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Iain Murray

Iain Murray

Iain is TUC Senior Policy Officer responsible for policy on learning and skills, including training and lifelong learning; education policy including schools, further and higher education; regional government and devolution.

Web: http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk
  • Public services

    Free schools given another boost

    30th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    As with much of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the vast majority of the announcements on education, childcare and skills had already been trailed over the past week. The most controversial is the announcement that an extra £600M will be made available to establish 100 additional free schools in England over the coming three years, including a new type of specialist maths school for 16-18 year-olds. Another £600M will go to local authorities to help them create 40,000 additional school places to meet increased demand resulting from demographic change.

    While the additional funding for schools is welcome, the inequitable distribution of resources is one further reminder of the favourable treatment that free schools receive at the hands of government in comparison to local authority schools.  

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  • Working Life

    More talk of apprentices – stony silence on EMA

    23rd March 2011 — Filed under: Working Life

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    One of the few positives in the Budget was the announcement that there is going to be additional funding to boost the number of apprenticeships.  An extra £180M has been allocated “for up to 50,000 additional apprenticeship places over the next four years”. Forty thousand of these opportunities will be focused on young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) with an expectation that many of them will access an apprenticeship by progressing from the expanded work experience programme. The remaining 10,000 new opportunities are for higher level apprenticeships in SMEs.

    Welcome as it is, the further boost to apprenticeships will have relatively little impact on the escalating rate of youth unemployment.  According to Anne Marie Carrie, Barnardo’s Chief Executive, “40,000 apprenticeships are a drop in the ocean [and] the government’s growth budget has left the most disadvantaged young people in the shade”.  There will also undoubtedly be question marks about the willingness of employers to recruit NEETs as apprentices and whether the work experience programme will provide the necessary support and training that such young people will require to prepare them for an apprenticeship.

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  • Working Life

    CSR 2010 and skills – adults take the hit

    20th October 2010 — Filed under: Working Life

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    The announcements on further education and skills in the comprehensive spending review indicate that, by and large, adult students and older employees will feel the brunt of cuts to provision. The apprenticeship programme aimed at young people is the clear winner with a commitment to fund an additional 75,000 places for people aged 19-25 at an extra annual cost of £250M by the end of the spending review (i.e. compared with the long-term plans of the previous government).

    There is also a more general commitment to fund an increase in all kinds of education and training provision for 16-19 year-olds, which includes those staying on at school and others attending college or taking up apprenticeships.  However, there is a sting in the tail for young people with the announcement that Education Maintenance Allowances, which provide means-tested financial support for 16-19 year-olds, will be replaced with ‘more targeted support’ that will result in a cut of half a billion pounds. 

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #15: Cuts to education and skills

    24th May 2010 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Education, Working Life

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    The main cuts to education and skills announced today comprise £200M from the higher education budget, £200M from the budget for the Train to Gain skills programme, and a range of ‘efficiency savings’ applied to skills quangos.

    The £200M cut to Train to Gain actually involves a refocusing of this expenditure on apprenticeships and college buildings rather than a direct cut. In effect this means that the overall cut to the BIS budget of £836M is in effect scaled back to £636M. Out of the £200M saving from Train to Gain, £150M will go to creating an additional 50,000 apprenticeships. The other £50M will go to supporting capital investment in colleges.

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  • Working Life

    Budget boost for education and training

    22nd April 2009 — Filed under: Working Life

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    In addition to the new jobs and training package for unemployed under-25s, the Budget included two other welcome initiatives that will help to counter unemployment by increasing education and training opportunities for young people.

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  • Society & Welfare

    Improving social mobility – are education and skills the answer?

    13th January 2009 — Filed under: Society & Welfare, Working Life

    Iain Murray Iain Murray

    The opening sentence in the Prime Minister’s foreword to the Social Mobility White Paper stresses that the new global economy requires an even greater investment in education and skills to support many more citizens to achieve their full potential. Crudely put, this argues that it is no longer possible for governments to tackle barriers to social mobility simply by improving levels of social protection.

    Fulfilling the potential of each and every citizen in the new global economy is writ large throughout the document and a quick word search finds 72 instances of the word potential.  Interestingly, the word inequality is only cited seven times!  But for much more on the relationship between social mobility and inequality – and the current political debate – see the two incisive posts today by Richard and Nicola.

    The focus on further reforms to education and skills as the answer to driving up social mobility dominates the White Paper. The bulk of the document is dedicated to the four key ‘learning phases’ that can have a significant impact on advancing social mobility – early learning and childcare, schools, immediate post-school destinations, and lifelong learning in the workplace.

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