11.41 Participation rates in formal education among many groups of black and minority ethnic groups are healthy, generally speaking. Yet others, and notably people from Bangladesh remain markedly under-represented. At work, black people continue to get less opportunities to study at employers expense, and the Basic Skills Agency research has highlighted the difficulties faced by 500,000 people for whom English is a Second Language. Older people from Black and Asian communities are frequently especially disadvantaged, especially where English is not their first language. All funders and providers of lifelong learning should give particular attention to the learning needs of black, Asian, minority ethnic and linguistic groups.
11.42 The absence of an agency to access and accredit qualifications gained outside the European Union and the Commonwealth leave a majority of professionally qualified Black refugees in the United Kingdom unemployed, or employed in posts requiring lower level skills than they possess. Despite the positive work of the Commission for Racial Equality and continuing Home Office funding, effective provision for black and other minority ethnic and linguistic communities remains patchy.
11.43 Refugees and other people from overseas are also severely disadvantaged where they cannot access learning without incurring large expense or where their qualifications are not recognised in this country. If there were a dedicated agency or other body, it could collaborate with the Qualification and Curriculum Authority, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, professional bodies, and the European Union network of National Academic Recognition Information Centres. Such a body could assess and accredit qualifications gained outside the European Union and the Commonwealth, and to identify, where appropriate, relevant top-up learning strategies.
11.44 Consideration should be given to the establishment of an Overseas Qualifications Assessment Agency or Branch, or equivalent, to overcome the waste of resource and individual exclusion caused by the lack of effective mechanisms for recognising qualifications awarded overseas.
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