OF the nearly 200 reports from the government and quangos last year, the most depressing one, with the quaint title of FE and Skills Actionable Agenda, was published just before Christmas.
It is meant to be a forward-thinking, confident document demonstrating how the government is going to invest in the future.
However, to those who have followed the skills debate over the past two decades, it is simply proof that we have failed to get to grips with one of the most important issues dragging down our economy and disadvantaging our children and even adults. How come it looks as though they are just getting around to it after so much damage has already been done through lack of action?
There are a lot of good things to say about Jersey’s education system and we have always punched a little above our weight when it comes to secondary education, and perhaps primary too, although this is no longer guaranteed. We have also recently made some progress with higher and further education, and institutions such as the Digital Academy are beginning to make their mark, and you can even get legal training locally, of course. Highlands also does a much better job than it is sometimes credited for but it could do so much more with a little more money and enthusiasm from the government.
But it now looks as though we are starting from scratch with the FE and Skills Actionable Agenda when we should be well down the road of solving our skills issues. The agenda highlights the need to get what the authors call ‘consolidated’ funding in place to help Islanders develop new skills throughout their working life. But it is more like an admission of failure to have got the skills agenda right up to now, despite years of work and debate. We can only hope that our competitors have been as slow.
Once again, this highlights how the rest of the economy suffers while the all-important financial services industry is able to encourage innovation, sometimes with the help of the government, even though it does not need input from public servants or support from the taxpayer.
At about the same time that the skills report was being published, Jersey Finance revealed that it had a working party from all sides of the industry looking at solutions to international substance requirements for local finance firms. The best option was thought to be the ‘tokenisation’ of sensitive data, which one JFL expert said showed how Jersey would be able to innovate and ‘stay ahead of the curve’.
This example is not directly related to the provision of skills but it shows how the whole finance industry can get together to solve a problem which will benefit the economy without too much fuss. Other employers in our economy do not seem to be able to do that, certainly not without a lead from government, something which has so far been largely absent, particularly where skills are concerned.
The skills agenda may help us catch up, although there is much more to do than is set out in the paper produced by the population and skills ministerial group. The whole direction of the economy is one small detail, and then targets should be set for productivity growth which will come through innovation, which brings us back to skills.
As Deputy Inna Gardiner, the Minister for Children and Education, pointed out, the Island requires people ‘who have the skills we need to keep the economy healthy’. She added: ‘This isn’t just about providing an option for technical and professional education as an alternative to A-levels or IB. We must make sure that Islanders can keep learning after the age of 18; that they can build on what they know, develop new skills or change careers.’
That is succinctly put but we have all known that for years, and so now we need to get down to specifics, something on which the new Economy Department is obviously working without revealing much. That’s a pity because there is going to have to be a debate about it, and it’s better that takes place sooner rather than later otherwise we could be waiting for another five to ten years before anything much happens.
That brings us again to the mysterious Economic Council which gets a mention in the skills paper. The work of the Economic Council, published two years ago, contains ‘worthwhile strategies’, according to the skills group, although unfortunately it doesn’t elaborate, except to warn against strategy without action.
If anyone can remember the report, they will probably identify some useful strategies for growing the economy, although there were also some not-very-well-thought-out ones too. It would be good to know what our government thinks about this rarely discussed report, and whether it intends to follow at least some of it. It would also be good to know whether the council even continues to exist or has finished producing the answers.
The details of the skills action agenda will undoubtedly be discussed keenly, particularly as some of the actions are urgent. As far as investment is concerned, the paper largely calls for the re-allocation of existing funds into a skills fund, although some new money will be needed, particularly for the Highlands campus which apparently is no longer fit for purpose. That might even be an opportunity to seriously think about a whole new university, which some Islanders believe could be a great economic success. Such a move would emulate other very small jurisdictions such as Gibraltar and Monaco.
However, it would indeed be a bold and expensive move. In other words, just what we need to get us out of our current torpor.
