The Economy
All three parties talked about the ‘race to the top’, with Labour backing an industrial policy focusing on “growth sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean technology and the creative industries”; the Conservatives stressing the need to adapt to rapid global technological change which unless tackled “spells rapid decline for any country that fails to keep up”; and the Liberal Dem­ocrats’ arguing for their vision of a “knowledge-based, outward looking and green” economy.

Apprenticeships
A key policy area for all three Parties.  As one of its ‘six national goals’ Labour announced its ambition to have as many young people taking on apprenticeships as going to university by 2025, with the ambition of making apprenticeships last two years. La­bour also reiterated its long-standing pledge to award government contracts only to companies that provide apprenticeship oppor­tunities for young people.  The Conservatives followed with the announcement of an additional 3 million apprenticeships in the 2015-2020 Parliament, which would be funded by capping working age benefits. In a fringe meeting chair of the House of Com­mons Education Committee, Conservative MP Graham Stuart stated that apprenticeships should be “income transformative” and deliver genuine salary change. The following week at the Liberal Democrat conference, the Business Secretary Vince Cable called for more degree level advanced apprenticeships to “end the false apartheid between academic and vocational education”. He also proposed raising the minimum wage for 16-17 year old apprentices in work and in first year apprenticeship programmes by £1.

There were a number of fringe events on apprenticeships and training. While the Government’s increased commitment to apprenticeships was largely welcomed, there were many people at all the conferences who raised questions about the quality of apprenticeship provision.  Anecdotal evidence of poor quality or low grade apprenticeships that were not completed, did not result in qualifications or did not offer routes to employment was raised at all three conferences in several different events.  The Retail Consortium (among others) put up a robust defence of the programme saying that the schemes could and did provide routes to employment and training for those with no formal qualifications. Sir John Armitt (now Chair of City and Guilds) suggested that subsidising businesses to fund apprenticeships was not effective (it was small beer and made relatively little difference to their bottom line) and the funding should be invested instead in schools and colleges where it would provide a significant boost ena­bling them to develop the capacity to get students ready with the right skills for employment. 

Schools and Education
Labour set out its three main education priorities: “childcare reform; a world-class teacher in every classroom; an education system that works for the forgotten 50 per cent” to mend what Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt called in a fringe meeting a “fractured landscape in terms of school provision”.  For the ‘forgotten 50%’ a vocational system to rival Germany is the answer, according to Hunt, with better technical education in the form of a technical baccalaureate. Further education colleges will be asked to focus on skills and training for local labour markets, and Directors of School Standards in every school would help to “reintroduce the elements of partnership and collaboration and challenge between and amongst schools”.

The Conservative Education Secretary Nicky Morgan talked about the “Schools revolution”, and set out her priorities: more good schools, ensuring the best teaching workforce, rigorous academic standards, and developing “student character, resilience, grit”. She suggested that the Conservatives would continue with the English Baccalaureate, and was confident the Technical Baccalau­reate would provide a means of delivering “a high-quality technical qualification combines with the skills of an academic core” to keep young people’s options open.  She announced further plans for 35 new free schools, and during a fringe meeting called for further expansion of free schools, academies, University Technical Colleges and studio schools.

In a fringe meeting Graham Stuart MP expressed his concern that the introduction of the English Baccalaureate had been “rushed” and that the attainment gap between pupils on Free School Meals and others was an issue that needed to be tackled. Mr. Stuart also expressed concern about the Government’s lack of coherence in its vocational education policy, citing a lack of a cohesive framework and pathways into further education, training or employment.

The Liberal Democrats announced a “new commitment to a qualified teacher in every classroom” and for an expansion of community adult education.

Higher Education
Few new formal announcements this year on higher education policy.   At the Science Council’s fringe event, shadow Universities Minister Liam Byrne said that higher education funding policy needed to be reappraised as many young people are being put off by potentially large-scale debt (Universities UK has been keen to stress student funding as one of three key areas for an incoming government).  He also commented that higher education institutions would need to better support their regional economy, and that he would open up vocational routes that can lead to higher level study, for example apprenticeships that provide routes to university.

