To ask His Majesty’s Government how they plan to use the Post-16 education and skills white paper, published on 20 October 2025, to promote and deliver a culture of lifelong learning.
My Lords, the post-16 White Paper sets out our plan for giving people of all ages the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed and we need in order to develop a workforce that supports growth and national renewal. Through a range of policies and reforms across government, including the introduction of the lifelong learning entitlement, we will take a system-wide approach to promoting a culture of lifelong learning.
I thank my noble friend for that response. I know she is aware that tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of the launch by the then Arts Minister, Jennie Lee, later Baroness Lee of Asheridge, of the White Paper which led to the establishment of the Open University. That institution stands today as one of the finest legacies of any Labour Government. The 1966 White Paper emphasised that student enrolment should be open to everyone. This was referenced in the post-16 White Paper comment that there should be “no place or person” excluded from further education. Does my noble friend agree that more flexible pathways into and through higher education are necessary, as well as improved adult skills, that these are critical for economic growth, and that the Open University has a major role to play in this?
I strongly agree with my noble friend’s comments. I recognise the enormous contribution that a previous Labour Government made through Jennie Lee with the establishment of the Open University—and the contribution that the Open University has made in the last 60 years to enable people to learn in a way that suits them throughout their lives. It has transformed many people’s lives. As my noble friend says, we need to learn from that, not just in terms of our higher education but in how we can use the lifelong learning entitlement to enable people to learn throughout their lives—in further education and through independent learning providers and HE, supported by student finance. In the modern world, with a changing workplace, it is crucial that we enable that to happen and it is right that people have those opportunities.
My Lords, the lifelong learning entitlement was intended to usher in a skills revolution. But I fear that it will turn into a pea-shooter initiative unless the funding, the eligibility of which is restricted to level 4 and level 5 courses, is widened so that students can take level 7 courses. Will the Government set out what plans they have to do that?
It is important that we introduce the lifelong learning entitlement in a relatively restricted way, enabling us to build for the future. The key requirements, which I was addressing yesterday, are to provide flexibility for students at levels 4, 5 and 6. Those are the first priorities that we have set for the lifelong learning entitlement.
My Lords, the lifelong learning entitlement was the number one recommendation of the Augar review back in 2019, so one cannot say that implementation has been very rapid. Can the Minister give us any progress information on how many providers are proposing to offer modular provision, and on the consultation on break points in degrees, which would make it easier for people to study without having to undertake a complete undergraduate degree?
I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness, and I am kicking myself for not knowing the numbers which will be in a position to offer modular provision in January 2027. We have taken quite a careful approach to ensuring that those which are able to do that will be offering high-quality courses at that point. We have had a very good response to that.
We are working now to determine how, as the noble Baroness says, we can enable there to be break points in degrees so that people can, at both level 4 and level 5, in some ways bank the learning that they have done and then possibly return to it later in life. I know she will push me to say that it is also important that we expand the numbers of students who are taking level 4 or 5 courses on their own as well.
Following on from the emphasis on level 4 and 5 courses, what are we doing to encourage parents and pupils to accept that going on to level 4 and 5 courses after A-levels is a socially acceptable option, and one which schools should encourage? This cultural barrier is clearly one that has to be scrambled over.
The noble Lord is right. When we were talking yesterday about the opportunities provided by V-levels and T-levels, I also talked about the way in which they would increase the numbers of people who would take level 4 and 5 courses. We all have a responsibility to show the credibility and the currency that both vocational and technical education can provide for young people.
My Lords, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Unionlearn, which my noble friend Lord Blunkett should take a good deal of credit for, and which, at its peak, together with union learning reps, helped a quarter of a million workers into learning for the first time. Many of them would never have gone through a conventional classroom. Can my noble friend the Minister say what progress there is for supporting Unionlearn and enabling it to get back to helping more working people back into learning in the workplace?
My noble friend is absolutely right. I can remember the contribution made by the union learning fund to support trade unions to enable the development of skills in their workplaces. It is a real shame that the last Government removed the funding from it. I can tell my noble friend that this is something that, relatively recently, we have been discussing within one of the two departments that I operate within. We are thinking about how we can get some of those benefits back and ensure that trade unions are able to contribute in a way in which they historically have done, to not only the representation of the workforce but the development of the workforce.
I declare my interest as a former chairman of King’s College London. What discussions have HMG had with the principals and vice-chancellors of universities on this subject?
I chair an advisory group on how we can develop and deliver the lifelong learning entitlement, which is well attended by vice-chancellors. I talk about the opportunities for lifelong learning whenever I get the chance.
My Lords, we support the Government’s White Paper objective that higher education reforms will drive economic growth. But that will work only if degrees benefit both students and the taxpayer. Does the Minister agree that there are currently too many degrees which contribute to neither growth nor positive outcomes?
Although the noble Earl did not revert to the language that some of his colleagues have used about university degrees, I share the view that, if we are expecting both young people and the state to invest in higher education, it needs to be of high quality. That is why I support the Office for Students in its current work to have a better definition of “quality” for higher education courses and why we have made it clear that we will want to link future increases in tuition fees to that measure of quality.