CMI RESPONSE TO THE INDEPENDENT PANEL REPORT TO THE REVIEW OF POST-18 EDUCATION AND FUNDING BY PHILIP AUGAR:

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the chartered professional body for management and leadership responding to the Augar Review on Post-18 Education and funding said:

Steve Heapey Director of Partner Engagement of the Chartered Management Institute said:

The CMI welcomes the ambition shown in the Augar Review to help the 50 per cent of young people and older non-graduates who do not participate in Higher Education. In addition we welcome the holistic view (the first since Robbins in 1963) of tertiary education and ambition for a strong, well funded and organised FE college sector, working alongside HE to deliver the skills that employers need to boost productivity.

Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds

The Augar Review correctly acknowledges record numbers of young people; and particularly those young people from disadvantaged backgrounds now entering higher education, and on this basis we need a stronger technical and vocational education system at sub-degree levels to meet the structural skills shortages that are contributing to the UK's weak productivity performance.

Life-long allowance

The idea of introducing a lifelong loan allowance is welcomed to be used at higher technical and degree level at any stage of an adult's career for full and part-time students.

Funding reform

CMI supports the view that the key and distinctive role played by the 1,179 private sector training providers play in a market based approach to the delivery of non-advanced vocational training including apprenticeship, including to learners who are disadvantaged or have additional needs, which has characterised government policy for the last 30 years. CMI also welcome’s the funding reforms to deliver credit based flexibility so everyone can improve their skills throughout their lives.

Social mobility

CMI data shows that management apprenticeships are boosting social mobility, with just over 2 in 5 apprentices coming from the poorer parts of the UK, this confidence boost is crucial to ensuring diversity of opportunity within the workforce.

When employers are looking to employ an apprentice, the key question they ask is ‘will the apprenticeship develop the skills we need?’ Rather than playing with semantics, the focus of the apprenticeship programme needs to be on encouraging investment in those skills which employers are calling for and which the economy needs. This includes management skills. Recent Chartered Management Institute (CMI) research shows that 51% of UK Senior and Middle managers believe the country will need greater investment in skills post-Brexit.

4 in 5 existing managers are untrained, and 71% of firms admit that they fail to offer management training to first-time managers. This “accidental manager” syndrome is a key factor in the UK’s poor productivity performance, which currently stands at 16% lower than the rest of the G7. According to Bank of England and OECD analysis, poor management and leadership is one of the major factors affecting the productivity gap. Investors in People revealed that poor leadership and management costs the UK economy £84bn a year in lower productivity.