The Government is determined to Build Back Better when we recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and this means levelling up the country in jobs and skills as well as infrastructure and the economy.
The Prime Minister set out yesterday our new Lifetime Skills Guarantee - a plan to transform the provision of skills so that we can help people to retrain and find new, well-paid jobs as part of our agenda to Build Back Better.
As a result of our changing economy and the impact of the pandemic, we are developing a long-term plan to ensure that, as the nature of work changes, people have the skills to find and create new and better jobs.
Today we are sending out a clear message that this Conservative Government will help people get the skills they need at every stage of their lives, as we deliver on our promise to level up opportunity across the country.
Through our new Lifetime Skills Guarantee we are expanding post-18 education and training to level up and prepare workers for a post-Covid economy by:
- Offering a free and fully-funded college course to adults without an A-level or equivalent qualification – providing them with skills valued by employers, and the opportunity to study at a time and location that suits them. This offer will be available from April in England, and will be paid for through our National Skills Fund – one of our manifesto pledges. A full list of available courses will be set out shortly.
- Making higher education loans more flexible – allowing adults and young people to choose the length and type of course that is right for them. This will allow them to take more high quality vocational courses in further education colleges and universities, and to support people to retrain for jobs of the future. We are committed to making higher education more flexible to facilitate lifelong learning – and will make it easier for people to break up their studies into segments, transfer credits between colleges and universities and enable more part-time study.
- Investing more in college buildings and facilities, helping to ensure colleges are excellent places for people to learn. This investment includes over £1.5 billion in capital funding, with more details to follow in a further education white paper later this year.
- Extending our offer of training in a number of sectors, helping our country to build back better. We are committing £8 million for digital skills boot camps; expanding successful pilots in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands and introducing programmes in four new locations. From next year, boot camps will be extended to sectors like construction and engineering, helping the country build back better. Earlier this year, we also launched our free online Skills Toolkit, helping people train in digital and numeracy skills. This is being expanded today to include 62 additional courses.
All of this builds on our Plan for Jobs, which is supporting our young people find jobs through a new £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, paying businesses thousands of pounds worth of cash incentives to support people into work, tripling the number of work academy places available through Sector-Based Work Academies, and providing £101 million to help 18 and 19 year olds take high value courses at Levels 2 and 3 where work opportunities are not available.
Read about our Lifetime Skills Guarantee here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-expansion-of-post-18-education-and-training-to-level-up-and-prepare-workers-for-post-covid-economy
