1. Hot Breakfast Briefing
The growth strategy
April 11 2011
Steve Besley (@SteveBesley on Twitter)
Louis Coiffait (@LouisMMCoiffait on Twitter)
Brendan O’Grady
www.pearsoncpl.com

2. Agenda
1.Context
2.The strategy in a bit more
detail
3.How might it play out?
4.How does it leave the
education & skills system?
5.What do you think?

3. 1. Context
2. The strategy in a bit more detail
Steve Besley

4. 1. Context
3 stages
1. Establish economic stability
2. Develop a convincing narrative
3. Launch a long-term plan

5. Stage 1. Establish economic stability
• Publish Emergency Budget (June 2010)
• Establish framework for economic recovery (CSR Oct 2010)
• Assess progress (Budget 2011)
– No Plan B
– Token measure on pay, bit on fuel and housing
– Some gloomy economic forecasts:
• Growth: 1.7% (2011,) 2.5% (2012,) 2.9% (2012)
• Inflation: 4-5% (2011,) 2.5% (2012,) 2% (2013)
• Unemployment: slight increase (2011,) steady fall
(2012)
– 4 part vision for growth:
• Simplified and competitive tax system
• UK one of the best places to start/develop a business
• Help create a more balanced economy
• Create a more educated and flexible workforce

6. Stage 2. Develop a convincing narrative
(through speeches)
• David Cameron’s July 2010 SRP speech
• David Cameron’s Oct 2010 CBI speech
• David Cameron’s Jan 2011 Growth speech
• Nick Clegg’s Feb 2011 Growth speech
• Vince Cable’s March 2011 Mansion House
speech
• David Cameron’s March 2011 Spring
Conference speech
• George Osborne’s March 2011 Budget
speech

7. Stage 2. Develop a convincing narrative
(through language)
• “I‟m telling you today that your job under this
Government is not to frustrate local people and local
ideas, it is to enable them”
• “If I have to pull these people into my office and get
them off the backs of business, then believe me I will do
it”
• “We‟re on the side of the people I call alarm clock Britain.
On the side of anyone who wants to get up and get on”
• “It‟s failed to articulate in big picture terms its vision of
what the UK economy might become under its
stewardship”

8. Stage 2. Develop a convincing narrative
(through reports)
1. National Infrastructure Plan
– Focus on energy, transport, technology, carbon reduction
– £200bn private/public investment over SR period
2. Local Growth White Paper
– Shift the focus for ec growth on to local leadership
– Emphasis on manufacturing, tourism, low carbon
economy, technology
– Supported by £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund and private
investment
– Enabled by a Localism Bill
3. Blueprint for Technology
– Declaration that Britain was ‘open for business’
– New Entrepreneur Visa, IP, Tech/Innovation Centres
– £200m for Tech/Innovation Centres, £150m for UKIIF,
£400m for new superfast broadband

9. Stage 2. Develop a convincing narrative
(through papers)
4. Growth Review
– Rolling assessment of key sectors/mechanisms for growth
– Every Dept to develop an action plan
– Initial focus on 6 sectors: Adv. Man.; Digital & Creative; Bus. &
Prof. Services; Retail; Construction; Healthcare & Life Sciences
5. Skills and Investment Strategy
– Moves on from Leitch by dismantling central planning and
creating new demand mechanisms
– Re-balances funding contributions around employer co-
investment and adult fee system
– Continues subsidies for basic skills and ‘disadvantaged’ groups,
establishes min. contract levels & apprenticeship delivery rates
– Proposes a review and social partnership model for ACL
– Retains existing QD model through SSCs/ABs/QCF but with
emphasis on more responsiveness, focused outcomes
– Frees up providers but introduces new performance measures
and OIPs, opens up provider system
– Beefs up intelligence and support throughput to users

10. Stage 3. Launch a long-term plan
• 126 pages
• 4 ambitions
• 16 benchmarks
• 8 sectors
• 7 priority areas
• 38 things already done
• 62 things to be done

11. Stage 3. Launch a long-term plan
Key messages for education and skills (Ambition 4)
• 4 identified concerns:
– Poor international standing in core subjects (schools)
– Low levels of intermediate tech skills (FE)
– Weak graduate skill levels (HE)
– “The UK working age population has lower skills than the
workforce in France, Germany, USA” (All)
• 5 measurable benchmarks:
– Support more apprenticeships than any previous Gov.
– House more top universities than anywhere except USA
– Increase 16-24 participation
– Narrow the education gap
– Lowest employment regulation burdens

