Government Skills
From Whitehall and Westminster World, 15 December 2008
Chief Executive of Government Skills, Andrew McDonald, tells Daisy Ayliffe why 2008 provided a springboard for the skills strategy for central government, and why 2009 is set to be more exciting still.
Our political leaders constantly remind us that skills play a vital part in enabling the UK economy to meet the demands of the global marketplace. But while the government is keen to highlight the importance of us all getting appropriately skilled, it is also working hard to keep its own house in order. That means making sure all civil servants also have an optimal skills mix. This year has seen a step-change in government's approach to skilling its staff, as chief executive of Government Skills, Andrew McDonald, explains.
“This year the first ever skills strategy for government was approved and launched at the Civil Service Live event,” he says.
“The strategy commits leaders in the civil service and armed forces to work together on common skills issues. It sets out a programme of work which will provide staff with clearer professional career paths, improved access to development and improved mobility prospects.”
The strategy was developed by McDonald's team, Government Skills, the sector skills council for central government and the armed forces. They teamed up with HR leads, heads of professions and permanent secretaries across government to deliver the strategy in April this year.
McDonald says its launch means that 2008 will be remembered as the year when the civil service seized upon skills opportunities in earnest. “We realised that we had to harness the skills agenda if we were going to raise the quality of public services and respond to ministerial ambitions,” he explains.
“Skills are critical to all employers and the civil service is no exception. The public rightly expects us to do more with less. In order to retain the public's trust and confidence and deliver ever-improving services, we must use our talents to the full.”
The first fruits of labour on the skills strategy have started to appear since its inception in spring. “Take the Government Skills National Apprenticeship Pathfinder scheme,” McDonald explains. “We hoped to have 500 civil servants on the Pathfinder by October. In the event, we had far more than 1,000 applications.”
The scheme offers training that leads to recognised qualifications including NVQs in areas as diverse as management, customer service, IT, catering and accountancy, and staff from a wide range of roles are taking part, working for organisations as diverse as the UK Borders Agency, Cabinet Office and the Driving Standards Agency. Nearly 100 apprentices participating in the scheme came together to meet each other, ministers and permanent secretaries at a launch event organised by Government Skills in October.
“The launch of the Apprenticeship Pathfinder was a real high point of the year for me,” McDonald continues. “Meeting those taking part, I was really struck by their enthusiasm to learn and raise their skill levels. One apprentice from the Driving Standards Agency really stood out. Like all of us, he has skills needs, but what struck me was just how clear he was that he was going to take the opportunity to better serve the agency he works for,” McDonald adds.
Also at the launch were apprentices and staff from the Civil Service West Midlands project – a programme focused on improving the culture, identity and brand of the civil service in the region.
“We are working closely with CSWM and the regional civil service programme in England so that we can maximise the use of apprenticeships in the regions as well as in central government in London,” explains McDonald. “I really think the growth of apprenticeships in government will prove to be one of the most exciting aspects of 2009.”
As Government Skills looks forward to 2009, staff know big challenges lie ahead. “If we are going to be effective at driving forward this agenda in the year ahead, we need to get best value for money right across the sector,” McDonald says. “To do that, there are two big challenges. Firstly, we will have to procure learning and development services more efficiently – working in collaboration across government - and secondly, we must create new relationships with universities and colleges.”
This means we can expect to see government departments working together more to buy learning and development services where they have common needs. This will allow government to get a better deal from its service providers. And for Government Skills, it will also mean working more closely with training providers, not least the National School of Government to ensure there is a good fit between their priorities and those of employers in the sector.
Improving relations with universities and colleges translates into encouraging academic institutions to equip students with the right skills to enter the public sector. “We need to make sure we are sending the right messages to our universities and colleges so as to encourage them to provide more of the right, cost effective training that we need, ” says McDonald.
But will the global economic slowdown make McDonald's ambitious agenda fiendishly difficult to implement in the year ahead? McDonald thinks not. “I think the economic context makes our work even more important,” he replies.
“You can see this in the messages that ministers are sending out to all parts of the economy about the need for us to retain our focus on skills levels. It is as relevant to us as public sector workers as it is to anyone else working in the UK.”
“I am terribly optimistic about this agenda,” he continues. “There has not been such a focus on skills for more than 100 years. There is a really strong ministerial commitment on this agenda right across the UK and I expect to see significant progress on skills in 2009 and beyond.”
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