Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham has announced a £98m package targeted at ensuring UK workers have the optimum skill set.
Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry, Denham said a number of industries – including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and energy conservation – had been identified as vital for the future prosperity of the UK, and required a more highly skilled workforce.
He said the Government wanted to ensure that British workers did not see jobs go abroad, on the basis that overseas workers have higher skills, or that migrants are needed because local employees lack the requisite skills, and emphasised the skills system had to be more effective at creating people with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.
A key element of the package includes making sure that the skills system prioritises needs identified by employer partnerships at local and regional level, and in particular sectors of the economy.
There will be simplified training provision, making more effective use of skills brokers and web-based tools to make it easier and less bureaucratic for business needs.
Denham said that if Government policy creates the expectation of future business, it creates a demand for skills and sends a signal to all people and to the education system to develop skills they know will be required for future jobs.
He said: “We cannot go back to predict and provide.
“If individual employer demand alone will not produce what we need, we need to strengthen employers’ collective ability to shape the system.”
He added: “Instead, employers need to be helped to co-ordinate and to communicate demand, by industry, by sector, or by locality – whichever turns out to be most needed and is likely to be most effective. This is the direction in which our skills policy has increasingly been moving in the past few months.”
The commitment followed a package of further support for small and medium-sized enterprises to help them through the credit crunch.
It includes a free health checks in England for businesses through its Business Link support service to help identify problems early, and provide financial information produced by the Institute of Credit Management to help UK businesses to maintain cash flow, secure finance and limit problems caused by late or non-payment. n
