Chancellor shows commitment to skills agenda but misses opportunity to catalyse business investment
27 Oct 2021, 4 min read
Striking an optimistic tone, the Chancellor located investment in skills at the heart of government efforts to drive regional productivity, level up opportunity and create a high wage economy. But the Budget was a missed opportunity to unlock complementary business investment to address current shortages and develop the skills for new markets that can galvanise growth.
Lifelong learning for opportunity and growth
The budget recognised the importance of helping people of all ages develop their skills with the following announcements:
- Meeting the commitment to the National Skills Fund, with £550m in 2022/23
- Expand the Lifetime Skills Guarantee so more adults can access funding for in-demand Level 3 courses
- Quadruple places available on Skills Bootcamps
- Multiply programme, providing opportunities for adults to develop their numeracy skills.
Backing for Skills Bootcamps offers the chance to help businesses confront skills shortages more rapidly. Aligning training with roles on the Shortage Occupation List will be important to help people to retrain for jobs that are most n
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