How Lancashire plans to help locals improve their job prospects - and supply businesses with the skills they need

That is one of the ways in which the county will use new powers coming its way later this year when it gains local control over its share of the Adult Skills Fund (ASF).

Lancashire’s devolution deal will see responsibility for administration of the £40.8m cash pot pass from central government to the Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) in August.

The organisation has now agreed the changes it will make as part of that shift in an attempt to better benefit the 36,000 people supported by the ASF in the county each year, many of whom are unemployed and below ‘Level 3’ on the qualification scale – meaning they do not have A-Levels or an advanced apprenticeship.

The amendments include setting aside an initial £100k from the budget to fund £200 payments to providers for each person they refer to the ‘Connect to Work’ or ‘Skills Bootcamps’ programmes, the latter of which includes a guaranteed job interview upon completion.

Dr. Michele Lawty-Jones, director of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub – which is part of the LCCA – said it was important to see “progression” for learners and to “improve employment outcomes” via the ASF.

She was speaking at a recent LCCA meeting during which it was decided how the county would deploy the “flexibilities” surrounding adult skills support offered by devolution.

Grant-funded adult education providers in Lancashire will receive the same amounts in 2026/27 as they have done in the final year of the current Department for Education-controlled arrangement, in order to ensure stability.

However, the LCCA gathering heard that grant investment plans would be used to “nudge and shift” the provision on offer in line with the priorities set out in Lancashire’s strategic skills plan, which was approved by the combined authority last year.

That document identified the county’s “priority occupations” as being within the digital, manufacturing and engineering, health and social care, construction, hospitality, leisure and tourism, transport and distribution, farming and agriculture, and international trade sectors.

Under the new locally-led system, three percent of each provider’s grant will be ringfenced to test so-called “innovative delivery” of adult skills courses to see what works best.

The LCCA meeting was told that such an approach could be harnessed to try to engage more of the county’s 19-24-year-olds, only “a small percentage” of whom currently access ASF support.

The skills plan noted the need for the ASF to help not just those who are out of work, but also the employed who might require a skills boost in order to further their careers. The new local arrangements will also ensure ASF assistance is offered to anyone who has been placed under “formal redundancy consultation”, regardless of how much they earn in their under-threat job role.

Meanwhile, the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub plans to reduce what it describes as the “long tail” of more than 200 adult education providers serving Lancashire, many of which are based beyond the county’s borders and make only a small contribution to overall capacity.

However, residents living on the county’s fringes will still be able to request Lancashire ASF support to attend courses in neighbouring local government areas.

Following the transfer of adult skills powers from Whitehall, Lancashire will also pay providers only for activity that they actually deliver - a reversal of the current situation whereby the Department for Education allows them to keep 100 percent of their funding for 97 percent delivery.

The LCCA resolved that the vast majority of the soon-to-be-devolved ASF budget – £31.6m – should go in grant allocations to providers, while £5.7m will be used for targeted procurement exercises that will ”address gaps” in “priority sectors and groups”.

Just over £1m will be put aside to cover the cost of managing the new localised set-up, which the LCCA was told was “essential" to ensure the area's newly-devolved responsibilities were discharged properly.

Control over adult skills formed a key part of the Lancashire devolution deal which was struck with the last Conservative government just over two years ago and rubber-stamped by the Labour administration in September 2024.

Mind the skills gap

It is forecast that there will be a major shift in the skills required by Lancashire employers by the middle of the next decade.

The county’s 55,000 businesses employ around 640,000 people. However, over the 20 years between 2015 and 2035, the number in post-graduate occupations - Levels 7 and 8 on the qualification scale - is projected to double.

Meanwhile, the numbers boasting an undergraduate degree - Level 6 - are projected to increase by more than half, as are those with Level 4 qualifications like higher apprenticeships and higher national certificates.

In contrast, employment at entry level, with no particular skills, and within Levels 1 and 2 - respectively, GCSEs at grades 3 and below and 4 and above - will fall, with Level 1 almost halving during the same period that the highest level qualifications will need to double.

