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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall be relatively brief. I want to raise one issue, which relates more to the White Paper than the Bill, but I believe it to be crucial to the success of the Bill in achieving its declared objectives. I understand that the declared objectives of the Bill are, first, to increase the employability of young people who have fallen through the net or who have, for one reason or another, missed out on the academic route, and, secondly, to increase equality. In my view, there is one golden key, one talisman, and one general skill that can do more than any other to achieve the Government’s two objectives, whatever specific subject a pupil may choose to study. As far as I can see, that skill is not mentioned either in the White Paper or in the Bill. It is the ability to get on with other people and to communicate effectively.The communication skills of reading, writing and numeracy are mentioned in the White Paper, butthere is no mention of the equally important skillsof listening, understanding, speaking clearly and effectively, making a presentation, negotiating to a mutually satisfactory conclusion without anger, learning to work as part of a team and perhaps sometimes to lead that team. Those skills are sometimes referred to as the soft skills, but they are not soft skills; they are the key skills. Many young people today who have lost out on the academic route have done so partly or wholly because of their inability to get on with their teachers or their peers. Sadly, many of them have done so because they did not get the chance to learn those skills in the family. The last hope that they may have to acquire those skills is through the further education system. If we genuinely seek equality, that group must be a prime target for help within the FE system. It is not only the hard cases who would be helped to develop a successful and fulfilling career iftheir interpersonal and communication skills were improved. The Library has given me a mass of statistics, but I will not lengthen this debate by going into them in any detail. Of the 22 million people in employee jobs on a given date in 2006, 18 million were in jobs—including construction, wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants, business activities, public administration, health and social services—that are impossible to do if you are not a reasonably good communicator. In my experience, those interpersonal skills can be taught and can be learnt. Where they already exist, they can be improved by suitable practice, training and guidance, not so much by formal teaching but by activities, games and challenges, through confidence-building and the experience of working and learning together as a team. I agree with the Government’s policy that the choice and content of further education courses should be demand-led, but surely there must be some basic guidance and underlying rules. Indeed, the Bill reserves for the Government the powers to direct Learning and Skills Councils, and I am sure the Government will also direct Ofsted about what they are looking for. Can the Minister give an assurance that the Learning and Skills Council will be under an obligation to deliver key basic training in interpersonal and communication skills to all students under the guidance of well qualified teachers? I hope that he can give me that comfort; if so, I shall not have to delay noble Lords by bringing the matter back in Committee.