|
|
|
Education and skills key issuesHelping firms to maintain skills investment during the downturnUniversities UK launched a leaflet highlighting what universities can offer to business in the downturn.Firms continue to value skills training during the economic downturn – to help them remain competitive now and to capitalise on the upturn when it comes. But in the current climate firms will be more stringently evaluating the impact of training decisions on business performance in terms of costs and the returns of training on short term productivity. Our Education and Skills team has been working to ensure that government support for training is clearly focused on helping employers cope with the current situation. We are pressing the government to make sure the Train to Gain service responds flexibly to the challenges employers face. The recent Train to Gain package for SMEs was welcome – but the benefits must now be extended to all firms. All employers must be able to access funding for re-skilling staff, and for smaller units of training, so they can focus training efforts where the productive returns will be greatest.CBI Higher Education Task ForceThe CBI Higher Education Task Force is exploring what business wants from higher education, how business and universities can best work together and how the sector should be funded. As well as responding to short-term skills issues, we are also providing thought leadership on improving business and HE partnerships – improving the graduate output (i.e. a greater level of STEM and employability skills), developing better relationships on the provision of workforce and leadership and management training and also on R&D activity. The Task Force is also looking at how to ensure measures are in place that will enable business to be best placed to take advantage of the upturn when it comes. It is developing the business vision for HE, whilst recognising that meeting the needs of business is not the sole aim for universities. More information can be found here:www.cbi.org.uk/highereducation.Preparing young people for the labour marketRecognising that GCSE and A levels are not perfect, we have asked employers recognise and understand these qualifications and resources should be targeted at improving existing provision with particular attention to members' key priorities – which include more young people studying all three sciences at GCSE, and higher levels of functional literacy and numeracy and employability skills among school-leavers. The promotion of education-business partnership work is an important focus of our lobbying work – employers working in schools can offer a powerful tool in catalysing academic achievement, facilitating young people's career choices and providing hands-on experience of workplaces to help students understand the relevance and practical applicability of the skills and knowledge they are developing in the classroom. With the opening up of a new suite of qualifications for young people – the first of the new diplomas were launched in September – and the ongoing concern that young people are unaware of the qualification routes that will prepare them best for an increasingly competitive jobs market, the provision of high quality, unbiased careers education and guidance is of vital importance – and we have been lobbying strongly for this to be available to young people at the key transition points (11, 14, 16 & 18). We fully supported last September's introduction of employer-driven, sector-specific diplomas in areas such as manufacturing and retail. We are currently evaluating how successfully the sector-specific diplomas are meeting business needs, and there is much work to do to ensure these qualifications are a success. We have also also set out clearly to the government that members were yet to be convinced that diplomas in Science, Humanities and Languages would add value to the existing qualifications range.Matching publicly-funded training to the skills needs of employers and individualsEmployers invest £39bn per year on skills training and recognise the need to invest in the skills of their staff to remain competitive, but the publicly funded skills system must be reformed so that it better supports employers to raise the productive skills of the workforce. In particular, employer needs should be the central driver in a demand-led system supported by business relevant qualifications and high quality training providers providing flexible and responsive services. CBI members remain opposed to compulsory training measures which would be ineffective in raising skills levels, and we have successfully lobbied for the government to delay any decision on introducing a statutory training entitlement until 2015. Current proposals to give employees a 'right to request time to train’ from their employers should go with the grain of existing business practice, with many employers already discussing skills development with their staff.Ensuring an expanded apprenticeship programme meets business needsThe UK economy must have a skills base that ensures we remain competitive in the upturn. Therefore it will be vital that apprenticeships remain a high quality training route for the workforce and that employers continue to see value in getting involved. In advance of the publication of the government's Apprenticeship Strategy, we set out the need for the government to focus on ensuring more young people with the ability and attitude to succeed enrol on an apprenticeships, that the current organisation of apprenticeships, and the support for businesses that offer them, particularly for SMEs, is effective and accessible. A number of these concerns were addressed in the strategy document – but Government still needs to work on delivering on their commitments and focusing on reducing red tape. The CBI' s strategy response is available. Within the forthcoming Children, Skills and Learning bill, minimum apprenticeship standards and minimum periods of off-the-job training may be introduced. The CBI will push to ensure that new legislation facilitates, rather than stifles, flexibility for employers – we have emphasised that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. We welcomed government's commitment to create greater flexibility in the training employers can provide within apprenticeship frameworks – but we will continue to emphasise that this new legislation must not reverse this recent progress by making the framework approval process overly complicated for employers.Upcoming legislationThe Children, Skills and Learning Bill, which will be put forward for its first reading in Parliament in February, will give employees the right to request time-off from their employers to undertake business relevant training. The new right will be modelled on the current system for requesting flexible working, with firms able to refuse requests for business reasons. The Bill will introduce the 'machinery of government changes', with the Learning and Skills Council abolished and responsibility for funding educational provision for 16-19 year olds passing to local authorities, with a new national agency taking a more 'demand led' approach to post-19 skills funding. A new National Apprenticeship Service will be created but we will urge government that flexibility for employers must not be compromised by a one-size-fits-all apprenticeship frameworks or standards and more bureaucracy. This legislation will also grant the right to request flexible working to an extra 4.5 million employees. We believethis should be delayed from April 2009 until later in the year as it will place additional burdens on companies who are already struggling to cope with the economic downturn. If you need free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software or help with PDF documents, go to the Adobe Accessibility site at http://access.adobe.com Click on this link to go to the policy work page. |
|
  |
The CBI is the UK's top business lobbying organisation. Our unmatched influence with government, policymakers and legislators means we can get the best deal for business – at home and abroad.
Join us
CBI members enjoy specialist advice and influence which can give real business advantage. Find out what membership can do for you.
Campaigning to ensure that the economic and cultural importance of the creative industries, is recognised by the government.
