The Science Council hosted a training seminar in Portcullis House on Monday 17th March in partnership with the Parliamentary Outreach Service. Attended by more than 60 people from across a diverse range of professional bodies, learned societies, higher education and charities, the seminar provided individuals with policy and public affairs responsibilities an opportunity to recognise how they can improve their or­ganisation’s contribution to Parliamentary inquiries and Select Committees’ scrutiny of Government sci­ence policy.

Christopher Clarke, clerk of the House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee spoke about the work of Select Committees, and the process by which they choose their inquiries. Lord Willis, the former Chair of the House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee provided attendees with some valuable insight into the role of the Select Committee chair and gave advice and recommendations on how science organisations can make better use of Committee inquiries to articulate policy concerns. At­tendees also took part in a mock evidence session using the 2009 swine flu pandemic as a case study to experience first-hand how Parliamentarians and witnesses approach oral evidence sessions.

Both speakers were keen to impress on attendees that when submitting written evidence it needs to be relevant, evidence-based, offers policy solutions and takes into account current public policy debates and concerns. The seminar was followed by a drinks and networking reception. An evaluation will take place and a report will be sent to Members in due course. 

Crossing the digital skills gap: embedding digital skills in education and the wider economy
A roundtable discussion was held at the Science Council’s CEO Forum with former Tomorrow’s World presenter Maggie Philbin, who has been asked by Labour leader Ed Miliband to head up a Digital Skills Taskforce. The Taskforce is looking to identify current digital skills gaps, and the digital skills needs of both the existing and future UK workforce. Ms Philbin emphasised that the Taskforce was keen to identify how the UK can develop a digital skills ‘ecosystem’ that meets the demands of students and industry, ra­ther than place digital skills in discipline silos.

Discussion focused around the need to embed digital and IT skills across all science disciplines, encour­aging more women into tech-industries, and supporting continuous professional development across the whole science workforce to ensure digital skills are kept current.

The Science Council will continue to engage with the Taskforce over the coming months and Members will be alerted when the Taskforce’s consultation is announced. The Science Council will continue to con­tribute to this process and invites Members to forward case studies which demonstrate the relevance and importance of high-quality digital skills within their own discipline and across all of science, both in re­search and its applications. If you have any case studies that you think the Taskforce would find useful please forward them to Oliver O’Hanlon.

International STEM Students inquiry
The Science Council and Member Bodies responded to the House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee inquiry on International STEM students. The Committee is continuing with its inquiry and is currently taking oral evidence. Thank you to all Members who contributed to the response. If any Mem­bers who submitted a response would like it included on the Science Council website please forward them to Oliver O’Hanlon.

Schools and Education
The Education Secretary Michael Gove made a speech on the future of vocational education, stating his aim to close the “artificial and damaging division between the academic and the practical” and ensure that practical, technical and vocational learning is integrated with academic education. He also challenged businesses to take on apprentices now that the “unnecessary bureaucratic box-ticking has gone” with the Trailblazers providing the blueprint for employer engagement.   

The Prince’s Trust has published a proposal document for a new College of Teaching. Serving a similar function to existing Royal Colleges or professional bodies, the College would support the profession by championing teachers’ professional development. Professional standards would be established with refer­ence to existing Chartered Teacher and Qualified Teacher schemes.

Higher Education  
A PA Consulting Group report, ‘The Student Deal’ argues that student experience and satisfaction metrics such as KIS data sets “appear to have little influence on students’ choices between providers, and even less on their learning outcomes or subsequent employment success”. The report says that the recent view of the relationship between student as ’consumer’ and provider does not appreciate the long-term benefits that students should expect from their personal investment in higher education. It calls for a re­think of the student experience, moving beyond one that primarily relies on measurements of teaching and study time to one that provides a “multifaceted and joined-up portfolio of co-curricular and extra-curricular learning experiences.”

A report from the Office for Fair Access claims that while students from disadvantaged backgrounds have the lowest expected rates of continuation in higher education, there is no evidence to suggest that bursa­ries have a positive impact on whether these students continue their studies. The report states that prior attainment is a better measure of future study.

The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a summary of the current status of higher education legislation proposed in the June 2011 White Paper, ‘Students at the Heart of the System’. The summary says that given the reforms that have taken place in higher education in recent years’, new legislation is likely to be necessary eventually.

An Office for Fair Trading report has suggested that some universities may be breaching consumer pro­tection legislation as a result of not providing students with sufficient information about their courses, in­cluding tuition fees, course content and contact hours. While the sector is working well for the majority of students there is concern that ‘government-endorsed’ websites are not as accurate and comprehensive as they might be. It concludes by saying that “that there is a need for substantive reform to the regulatory environment in order to make it better suited for a sector increasingly defined by choice and competition”.