12. 2. The strategy in a bit more detail
The key measures;
• For young people
• For adult learning and employers

13. 2. The strategy in a bit more detail
Key measures include:
– Reform of VQ system for young people
– Expansion of work exp places
– Extension of UTC system
– Development of youth entrepreneurship
– Increase in apprenticeship places
– Roll-out of NEA system
– Recreation of Enterprise Zones
– Introduction of new TIC system
– Development of new funding schemes (RGF, GIF)
– Creation of Green Investment bank
– Development of LEP network
– Promoting growth in key economic sectors

14. Measures affecting young people
• Reform of VQ system for young people
– 2 stage phase defined by increasing specialisation
– Revamped voc. offer built around core with more flexible
options
– Review of offer for ‘low-attainers’
– Simplified regulatory system
– Greater choice of where to study
– Funding to follow learner
– Provision to match market need
• Expansion of work experience places
– Up to 100,000 over 2 years
– Emphasis on developing ‘work’ skills
– Reflecting Wolf emphasis

15. Measures affecting young people
• Extension of UTC system
– Doubling of target
– Funded through Academy pot
– 2 phase learning programme
– Partnership model
• Development of youth entrepreneurship
– Development of Enterprise Champions Programme
– Roll out of Tenner Tycoon
– Creation of enterprise societies in FE/HE

16. 2. The strategy in a bit more detail
Louis Coiffait

17. Measures for providers & employers
1. Increase in apprenticeship places
2. Roll-out of NEA system
3. Recreation of Enterprise Zones
4. Introduction of new TIC system
5. Develop new funding schemes (RGF, GIF)
6. Creation of Green Investment bank
7. Development of LEP network
8. Promote growth in 8 key economic sectors
9. Misc.

18. • Government committed to funding <360,000 apprentices of
all ages this year
• £250m to fund 75,000 new adult apprenticeships
announced in 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review
• Now budget announces £180m package for a further
50,000 apprenticeships over the next four years in this
budget
– 40,000 ‘young apprentice’ places, particularly for young
unemployed people e.g. through progression from the
16-24 work experience programme.
– 10,000 adult places, advanced and higher level through
business consortia, supported by grants,
• Expand number of available places, especially SMEs,
potentially via group schemes
• Convincing employers, especially SMEs, to invest time and
money in training is hard, especially with new requirements
around number of directed learning hours
Increase in apprenticeship places 1/2

19. • Development of a new higher level Apprenticeship and a
new Level 5 framework, providing a route for engineering
Apprentices to professional accreditation
• Expand flexible advanced and higher Apprenticeships which
suit the freelance business models often seen in the digital
and creative industries.
• UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to look
at a potential new accountancy Apprenticeship
• „40,000 apprenticeships a "drop in the ocean … the
Government's growth Budget has left the most
disadvantaged young people in the shade” – Anne Marie
Carrie, Chief Executive of Barnardo's in the Independent
• “The aspiration to create a number of new apprenticeships
fails to take account of the limited progress towards
previous targets and will go only a short way to meeting
the huge demand for this mode of study and training, let
alone properly address the need for progression in
vocational learning” NUS via Politics.co.uk
Increase in apprenticeship places 2/2

20. Roll-out of NEA system
1. Pilot a National Enterprise Allowance,
providing funding and support for budding
entrepreneurs
2. Being tested out in Merseyside
3. Gradually rolled out from this April

21. Recreation of Enterprise Zones
1. Funding to support the creation of up to 21
new Enterprise Zones
2. Similar to zones created in the 1980s
3. Benefit from lower taxes, simpler planning
controls and levels of regulation, as well as
new superfast broadband
4. Total per business discount of up to
£275,000 over 5 years
5. <25 years of business rates growth within
each zone retained and shared by the local
authorities to support their
6. economic priorities

22. Introduction of new TIC system
1. Developing a network of Technology and
Innovation Centres
2. Government committing over £200m to
create a network of centres.
3. The first centre, specialising in high-value
manufacturing opened this month;
integrates the activities of existing high
performing centres in Rotherham, Coventry,
Strathclyde, Sedgefield, Redcar and Bristol

23. Develop new funding schemes: RGF, GIF
1. RGF = Regional Growth Fund
2. £1.4bn Fund established
3. Intended to provide support for regional
growth activity
4. Round 2 bids start in April
5. GIF = Growth and Innovation Fund
6. Scheme launched this month providing
£50m match funding for each of the next
two years to support company-based skill
development and enterprise

