Government calls on employers to sign ‘skills pledge’
08/02/2007 | Posted by John Smith in UK stats
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown said: "In the future skills will be the only route to prosperity and jobs. Of 3.4 million unskilled jobs today, by 2020 we will need only 600,000. So if the UK is to continue to succeed in the new global economy we will need to be more ambitious with more people training and employers, employees and government each meeting their responsibilities.
"This will only succeed if the British people themselves are involved in discussing and agreeing this priority to invest in education and skills. This way we can build the consensus essential if today’s working men and women are going to achieve better-paid jobs and a better future for their children.”
Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson said:
“We are kick-starting a public debate on the best way to improve skills in this country, our future competitiveness depends on it. Employers have a crucial role to play in this and must make skills training relevant for the challenges of the future. It is also vital we generate a culture of learning amongst individuals.
“We want to build a consensus around Leitch and the best way to improve skills in this county. I am looking forward to hearing from training providers, individuals and employers about how they think we can best promote skills and be truly competitive by 2020.”
The Government has already welcomed the Leitch aspiration to have at least 90% of working age adults qualified to Level 2 - the vocational equivalent to five good GCSEs - by 2020 to retain and drive forward competitiveness.
To help adults get the skills they require to gain employment the Government is implementing a ‘demand-led’ funding system to meet employers’ needs and gear training to their requirements.
Employers making the Skills Pledge would commit to a training plan building on the needs of their business. The plan would show timescales for training all staff to Level 2 as well as committing resources and setting priorities.
An employer making the Skills Pledge will be making a commitment to raise the skill levels of all employees, giving staff certified competence in the workplace and the literacy, numeracy and employability skills for progression.
The Skills Pledge will help employers’ competitiveness by helping them focus on the skills needs of their workforce. As productivity is increasingly driven by skills the ability of firms to succeed will also increasingly depend on their ability to draw on a skilled labour force.
Source: HM Treasury commission report