Local and Regional Devolution
The Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls called into question the ‘omnipotence’ of central government by asking, “why should decisions on what skills Manchester needs be made in Whitehall?” Chancellor George Osborne followed suit by reiterating his desire to create a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ through investment in high speed transport, successful businesses and “big science investments” as key components.  Business Secretary Vince Cable continued the theme by calling for local government to play a greater role in financing local and regional “productive investment in transport, housing and innovation.”  Cabinet Ministers William Hague and Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles suggested that moves towards greater local autonomy would not mean introducing new regional tiers of government or local government reorganisation.

On the fringe there were many events debating the role of LEPs and regional, local autonomy. Many (perhaps a majority) were skeptical of the LEPs’ capacity and calibre in terms of leadership in developing their regional economies, though always qualified with the comment that some were better than others.  Business leaders in particular seemed to be skeptical about the capacity for LEPs to be custodians of the local economy; whether they were efficient or too complex; that it was sometimes impossible to see how business could really be involved; that small and emerging sectors seem to be outside the thinking; that decisions and invest­ment decisions were very often not well informed and more ‘me too’ copies of what others were doing or had done previously. “LEPs need to recruit from a wider gene pool of talent” suggested one politician.              

Science Council Fringe Events  
The Science Council hosted fringe events across all three Party Conferences. The events, titled ‘Creating jobs and wealth frominvestment in science and innovation: ensuring everyone benefits’ were held in partnership with the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Society of Biology.  Party speakers included Liam Byrne MP, shadow Universities, Science and Skills Minister; George Freeman MP, Minister for Life Sciences; and Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Apprenticeships and the Government’s Apprenticeship Ambassador.  The events brought together members of the science community with party members, activists and others from across the science community.  Over­all the fringe events were well attended, with full houses at the Labour Party and Liberal Democrat Conferences. 

Liam Byrne flagged up the need to create more high-skilled, high-paid STEM jobs and discussion identified that this could be a way of measuring the impact of investment in science and innovation: he was concerned that so many in society appeared to be missing out and there was a need to reconnect the disadvantaged with opportunity – science would be a great way to do this.  At later events the idea of aiming for 25% of all jobs being high-value STEM jobs might be a reasonable medium-term target serving to show how science can benefit the whole community.  A number of key policy areas emerged across all three events including the need to re-evaluate the current model for commercialisation of research and technology transfer; the importance of the techni­cian workforce; Government procurement policy; and the need for greater emphasis on non-traditional and non-academic science jobs; calls to provide more intelligent and longer term financing for spin-outs;  investment in research aimed at achieving a low-carbon economy was also identified as a way of showing how science benefits the wider community; the importance of specialist teachers in science; the need for the UK to keep step with competitors in terms of R&D investment; and for the science communi­ty to recognise that government funding for science is taxpayers’ money and as a community to engage more with the public about why such funding is important and to marshal a broadly based consensus. Everyone called for the science community to bat collectively for science in the spending review Representatives from the arts and humanities sectors were vocal at the Labour and Liberal fringes making the case for non-STEM research investment.

Other Science Fringe Events
Notwithstanding the Science Council’s events, science focused fringe events appeared to be in fewer supply than in previous years. Among those hosting fringe events included other Member Bodies of the Science Council: BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT; the British Psychological Society; and the Royal Statistical Society.  The Royal Society co-hosted private roundtable discus­sions with the National Academies and Diana Garnham attended sessions at the Labour and Conservative conferences. Among issues raised was the need to link up with social sciences, calls for reform in technology transfer and for HE to emphasis entre­preneurship alongside STEM, support for engaging with SMEs and not just speaking to the big science based industries, the need for the science community to be aware of the wider user community such as local and regional government and their needs to serve local communities (for example in addressing health inequalities). The Royal Society also hosted a fringe event on the sub­ject of whether everyone can do maths and science. The Campaign for Science and Engineering partnered with the union Pro­spect to host a fringe event on realising the potential of a more diverse STEM workforce.

Education and Skills Fringe Events
There was a strong focus in the fringe events across all three conferences on education from a wide range of organisations.  Last year a large number of fringe events focused on apprenticeships and vocational education policy.  This year however, despite the political parties focusing strongly on apprenticeships many of the fringe events relating to the skills and education agenda focused on schools and higher education policy: Social Market Foundation & GuildHE (Robbins Rebooted: the future of higher education); Policy Exchange (What is the next stage of the Conservatives’ schools revolution?); and Million+ and NUS (A new deal for stu­dents and universities: will Labour deliver?).