Department For Education
Its great to be back in Exeter for the first time since I was re-appointed as Higher Education and Skills Minister. And in such great company! To be addressing the organisation of professionals for widening access to higher education is to address a crowd that shares my outlook. I want to thank Professor Graeme Atherton for inviting me here today, and for founding NEON back in 2012. The attendance today illustrates how access and participation has evolved from a peripheral tick-box exercise, to a central professional endeavour that all higher education (HE) institutions should take seriously.
As far as I am concerned, social justice is fundamental to higher education. Universities should exist to facilitate the studies, progression and graduation of all students including those from disadvantaged backgrounds - so they can go on to get good jobs and pursue worthwhile careers.
Today, I want to talk to you about the golden thread of social justice that runs through my brief of Higher Education and skills. But Id like to say at the outset that Im not offering this summary of measures as the complete solution.
While areas of deprivation and low achievement still exist, there will still be more work to do. And I really welcome your insights on how were doing. When it comes to sharing opportunities fairly, we havent reached the point where we can lean on our spades and say job done. Access and participation measures are not about patting ourselves on the back. Social justice demands we remain open to how we could all do better and I include myself in that.
Skills education is incredibly important to social justice because gaining recognised skills helps a person succeed in the labour market when they dont have other things that can help you get ahead, such as an education that maximises academic performance, family connections or an understanding of different work sectors.
Thats why skills make-up the greater part of the Ladder of Opportunity. This framework outlines what we need for the skills system to support people of all backgrounds to ascend to the top rung: well-paid, secure and sustainable employment. This should be an attainable goal for everyone, not just those who start with some advantages in life. One of the pillars that holds-up the Ladder is opportunities and social justice. These need to be our foremost considerations in making quality, skilled employment widespread.
And I wont deny that theres an economic argument for this too. Delivering skills for the country is central to driving the economy. Skilled jobs have the potential to contribute 1/3 of our future productivity growth. In short, theres no downside to upskilling the nation.
The Chancellor has his 4 Es for economic growth and prosperity: Enterprise, Education and Employment Everywhere. His focus is productivity but we cant have that without maximising opportunities to reach widespread abilities. The Lifelong Loan Entitlement will be a major catalyst for broadening the opportunity to train throughout a lifetime, which Ill come to later.
For now, given that three is the magic number of this conference,
I have three Ps for social justice Place, Privilege and Prestige.
Lets start with Place. Social justice is fundamentally rooted in the places people come from where they grow up, gain their education and find a job.
A virtuous cycle of growth can have a remarkable effect on a place. An area with great education and skills training will attract businesses looking for their future workforce. They set-up and invest in the area, which in turn creates more jobs and higher tax receipts - allowing for higher investment in local public services.
Harlow College has an advanced manufacturing centre and renewable energy facility, which is doing exactly that attracting relevant businesses to the skills pipeline it has created.
That is why this government is focused on delivering for places that need a sustainable jobs and skills ecosystem. Last years Levelling Up white paper included a clear skills mission: by 2030, 200,000 more people each year will be completing high-quality skills training in England. But its not enough to raise skills levels if it only re-enforces current pockets of economic prosperity. So this number will include 80,000 annual course completions in the lowest skilled areas.
Our 38 local skills improvement plans will support this, covering the whole of England. Each plan is led by an employer-representative body, ensuring that skills provision matches the needs of local employers. Wherever they are in the country, learners will have confidence that the skills theyre developing match those sought by local businesses.
In all places, people need high-quality careers advice from an early age to help them fulfil their potential. This is the first rung of the Ladder of Opportunity, the beginning of their journey to good employment. We have worked hard to lay the foundations of a coherent careers system, with strong collaboration between educators, training providers and employers.
The Careers and Enterprise Company work through local Careers Hubs to support schools, colleges and training providers to develop and improve their careers provision. Part of the battle is raising awareness of whats on offer, so that young people arent given a false, binary choice of work or university. Our Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme communicates the benefits of apprenticeships, T Levels and other technical learning routes to older school pupils. Its available nationwide but focusses on disadvantaged areas - places where its message could make the most difference.
Later in life, the National Careers Service can provide free online guidance. But it also has community-based advisors to provide personal support to adults with recognised barriers to finding work. This includes career routes guidance on apprenticeships, traineeships, university and other technical and vocational routes. Last year it celebrated supporting 1 million adults into a job or learning outcome in 2022. These local, one-to-one interventions make a real difference to the paths taken by those who most need guidance to get back into education, training or work.
Overall, we are determined that place should strongly determine where additional funding is channelled. So, for example, where young people are taking the new T Levels in an economically deprived area, providers now receive additional funding to support their attainment.
Focussing on place is absolutely necessary for social justice, but it is not sufficient. Because within places, there can be disparities in the opportunities available to different groups such as those with disabilities or learning difficulties.
My second P is privilege. Because the privilege of quality education and training opportunities should just not be for the privileged few. It should be available for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstance.
Schools play a part in this, as Ive described - but employers, FE colleges, universities and training institutions also need to reach down into their communities to lift the veil on post-16 routes. Weve seen some great practice right here in this city, with Exeter Universitys tutoring pilot run by undergraduates in St James School. This saw a 100% improvement in writing ability following a nine week intervention - a great example of universities working closely with schools to raise attainment. It is crucial that pupils are supported to achieve to a high standard before theyre required to make choices about their future.
Youll be aware that the Office for Students recently launched the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, with 12 key risks to equality of opportunity across the student lifecycle. These have used evidence to determine where interventions can really move the dial on social justice. Theyll be an important tool for designing future initiatives to broaden access to HE, and I look forward to providers rewriting their upcoming Access and Participation plans to incorporate them.
We should recognise where progress is being made. While a substantial gap remains between the most and least advantaged students, more disadvantaged English 18-year-olds than ever secured a university place last year. And black pupils have seen the greatest increase in the proportion going to university by age 19 62.1% in 2020-21, compared to 44.1% in 2009-10.
In 2020, we met our targets to increase the proportion of apprentices who have learning difficulties and disabilities, or are from an ethnic minority background. This encouraging trend is continuing; halfway through this academic year, both groups apprenticeships starts had risen again by nearly 15% on last year.
We want to further build on this momentum, so that no young person rules themselves out of positive future prospects because of their background or personal circumstances.
Young people with learning difficulties and disabilities may need extra support to manage their training and complete their apprenticeship. Following some fantastic examples, we want to work with providers and employers so that they can offer more mentoring opportunities for these apprentices.
My ambition is for every apprentice with a disability to benefit from access to a suitable mentor throughout their apprenticeship. This is why I am today announcing a new mentoring pilot, where a group of trailblazing providers will commit to expanding their mentoring offer to all disabled apprentices, enabled through a bespoke training and support offer. The pilot, which will launch later this year, will mean we can better understand what works for this cohort and set a clear dire