08 December 2006
Sir Digby Jones, former director general of the CBI, is to head a drive to get workers and employers more engaged in training.
Following the publication of Lord Leitch's review of skills on December 5, Chancellor Gordon Brown said government and business needed to work together to achieve the tough skills objectives set out in the review.
Despite warning that the UK was set for 'undistinguished mediocrity' unless it upskilled its workforce, Leitch shied away from recommending a statutory duty on employers to train employees. Instead, employers are expected to commit to a 'pledge' to train all eligible employees to workplace Level 2 – equivalent to the possession of five good GCSEs.
'If we get the right championship from employers, we can deliver this,' he said. The pledge is backed, however, with the threat of statutory action if progress is insufficient pending a 2010 review.
Brown told MPs there was an urgent need to make progress now and announced that Jones would 'advance an agenda of: employees taking more responsibility to train; employers taking more responsibility to offer time off, with in return more say over what training is provided; and government taking more responsibility to reform and invest in training provision at work, in colleges and online'.
There was criticism of Leitch's failure to recommend a legal duty for employers to train.
Paul Mackney, joint general secretary of the University and College Union, said: 'We have no confidence that there is sufficient employer commitment to achieving this target, therefore the mentioned statutory entitlement to workplace Level 2 training should be introduced not in 2010 but now.'
The UCU was also critical of Leitch's call for the creation of a demand-led skills system. 'We don't want all the skills funding to be dependent on the constantly changing short-term needs of employers,' Mackney said.
John Brennan, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, added a further note of caution. 'The major funding changes proposed will require careful planning and their managed introduction over a realistic period of time to maintain stability of provision for the millions of adults currently in colleges,' he said.
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