Member

When two years ago I led on the learning and skills document that was a precursor to Skills England—we had a different name for it, but it is the same thing—to bring people together to do the overview and to determine how, where and when different sectors and devolved agencies would be able to play their part, we never envisaged that an agency inside government would have to take on the assurance and accreditation of the relevant sector standards. My amendment is to seek a discussion on the thinking on devolving out to sectors of the economy the process that IfATE is currently going through—not only the 700 standards that have already been put in place but their iteration in a timely manner so that we can move swiftly and surefootedly to update them and to take on the new challenges and the relationship with Ofqual. If we could explore how we might we do that, we could return at least some of the powers to those sectors that have bodies, including construction and engineering—and there are others in the more modern fields such as cell development and gene therapy—where it would be possible to ensure that everything did not have to go through a centralised system, which, if the department places most of it in the hands of Skills England, will be a complete diversion from the major job of equipping Britain for the years ahead.