Gaps in skills provision ‘must be urgently addressed’

Nick Elvin

‘Alarming’ gaps in the system of skills provision are hindering the development of highly skilled individuals that are ready to enter the flexible 21st Century workplace, the Skills Commission has warned.

The announcement comes as the commission publishes the preliminary findings in its ongoing inquiry into skills and the changing structures of work.

It has identified four distinct trends that it argues have developed into ‘significant barriers to a successful skills policy capable of providing a labour market skilled to meet the needs of employers across the UK economy’. These four ‘strategic alerts’ are:

• Uncertainty around the responsibility for training in an increasingly flexible labour market;
• Declining social mobility owing to a reduction in the alignment of skills provision to work;
• Fragmentation in the system making it difficult for employers to engage;
• Alarming policy dissonance between different central government departments.

Inquiry co-chair and president of the Further Education Leaders Trust (FETL), Dame Ruth Silver said these alerts required ‘urgent attention from all players’ across government and the skills sector.

“The structures of work are changing but the structures and practices of training and recruitment are lagging behind, and government policies are not always helping,” she said.

“The commission has identified four clear trends that we believe are deeply undermining our system of skills provision in the UK. It is right that we raise these four trends as ‘alerts’, such is the gravity of the threat they pose, and the urgency with which they must be addressed”.

Fellow co-chair Barry Sheerman MP, a former chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, added: “Ensuring the UK has a highly skilled, diverse and responsive labour market is not a party political issue.

“As all three parties head off to conference I urge all parliamentarians to understand that we must work together, with employers, education providers and all relevant players, to urgently solve the alarming gaps in our system of skills provision.”

The inquiry’s final report will be published in late October.