§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what priority learning and skills councils will place upon training aimed at adults over 19-years-old. [85500]
§ Margaret HodgeThe training for adults over 19 is vital to both increased productivity and improved social inclusion. The priorities for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) were announced in the Grant Letter for 2003–04, released last Thursday 5 December. One of the four high level priorities (unchanged since the first remit letter in 2000) is "increasing demand for learning, and achievement of skills and qualifications by adults". The LSC will be assisted in meeting this priority by the generous budget increase that is included in this Grant Letter: resources will increase from £7.5 billion in 2002–03 to £8 billion in 2003–04, and rising again to £9.2 billion in 2005–06. This record level of investment will give the LSC the resources it needs to bring about radical and sustained improvements in adult skill levels.
The Grant Letter provides more detail on the priorities for adult learning, including a challenging new target of reducing by at least 40 per cent the number of adults without a level 2 qualification by 2010, and participation by the LSC in pooled budget pilots with Regional Development Agencies. We are working closely with the LSC on the Review of Funding of Adult Learning which will set out in more detail how to meet the adult skill needs. The outcome of the Review will form part of the Skills Strategy which will be published by my Department in June.
Furthermore, the LSC's approach to adult training is set out in detail in its Workforce Development Strategy, released in November 2002. The development of the LSC strategy was co-ordinated with the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit report "In Demand (2): An Action Plan for Adult Skills in the 21st Century", and thus links into the wider Government strategy for adult skills.