Learning for Life: Funding a world-class adult education system

The world of work is changing at breakneck speed. The pandemic has forced companies to employ new methods, evolve fresh products and services, and seek innovative routes to market, simply to survive. Workers have been expected to keep up – but it hasn’t been easy.

The events of 2020 may have accelerated the process rather dramatically, but business was already evolving through digitisation and automation; there will be no going back now.

For workers across Northern Ireland that means there will be challenges ahead. Whether they have been operating in roles which have adapted to the challenges of the pandemic, or sadly seen their job lost to its effects, workers are likely to share a common future: a need to reskill in the years ahead.

You may have seen a recent CBI report – Learning For Life, published using analysis by McKinsey & Company – which reveals nine out of every ten people across the UK will have to reskill over the coming decade. Millions will need new skills in digital, science, technology, engineering and maths, plus leadership and interpersonal skills. Such a huge level of upskilling will be a mammoth undertaking – costed at an additional £13 billion a year – which needs full commitment from business, government and academia.

What strikes me most is just how much the findings mirror our own research into Northern Ireland’s digital skills gap. Looking at some of our top performing sectors, from the obvious candidates like cyber security, fintech and aerospace, through to the enormous amount of innovation going on in agrifood, there’s a real need to upskill our workforce to be fit for the future. That need was apparent long before COVID-19, and digital skills will certainly be at the forefront of our thoughts going forward.

But where do we start?

The Department of Economy’s recent announcement for funding for over 400 online places at Queen’s University to upskill and retrain people directly affected by Covid-19 is very welcome, but it is only scratching the surface. And while these are laudable first steps, there is a need to go further and faster. CBI research carried out prior to the pandemic reveals that we face a stark choice: invest more in lifetime learning and upskilling, or risk high, long-term unemployment and skills shortages.

Action is needed now. Already the biggest investors in adult training, employers have a clear role to play. But structural barriers prevent them from investing more. Training spend per employee declined by 5.6% between 2011 and 2017 and is continuing to fall. A shift in gears is key to drive higher business investment in retraining over the next decade.

Here in Northern Ireland, SMEs in particular face specific barriers to boosting their investment. These include a lack of resource and scale. Meanwhile, businesses which pay the Apprenticeship Levy find the current system ringfences their training budgets to only fund apprenticeships – leaving most companies with funds they can’t spend and skills gaps they can’t invest in. The Apprenticeship Levy should be replaced with something much more flexible that can be drawn on to assist with the upskilling and retraining challenges that lie ahead.

The training landscape as it stands must also be refreshed. Right now, it is heavily geared towards longer, formal courses for young people. Ensuring adults of all ages can access bitesize courses is an essential way to incentivise more people to take up adult education opportunities.

Encouraging more adults to take up lifelong learning is essential too. 68% of employees in roles likely to evolve or disappear in the next decade due to automation are unaware this is the case. They lack the advice and guidance they need. Turning ‘Job Centres’ into ‘Jobs and Skills Hubs’ which offer face-to-face learning support would help to tackle this and refocus vulnerable workers on a viable future.

Right now, the UK has a unique opportunity to level up through reskilling. Business, government, the education sector and individuals must come together to make Northern Ireland’s adult education system fit for the future. Getting this right matters hugely for the next generation.