24. Creation of Green Investment bank
1. Commitment to ensure the UK has the
resources to move towards a low-carbon
economy
2. Government already committed £1bn to
support the creation of a Green Bank
3. Budget provided for a further £2m to enable
the Bank to become operative from 2012
4. Begins operation in 2012-13, a year earlier than
previously anticipated

25. Development of LEP network
1. LEP = Local Enterprise Partnership
2. Approval of 24 LEPs in the Local Growth
White Paper on 28 October 2010
3. A further 7, including one covering the
whole of London, subsequently announced,
taking the total to 31
• Non-statutory bodies assume many
responsibilities of Regional Development
Agencies (RDAs) and are able to bid from
Regional Growth Fund

26. Promote growth in 8 key economic
sectors
1. “march of the makers” Guardian
2. Eight detailed, with action plans, in the Plan for Growth:
a) healthcare and life sciences
b) digital and creative industries
c) professional and business services
d) retail
e) construction
f) space
g) tourism
h) advanced manufacturing e.g. new export credits, a
technology and innovation centre and nine new
university centres.
3. removing barriers in areas such as planning and regulation
4. partly focusing on raising skill levels

27. Misc. measures for providers &
employers
• £25m a year for commissioning and funding education
business link services to be withdrawn 31 March, schools
free to 'buy it in' @IEBE @YPLA
• £100m new capital funding to support science and
innovation campuses
• Support the Careers Profession Alliance to improve training
for careers professionals in subject-specific specialisms,
including STEM.
• Increase the number of industry school visits (e.g. by
Apprenticeship Ambassadors).
• Strengthen STEM promotion activities, including STEMNET.
• Professional and Business Services Group (PSBG) - chaired
by Sir Michael Snyder - will launch a ‘Log of Professional
Readiness’, in which school leavers and undergraduates can
record work experience, relevant gap year activity,
positions of responsibility and leadership, active citizenship
and volunteering, and extra-curricular investment in
Employability.

28. 3. How might it play out?
Brendan O‟Grady

29. Some letters and numbers
OBR GDP GNP
20.6% BOE MPC
CBI SMEs OECD 8.1%
IMF G20 BBC 2.53m
ITV 974,000 SKY

30. Who’s driving this thing?
The Prime Minister?
The Chancellor?
The Lib Dems?
Alexander?
The Quad?
Cable?
Us?

31. x
• x
The road ahead…
General Election 2015?
2012: recovery or rethink?
The political mood and the
Lib Dems
Local elections May 5th

32. Sharp Turns?

33. 4.How does it leave the
education & skills system?
5.What do you think?
Steve Besley

34. The shape of the new system 1/2
• Focused on what works and what delivers
• Collaboration driven by function, need and efficiency as
much as by policy and ideology
• Increased reliance on data (performance and labour
market)
• More transparent forms of accountability (national, local,
institutional)
• Burden of fees shifted to individuals, Government support
restricted to the needy
• Regulation aimed at qual suppliers and monitored against
international performance measures
• Learning programmes built around core subjects, greater
choice beyond that

35. The shape of the new system 2/2
• Providers seen as agents of change for engagement,
participation and social mobility
• School improvement a mixture of external levers (choice,
competition, accountability) and internal structures
(leaders, auditors, teachers)
• 14-16, 16-19 two distinct phases within one all-through
phase where specialisation defines the nature of
progression
• FE continuing to provide traditional pipeline of skilled
workforce but within more competitive market place
• HE becoming more diverse in response to user funding
• White knuckle ride as Government seeks to effect
transformation within one term

36. The government is hoping growth in the
economy will pick up in 2012. How confident
are you that this will happen?
1. Very
2. Reasonably
3. Not very
0%
21%
79%

37. Do you think the measures in the growth
plan will;
1. Make a lot of difference
2. Make a little bit of difference
3. Make no difference
3%
77%
20%

38. Do you think Wolf and the growth plan will
help improve job prospects for young
people?
1. lot
2. A little
3. Not much at all

39. What’s your biggest concern over the
coming year?
1. Rise in unemployment
2. Rise in inflation
3. Lack of economic growth
4. Not having an alarm clock

40. Please do three things before you leave…
• Put all trays, cups and dishes on the racks
• Complete and leave your feedback form
• Leave your voting pad
Thank you!
Housekeeping

41. Hot Breakfast Briefing
The growth strategy
April 11 2011
Steve Besley (@SteveBesley on Twitter)
Louis Coiffait (@LouisMMCoiffait on Twitter)
Brendan O’Grady
www.pearsoncpl.com