Vocational Qualifications matter Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 09:53

NIACE placed an emphasis on the benefits of vocational qualifications, not just for people entering the labour market, but also for people who want to change career as adults, on the third annual VQ Day which took place on Wednesday, 23 June 2010.

Alastair Thomson, Principal Policy and Advocacy Officer at NIACE, said:

"Vocational qualifications are as important to adults as they are to young people and even more so during times of economic uncertainty. They help people acquire practical knowledge and skills that they can immediately apply in their career."

"Qualifications are only a proxy for learning, but they have a crucial part to play in giving people mobility in the labour market. While it is right for employers to pay to increase the skills of their staff, it is also important that individuals wishing to gain vocational qualifications are still able to afford to invest in their own career development."

Qualifications are only a proxy for learning, but they have a crucial part to play in giving people mobility in the labour market.

Alastair Thomson, Principal Policy and Advocacy Officer at NIACE

Jon Honeyfield, aged 37, from Sheffield, is a 2010 Adult Learners' Week award winner, who illustrates perfectly how vocational qualifications can transform lives.

At the age of 32, Jon relocated to Sheffield, seeing it as a chance to reassess his life, gain qualifications and find a rewarding career. Whilst unemployed in his new hometown, he completed a C&G certificate in Basic Plumbing and was subsequently offered an apprenticeship with Kier Sheffield as a heating engineer.

Jon showed a real hunger for learning when he began his apprenticeship and completed an NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineering Services in just 6 months. He has since completed his level 3 and ACS commercial qualification along with his ACS Domestic Gas qualification and is now fully qualified.

Andrew, Jon's nominator, said:

"Learning has been directly instrumental in accelerating his career progress, earning him a place as a member of a highly skilled team and bringing job satisfaction - a significant achievement for someone who less than four years ago was unemployed with only a few basic qualifications."

Jon said:

"[Learning] has given me a trade and the ability to earn a fairly good living. It has given me more confidence in my own abilities and made me realise you are never too old to learn."

A Change for the Better - the NIACE 2010 survey on Adult Participation in Learning, suggests that economic uncertainty could be the reason for the rise in the number of adults who are in learning or who are thinking about learning in the future. The proportion of adults who are currently learning, or have done so in the last three years, has risen by four per cent from 39 per cent in 2009 to 43 per cent in 2010, its highest level for 10 years. People in and out of work are reporting record levels of wanting to learn since these surveys started 20 years ago.