The Learning and Skills Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made changes in the funding and administration of further education, and of work-based learning (or apprenticeships) for young people, within England and Wales.
The main changes were:
- establishment of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), its duties to secure the provision of education and training for young people and adults, in England, and to encourage employers and individuals to participate, and the LSC's funding powers.
- provisions for the appointment of governors in the further education sector.
- other duties and powers of the LSC, including equal opportunities and the needs of people with learning difficulties, powers to provide information, advice and guidance services and a duty to publish its strategy and annual plans.
- the establishment of local Learning and Skills Councils, including planning and consultation arrangements and the power of the Secretary of State to make directions to local education authorities in respect of adult and community learning provision.
- creation of the LSC’s Young People’s and Adult Learning Committees.
- creation of academies (originally known as "city academies"), publicly funded schools operating outside of local government control and with a significant degree of autonomy areas such as wages and digressing from the national curriculum.
- powers for the Secretary of State to give directions to the LSC, to pay it its annual grant-in-aid and require the LSC to make an annual report.
- similar arrangements for Wales.
The Act also established arrangements for Inspections of further education in England and Wales, and abolished the Further Education Funding Council for England.
Famous quotes containing the words learning, skills and/or act:
“Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.”
—Bible: New Testament Acts, 26:24.
Said by Festus, the Roman Procurator.
“I have great faith in ‘ordinary parents.’ Who has a child’s welfare more at heart than his ordinary parent? It’s been my experience that when parents are given the skills to be more helpful, not only are they able to use these skills, but they infuse them with a warmth and a style that is uniquely their own.”
—Haim Ginott (20th century)
“Adolescents may be, almost simultaneously, overconfident and riddled with fear. They are afraid of their overpowering feelings, of losing control, of helplessness, of failure. Sometimes they act bold, to counteract their imperious yearnings to remain children. They are impulsive, impetuous, moody, disagreeable, overdemanding, underappreciative. If you don’t understand them, remember, they don’t understand themselves most of the time.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)