can be created quickly.
   
   Significant progress has been made by the QCA and awarding bodies in the past twelve months to reduce the time taken to accredit qualifications: the average time to accredit an NVQ is now eight weeks, compared with 22 weeks over the previous three years.
   
   But a new way of regulation is now being developed. Instead of the QCA regulating by focussing on the detailed content and structure of a proposed qualification, we propose to recognise awarding bodies that meet certain quality criteria, as bodies we will regulate by the much lighter touch of quality assurance audit.
   
   We will regulate by inspection of performance rather than by prior approval of product, thus allowing awarding bodies to be agile and prompt in their response to emerging need for new qualifications from industry.
   
3. By 2010, awarding functions might well be available from bodies other than the traditional awarding bodies, where quality criteria are met.
   
   Awarding functions could be recognised in some colleges, training providers and large companies, and some public sector bodies.
   
   Large corporations or organisations with strong learning and development departments would thus be able to sell awarding function services for qualifications within the national framework, down their supply chain or locally, and subject to quality assurance review by the regulator.
   
   Awards would therefore be made and supported much closer to the workplace.
   
4. And finally, in addition to those matters also understood by learners and providers, employers will appreciate that qualifications can be kept up-to-date and responsive to contemporary need by revision of some of the units within them, without reviewing the whole qualification.
   
   If one of the packets in the box has passed its sell-by date, it will be set aside and replaced with a fresh one, without having to build a whole new box.

Now, that's the canvas we partners to the Skills Strategy are painting.

Is it a vision, or an hallucination?

That question can be decided only by the sustained and coordinated performance of all the organisations represented at this conference over the next seven years.

And QCA will be in the vanguard.

Hard work, but immensely creative work, and it is in the national interest that we succeed.

Ken Boston