England’s lifelong learning entitlement went through “against [the] Treasury”, while a key question in its implementation will be whether universities are incentivised to offer short courses in sufficient number, according to its architect after her spell in No 10 developing the scheme.
Baroness Wolf of Dulwich was a panel member on the Augar review of post-18 education that recommended the creation of a lifelong learning loan allowance, before, in February 2020, then prime minister Boris Johnson appointed her his part-time adviser on skills and workforce in the No 10 Policy Unit to develop the lifelong learning entitlement (LLE), a role that finished earlier this year.
The LLE, scheduled for introduction in 2025, will provide students with access to up to four years’ worth of loan funding on a flexible basis, so learners can take individual modules or short courses throughout their working lives if they choose.
Asked about her experience working in government, Baroness Wolf, who is Sir Roy Griffiths professor of public sector management at King’s College London, told Times Higher Education: “I’m actually quite satisfied, even though there are huge numbers of things that could have gone faster. The fact that higher education was such a political issue…it slowed everything down.”
