Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 210: 210: Clause 71, page 43, line 10, leave out ““but not the age of 25”” The noble Baroness said: I move this amendment because the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, is not well enough to be present. However, I am sure that he will speak to it at a later stage. Certainly, it is welcome news indeed that level 3 qualifications will be available up to the age of 25. However, the amendment seeks to remove that upper age limit. The Leitch report is a great wake-up call for action and the Government’s response—to be a world leader in skills by 2020, with more than 40 per cent of people having a qualification at level 4—is certainly brave. However, given that Germany and the USA have already achieved that 40 per cent figure, that will not be enough. Those countries will not stand still for 15 years. They have the basis at level 3 for moving on well beyond that figure by 2020. The report on apprenticeships produced in the 2006-07 Session by our Select Committee on Economic Affairs tells us that in 2003, 78 per cent of Germans were already at level 3 and above by their early 30s; a massive 35 percentage points more than our score of 43 per cent. Against that competitive imperative, we need to reformulate our target to at least 45 per cent. In fact, we argue that it needs to be a straight 50 per cent, and that we need to begin to face up to that now. The short guide to the Bill tells us that 74 per cent of the UK’s working age population in 2020 will be over the age of 18. We can respond to the national economic imperative only by bringing far more of our workforce up to level 3, so that there is a basis for many more moving on to level 4. If we face up to the reality of what needs to be done, instead of ducking it, as has happened over the past 140 years, we need to go all out to lift the proportion of the working population up to level 3, irrespective of age. If people did not have the opportunity given to others to get to level 3 at no cost when they were young—I accept it might partly be their fault that they did not engage with education at an earlier stage—we owe it to them and to the national interest to offer them that opportunity to get a level 3 qualification now. Therefore, while we welcome the Government’s intention to provide for a first level 3 qualification without fees up to age 25, I stress again that in our view that will not meet the imperative needs of the times. I suspect that the Minister will refer to cost. I hope that the Committee will forgive me if I do not say too much about that because the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, has had extensive consultation on it with officials and the Minister and will want to return to it on Report. I beg to move.