Skills reform will help address severe skills crisis and meet business needs
The King’s Speech sends important signals of change to come for the UK skills base under new government, says NCUB
Dr Joe Marshall, chief executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), said: “We warmly welcome the news, revealed in the King’s Speech, that the government will introduce Skills England, which will bring together business and training providers. We particularly celebrate that partnerships with employers will be at the heart of this new body.”
Marshall continued: “We also welcome the news that the government is taking the bold step to reform the Apprenticeship Levy. As always, the devil will lie in the detail, but the aim to have a more flexible Levy than in the past is very welcome. The nation’s businesses are dealing with an acute and severe skills crisis. Skills gaps and vacancies have been persistently high at around 1 million, yet businesses face barriers to upskilling their staff and accessing new talent. We have long argued that it is vital companies are able to make full use of their Apprenticeship Levy funds for broader use, to increase the skills of their workforce. The government is delivering on their promise of ‘change’ here. We hope that a more flexible Levy will meet business needs by expanding the variety of high-quality training available to young people and adults, and look forward to contributing to its design.”
