The government has published its long-awaited further education white paper with a clear re-branding to Skills for Jobs.

The Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth white paper originally announced in July 2020, outlines how the Government proposes to support people to develop the skills they need to progress to ‘good jobs’. This overhaul of skills and vocational education attempts to improve the esteem of further and technical education - “studying for a degree at university is not the only worthwhile marker of success” - as well as seeking to address skills gaps in the economy.

Key ambitions covered by the white paper include:

• Giving employers a greater say with a more central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030. This aims to ensure that education and training is directly linked to locally required skills via the adoption of Local Skills Improvement Plans
• Boosting the quality and uptake of higher technical qualifications by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022 with a government-backed brand and quality mark
• Providing a Lifetime Skills Guarantee for adults (previously announced)
• Reforming funding for providers to address how funds are allocated, as well as for learners so that student finance can be accessed for on-going retraining into and throughout adulthood
• Encouraging more teachers into FE and investing in high quality professional development.

White papers enable the Government to present policy preferences before legislation is introduced to test public opinion and gauge potential impact.