Skills funding - a perfect storm?

With everyone now happy to use the ‘cut’ word what will be the future for funding for learning and training in the sector? Will our staff, volunteers and trustees be able to access government funding to gain the skills that will help them perform better? Will all those organisations that are funded to provide training suddenly see their contracts cut or their expected outputs increased with no extra money?
Ed Balls has said that even schools budgets are not safe http://tiny.cc/IXdue, and as schools and the learning needs of young people are foremost in the views of most politicians when it comes to education, this cannot bode well for the budgets for adult learning. What is more NCVO’s recent publication ‘The State and the Voluntary Sector’ http://tiny.cc/3GCU3 points out that employment and training organisations received over 70% of their income from statutory sources in 06/07, so cuts in funding could have a significantly higher impact on organisations working in this area. Finally the LSC is being split into a number of new agencies; and while the relationship between the sector and the LSC has sometimes been a little strained, there is no doubt that they did make a real effort to understand what we did and to facilitate the funding of learning by, and for, the sector in many ways. Whether the new agencies will have the ability, the freedom, the funding or the will to build on this remains to be seen.
So are we building towards a perfect storm for funding for learning and skills in the sector? What can we do to ensure that the learning continues? How can we ensure that staff and volunteer development budgets are not cut? The sector prides itself on its ability to adapt to new challenges and demands, surely now more than ever the investment we make in our greatest assets, those who work and volunteer in the sector, needs to be maximised.

Posted by skillsmark on 21 September 2009 12:04 PM