Learning and Skills Council

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Cheylesmore House, Cheylesmore, Coventry

The Learning and Skills Council is Britain's largest QUANGO and is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for planning and funding further education (post-16 education and training other than higher education) in England. It was established in April 2001, under the Learning and Skills Act 2000, and as of 2006 has a budget of £10.4 billion. [1]

It replaced Training and Enterprise Councils and the Further Education Funding Council for England.

The LSC has headquarters in Cheylesmore House, Cheylesmore, Coventry, and it also has 9 regional offices and 47 local offices for the 47 local Learning and Skills councils.

It was announced in 2005 that this configuration will change as part of the Agenda for Change programme resulting in more of a streamlined formation with more focus on the regional dimension with the loss of around 1300 jobs (500 from the Coventry HQ, the remainder from local offices). This process is still ongoing, with a planned 'relaunch' date of 1st June 2006. This date has now been changed to 7th August 2006.

This process is being challenged by the PCS Union, with a strike that took place on 28th April 2006, and a work-to-rule commencing in May 2006. The work-to-rule ceased on the 26th June 2006 after agreement was reached by both PCS and LSC representivies.

Although management and administration is being restructured on regional lines, the 47 local Learning and Skills councils will be retained.