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Evaluation

Education and life-long learning skills: research index

Research

Future Skills Wales 2005 Sector Skills Survey
The Future Skills Wales 2005 Sector Skills Survey (FSW 2005) is a survey of 6,719 employers, across Wales. The main aim of FSW 2005 is understand the skills issues that are facing employers in Wales and covered both practical and technical skills.

Only 10% of Welsh business experienced, hard-to-fill vacancies in 2005compared to 14% in 2003. Within this figure of 10%, 4 %of businesses reported skill shortage vacancies, this was down from 7% in 2003. Although the picture is potentially improving in terms of hard-to-fill vacancies and skill shortages, certain sectors and businesses (in terms of numbers employed) reported experiencing higher levels than others. Recruitment problems were greatest in micro establishments and in the Hotels/Catering sector.

The occupations with the highest proportion of hard-to-fill vacancies reported were Skilled Trades, Associate Professional occupations and Elementary occupations.

Skill shortage vacancies were most commonly thought to relate to a lack of:

18% of employers in Wales reported skill gaps within their workforce. FSW 2005 suggests that the volume of internal skill gaps exceeds that of external recruitment problems. In terms of the number of employees, it is estimated from FSW 2005 that approximately 64,000 employees had a skill gap at the time of the survey. That represents 6% of total employment in Wales.

The skills most commonly lacking amongst employees were generic skills such as problem solving skills, customer handling skills, communication skills and team working. 52% of establishments also reported a lack of technical or practical skills as a cause of the skill gaps they were experiencing.

Review of Vocational Marketing Approaches
There is considerable evidence which indicates that Wales needs to increase the number of young people undertaking vocational learning as part of the development of their skills and knowledge, and to prepare them for working life.

The findings across Europe do not identify any significant innovative approaches that Wales has not tried, but certain strains of best practice have emerged. These can be summarised as follows:

The countries with the most success at achieving parity of esteem had joined organisations like WorldSkills to raise the profile and value of the VET route. They were also those nations where there was a significant collaborative approach with all stakeholders.

Dynamics of School Attainment
This study investigates how educational attainment changes for minority ethnic students as they progress through state secondary schools in Wales. Children from different ethnic minorities have very different experiences. Some groups out-perform white British children, and others score less highly. There is evidence that some children from some ethnic minorities have high aspirations for their education.

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Evaluation

Workforce Development Evaluation
Recommendations from the evaluation broadly supported the principles behind the programme and marketing and communications strategy with no case for major changes to the overall approach. The position needs to be kept under review, but the key area of concern apparent was whether the considerable breadth and scope of potential solutions may simply be too much for individual HRD advisors to deal with.

There were a number of concerns about current performance (low levels of referrals, low levels of HRD Advisor motivation etc) which had to be recognised, with a range of actions being appropriate for consideration by DELLS. These actions were grouped into three areas i.e. working with HRD advisors, working with employers and marketing options.

The recommendations have been shared with HRD advisors and Leadership and Management providers at a recent conference held in Mid Wales. They are also being picked up by the Business Skills team and Marketing team and built into future plans/activity.

Project Secure Evaluation
In 2005, a retrospective evaluation of the Work Based Learning (WBL) tendering exercise, Project Secure was undertaken.

The evaluation found that the Project Secure tendering process was effective in that it opened access to WBL to a wider set of providers than previously. However it was ineffective in that the In-tend process for receiving PQQs had initial system/IT problems and guidance which was given to those who passed the PQQ stage was inadequate. The result was that it was not possible to distinguish good providers from weaker ones from their tenders with any reliability. Consequently, therefore, all providers who submitted tenders were given placement allocations simply pro-rata to the allocations they sought. Overall, the tendering process must be judged as deficient. If, as we assume, a major characteristic of Project Secure was that it was intended to generate a more strategic approach to WBL placement allocation then this intention was not fulfilled.

A number of recommendations from the evaluation concerned the future bidding and contract processes in respect of WBL, include some basic procedural ones concerning the use of technology, the adequacy of administrative resources, timescales, and the adequacy of guidance associated with the submission of tenders.

Evaluation of the Geographic and Sectoral Pathfinder Programme
The evaluation found that there although there a strong consensus between Senior Staff, Pathfinder Project Management Teams (PPMTs) and key stakeholders on the strategic aims of the Geographical Pathfinder projects and the broader policy agenda in which they feature that a document setting out the strategic aims for future projects should be produced. Such a document would set the agenda and assist in the formulation of scoping briefs for individual area projects.

The evaluation found that facilitators could make a valuable contribution to the process. However, the individual’s role and responsibilities must be clearly defined and agreed.

With regards the consultation process the evaluation emphasises the need to have a clear and agreed strategy for each stage of the consultation. This should include the determination of the target audience e.g. professional/public consultation and methods e.g. public meeting, reader-friendly documentation. All consultation documents should include sufficient information to enable informed conclusions to be drawn and they should be presented in an accessible format.

Sectoral Pathfinder projects were envisaged as a means of addressing strategic issues in key sectors of the economy and ensuring that the provision of learning opportunities met the needs of all stakeholders, including employers, learners, and those with strategic responsibilities in each sector. Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) officers representing the chosen sectors worked closely with DELLS officers deliver the Sectoral Pathfinder projects and brought expert knowledge both of issues and of providers and proved beneficial to the process although the evaluation recommends that there should be greater clarity about roles and responsibilities.

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Learning Challenge Fund Evaluation
Despite a problematic and delayed start, the evaluation of the LCF shows that, overall, the programme has been largely successful in meeting its objectives. The LCF programme has provided or committed a total of £7.6m to 17 projects, delivering a wide range of outputs and outcomes. For example some projects focused on developing partnerships and infrastructure (with target milestones) while others delivered learning directly (with volume targets for learners and accreditation). For illustrative purposes we have identified some 8,400 learners who have benefited directly from LCF activity.
The evaluation sets out a range of learning points covering the bidding and contracting process; monitoring and evaluation; and project leadership and management. In terms of bidding the evaluation favours a commissioning or project development approach wherever possible, and recommends a consistent set of criteria for selection.
It is worth noting that many of these points are raised again in the CIF evaluation - reflecting that we have not learnt lessons.

One of the key messages from the evaluation is that an innovative and participative approach, with a greater focus on community based learning, does not always fit well with a requirement for substantial levels of accreditation. A flexible approach has proved to be effective in several community learning projects and has ensured very successful levels of engagement with non-mainstream learners.

CIF Evaluation
Key findings from the evaluation:

IIP Evaluation
Key recommendations from the evaluation:

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Education and life-long learning skills: research index