Nevertheless, according to the Lancashire strategic skills plan, the individual occupations with the greatest annual vacancy demand in Lancashire will still tend to be at Level 2 and below - because of the high turnover in those jobs. It adds that many of those roles, which have “lower barriers to entry”, are precisely the sort into which the ASF can help assist the unemployed.

The main aims of the fund - set at a national level - are to support those without Level 3 qualifications, such as A-Levels, to “upskill and reskill”; help those out of work with the skills needed to access employment; and to deliver English, Maths and Digital as essential and foundational “skills for life”.

However, through devolution, the county will also take control of £2.9m in funding for the Free Courses for Jobs offer, which gives access to Level 3 qualifications - both for the unemployed and those who earn below a certain salary.

Nationally, that wage threshold is set at £25,750 a year, but, using its devolved ASF flexibilities, the LCCA has approved raising the maximum wage below which fully-funded Level 3 qualifications can be accessed to £29,431 - the median Lancashire salary. It is estimated that 50,000 more people will be eligible for that type of support as a result.

In its skills plan, Lancashire also envisages the ASF providing “pathways for adult learners to acquire the technical skills at Level 4 and above that the Lancashire economy needs now and in future”.

A range of ‘Access to Higher Education’ programmes will aim to give adults “a second chance” at achieving qualifications at that level - including by laying out “clear curriculum routes” to help individuals progress from Level 3.

Going up - level…?

There are 9 qualification levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland:

Entry level (sub-levels 1-3)

• entry level award;
• entry level certificate (ELC);
• entry level diploma;
• entry level English for speakers of other languages (ESOL);
• entry level essential skills;
• entry level functional skills;
• Skills for Life.

Level 1

• GCSE - grades 3, 2 1 or grades D, E, F G;
• first certificate;
• level 1 award;
• level 1 certificate;
• level 1 diploma;
• level 1 ESOL;
• level 1 essential skills;
• level 1 functional skills;
• level 1 national vocational qualification (NVQ);
• music grades 1, 2 and 3/

Level 2

• GCSE - grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or grades A*, A, B, C;
• CSE grade 1;
• intermediate apprenticeship;
• level 2 award;
• level 2 certificate;
• level 2 diploma;
• level 2 ESOL;
• level 2 essential skills;
• level 2 functional skills;
• level 2 national certificate;
• level 2 national diploma;
• level 2 NVQ;
• music grades 4 and 5;
• O level - grade A, B or C.

Level 3

• A-Level;
• access to higher education diploma;
• advanced apprenticeship;
• applied general;
• AS level;
• international Baccalaureate diploma;
• level 3 award;
• level 3 certificate;
• level 3 diploma;
• level 3 ESOL;
• level 3 national certificate;
• level 3 national diploma;
• level 3 NVQ;
• music grades 6, 7 and 8;
• T-Level;
• tech level.

Level 4

• certificate of higher education (CertHE);
• higher apprenticeship;
• higher national certificate (HNC);
• level 4 award;
• level 4 certificate;
• level 4 diploma;
• level 4 NVQ.

Level 5

• diploma of higher education (DipHE);
• foundation degree;
• higher national diploma (HND);
• level 5 award;
• level 5 certificate;
• level 5 diploma;
• level 5 NVQ.

Level 6

• degree with honours;
• ordinary degree without honours;
• degree apprenticeship;
• graduate diploma;
• level 6 award;
• level 6 certificate;
• level 6 diploma;
• level 6 NVQ.

Level 7

• integrated master’s degree, such as master of engineering (MEng);
• master’s degree, such as master of arts (MA), master of science (MSc);
• level 7 award;
• level 7 certificate;
• level 7 diploma;
• level 7 NVQ;
• postgraduate certificate;
• postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE);
• postgraduate diploma.

Level 8

• doctorate, such as doctor of philosophy (PhD or DPhil);
• level 8 award;
• level 8 certificate;
• level 8 diploma.

Source: gov.uk