Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Rejected
DfE has not made clear what level of performance would constitute success for its skills...
Recommendation
DfE has not made clear what level of performance would constitute success for its skills programmes. DfE ultimately relies on measuring learners’ subsequent earnings as a proxy for the value of government-funded skills training and the extent to which that training meets the needs of the labour market. The FE Skills Index is DfE’s key indicator of the impact of the FE system on productivity, focusing on adult learners and apprentices who have successfully completed their training. DfE calculates the Index by measuring changes in the number of learners and achievement rates, and shifts in the mix of learning towards more or less economically valuable training, based on earnings. Overall, the Index fell by 46% between 2012/13 and 2020/21, although the annual change in 2020/21 was an increase of 7%. DfE has not set a target for the level that it would like the Index to reach in future years. Recommendation: DfE should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, what level of improvement in the FE Skills Index it is aiming to achieve and by when, so Parliament has metrics with which to monitor its performance.
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation that DfE should set out what level of improvement in the FE Skills Index it is aiming to achieve and by when.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
2.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 2.2 The department advises against using the FE Skills Index as a sole indicator to measure performance. The department publishes the FE Skills Index annually – estimating how the economic value added by the 19+ FE and Skills system changes over time. 2.3 This is influenced by a range of factors including the number of achievements at different levels and in different subjects, and their associated earnings returns. It is not intended to be a timely measure for evaluating specific policy changes. The department believes that stipulating an arbitrary target level of improvement for this index would not be a valuable measure of performance and could create issues about achievability. 2.4 Instead, the department continues to develop a comprehensive framework of performance metrics, including system-level measures, such as participation in FE and skills training by adults aged 19 and over, and measures for individual programmes, such as the number of apprenticeship starts. The most recent set of metrics for 2022-23 defines what performance level would constitute success for individual programmes. The department also uses FE Outcome Based Success Measures (OBSM) to measure performance, using Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) data to show the percentage of FE learners progressing to other learning or employment in the academic year after achieving their learning aim. 2.5 Progress against this framework is tracked and published as part of the department’s 16 Outcome Delivery Plan. Together, an increase in these metrics will help to show the impact of skills programmes.