Budget has left part of the workforce ‘forgotten’, according to the CIPD

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has claimed that last week’s budget neglects a “forgotten workforce”, despite the Chancellor claiming it was a budget for the next generation.

CIPD chief economist Mark Beatson said: “The Chancellor is right to want to build a solid future for the next generation but the solution to the UK’s productivity problem lies largely with this generation, some of which still have another 40 or more years of work ahead of them.”
“We simply cannot afford to wait twenty years or more for new skills from future generations to arrive. We need to look at the very real skills challenges that the UK is facing now and how the Government and employers can work together to address them by upgrading the skills of the existing workforce.” 

Beatson said there was too much focus on infrastructure and changes to education and not enough on helping people to work smarter and reduce stress levels. He added: “Simply getting people to work more quickly by reducing their commute time might reduce stress levels but we need people to work smarter, not harder or for longer. We must look more closely at how people are performing at work; whether their roles provide challenge and the opportunities to use their initiative and develop new skills.”

“Measures such as the Apprenticeship Levy and the National Living Wage in isolation are unlikely to deliver sustained improvements in productivity.  Financial measures can provide the incentive to increase productivity, but businesses usually need other types of support as well if they are to turn intentions into reality,” he said.
The CIPD also urged the Government to look beyond rising employment figures and think about developing leadership and management capability. “We know that incompetence or bad management causes about half of corporate failures and these Budget measures could even reduce productivity by extending the lives of badly run businesses,” he added.

In last week’s budget, the Government announced radical changes to the education system, including transforming all state schools into academies and plans to keep maths teaching compulsory up to the age of 18.

He concluded: “Our education system fails too many young people by not equipping them with the basic skills needed to be productive workers and engaged citizens.”Keeping young people in education for longer won’t make them any better equipped to enter the world of work if it’s another year of the same. There needs to be a much stronger focus on the provision of high quality careers advice and guidance to help ensure young people are equipped with the information and skills that help prepare them for the world of work.”

“There must also be enough high-quality alternative to university, including apprenticeships, for those young people who would benefit from a different learning environment.”