CBI - Education and Skills

We have published proposals for reforming how the government spends the г4 billion adult skills budget – with spending focused on increasing the number of people with economically valuable skills.

Our Reforming skills funding: delivering productive results policy leaflet was published in November, ahead of the government's skills white paper.

With public spending under pressure, we called for tough choices on how limited funds are distributed. Spending must be focused on priority areas that will drive business growth and productivity, with funding reduced on less productive programmes.

We also called for a alled for a re-balancing of the funding settlement by:

increasing support for apprenticeships to tackle youth unemployment and to give more people work-based technical skills. Extra support should be focused on adult and advanced apprenticeships

increasing support for STEM skills to boost growth in sectors of strategic importance e.g. energy production. CBI data show two-thirds of employers report difficulties recruiting STEM skilled staff

building training capacity amongst employers by supporting firms who invest in developing training facilities and share them with SMEs/their supply chain

reducing support for basic skills – it remains appropriate that the majority of public funding continues to support individuals to gain basic skills where they are lacking. But the success of programmes such as Skills for Life (which has awarded 2.8m qualifications since 2001) means some funding can be re-distributed to more productive areas

cutting funding for non-essential programmes including "adult safeguarded learning" – which supports learning for its own value but does not necessarily deliver economically valuable skills.

The report can be downloaded here (PDF 227 KB)

Task Force sets out its vision for universities

In September, the CBI Higher Education Task Force published their report – Stronger together: businesses and universities in turbulent times.

The report emphasised that with the UK's higher education (HE) system facing tough choices posed by recession and competition from abroad, business must do even more than it does to work with universities and the government to help maintain the UK's international competitiveness.

The Task Force's report highlights the vital contribution that excellence in higher education makes to business competitiveness and argues that: "new thinking is required on the financing, structure and mission of our universities if they are to sustain and strengthen their position in a rapidly changing environment".

This means that government, universities and students, as well as business, will have to do more if they are to maintain the strength and the quality of HE in the UK. The key recommendations for the Task Force cut across the business priorities for education:

business should engage with universities to help deliver the outcomes it wants to see – the report sets out ten commitments which all businesses should consider signing up to

universities need to ensure that all graduates leave with employability skills, such as team working, communication and customer focus

action to improve the quantity and quality of graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths is needed – all young people should be expected to continue some form of maths or numeracy education after the age of 16, dependent on their interests. Funding for teaching must also deliver sufficient resources to develop practical skills.

The report can be downloaded here.

The government's Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill has received Royal Assent.

The Bill legislates for a new right for employees to request training, puts in place the new structures to replace the Learning and Skills Council, and reforms apprenticeships through the introduction of new apprenticeship standards.

Under the legislation, from April next year, employees in organisations with 250 or more staff will have the right to request time off to undertake training.

The right to request will be extended to all organisations in April 2011. Following strong CBI lobbying, the new right to request training will follow a similar model to the existing right to request flexible working which has proved successful in balancing employer and employee needs. In advance of its introduction, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published an employer leaflet summarising the new right.

Key issues in summary

For the latest CBI thinking on education and skills issues, see our business summaries.

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News

Reforms of skills funding proposed

Task Force sets out its vision for universities

Guidance on time to train

Key issues in summary

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