Apprenticeship Week 2014
The Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock MP announced a cull of nearly 5,000 courses and qualifications from 2014/15 deemed to be “under-used and low value”. In future qualifications must demonstrate that they are rigorous and support progression into further study or employment, and in the case of some qualifications, such as the Tech Level qualifications this must include recognition from em­ployers.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Skills Funding Agency have published their Skills Funding Statement for 2013- 2016. It says that apprenticeships remain the government’s top priority and that “funding will continue to be prioritised to encourage increased take up and availability of Appren­ticeships.” Between 2013/14 and 2015/16 the skills budget will fall by 5%. Within this, the Adult Skills Budget will fall by nearly 20% and skills infrastructure spending will fall by 57% - which includes the pro­motion and development of the Apprenticeship Programme, including Higher Apprenticeships - but the National Careers Service budget will increase by 3.5%. 

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Education have published a joint report providing guidance for Trailblazers, the groups of employers, professional bodies and training providers working together to design new Apprenticeship standards. The guidance document says that professional bodies will play an important part in ensuring that Trailblazers achieve their potential be­cause completion of an Apprenticeship will allow an individual to achieve professional registration, in oc­cupations where that is available.

The third report from the Independent Skills Taskforce chaired by Professor Chris Husbands has called for the introduction of a National Baccalaureate Level 3 qualification for all pupils leaving upper secondary education. In order to improve the “efficiency, effectiveness, and usability of our 14-19 qualifications and curriculum” an overarching National Baccalaureate within which either a technical or a general qualifica­tion would be available.  The report also advocates for Local Enterprise Partnerships to take the lead on ensuring delivery of careers information services which would reflect the local and regional labour market but would be set against a set of broad national standards. 

A speech from shadow University, Science and Skills minister Liam Byrne set out further the Labour Par­ty’s approach to apprenticeships and skills, including a ’gold standard’ technical qualification, increasing the number of high-quality apprenticeships, and raising the standard of apprenticeships and vocation routes to enable young people who take on apprenticeships to progress to university-level education.

Other reports

A CBI report, ‘Engineering the Future’ has called for greater progress to be made on improving vocational education pathways, in particular apprenticeships, which are seen as a key to long-term solution to ad­dress the shortage of technician shortages. The report says that apprenticeships are an important way of bringing new staff into skilled technician roles, because “skilled technicians are often the most pressing area of shortage for firms”, but retraining the existing workforce is also an option worthy of consideration.

The Royal Society’s report on the diversity of the scientific workforce has called for an improvement in the link between different data sets so that tracking young people through education and their career path­ways is simplified. The analysis of the scientific workforce builds on the Science Council’s own 2011 re­search, and similarly recognises that scientists can be found in all sectors of the economy.

An independent review of the Voluntary Code for Executive Search Firms, as part of Lord Davies’s ‘Women on Boards’ report series has found that good progress has been made and the Code has “effectively captured and articulated good practice”. In January 2014 women accounted for 20.4% of FTSE 100 and 15.1% of FTSE 250 Board members respectively; up from 12.5% and 7.8% respectively in February 2011. However, it says that more transparency is required from search firms and businesses about the recruitment and appointment process if Lord Davies’s target of 25% by in 2015 is to be realised.

Science and Industry
The Universities and Science Minister David Willetts made a speech launching a UK Charter for Science and Society. The Charter is a collaborative project between the science community, business, education, media and civil society groups and aims to show a commitment to common aims such as aiming to achieve a science workforce that reflects the diversity of society, and ensure better engagement on sci­ence, research, technology & engineering and their application between all sectors of society.  

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published the science and research budget alloca­tions for 2015-16. The overall science budget in 2015-16 will be £5.8 billion, made up of £4.7 billion for research and £1.1 billion for capital spending. Capital spending has been set at £1.1 billion per annum until 2021, and for the first time the Department will be contributing nearly £500,000 to the Academy of Medical Sciences. This will not reduce funding to other National Academies.

The Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna MP spoke at the EEF Manufacturing Dinner stating that it will be a priority for the next Labour government to invest in the UK’s science base, develop a national innovation system and build on the current roles of the Technology Strategy Board and Catapult Centres.

The Labour peer Lord Adonis employers’ survey has found that skills shortages, especially technical roles and apprenticeships are the most “significant barrier to growth” with 60% of businesses citing this reason. Businesses in high-tech sectors were found to be most affected by skills shortages, and in particular sec­tors where a high proportion of technical occupations existed.  The survey also found that government support for R&D and innovation was considered to be unsuited to smaller businesses.

Other News  
Sir Drummond Bone has been appointed the next chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council succeeding Sir Alan Wilson. He took up his post in February 2014. 

The Immigration Bill went to the Committee stage in the House of Lords on 10th March. An Amendment proposed by Lord Hannay of Chiswick to exempt international students from restrictions on access to bank accounts, tenancies and a range of other services was defeated.