This week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled Skills England, a new initiative designed to address the UK's fragmented skills training system. There are many positives to take away including the reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy – a plan proposed by both Conservatives and Labour during the General Election Campaign – and a clear acceptance that promoting skills will lead to growth. However, this announcement raises several risks to the long-term ambition to improve skills and further education.
While a national attention to skills is important, Skills England – the replacement to the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education – represents another centralised quango imposing a top-down approach to skills development. Effective skills training requires a regional focus, led by devolved governments, councils and regional mayors who better understand local needs.
While certain sectors require national oversight, the blanket approach overlooks regional industries and risks stifling local innovation. Addressing the skills gap effectively also requires a consideration of the evolving interests and aspirations of young people.
But this announcement was not solely about skills, Keir Starmer outlined that workplace skills had made our labour market reliant on "higher and higher" levels of immigration. While this is true to some extent, there are some jobs which young people are just not interested in doing. Employers, colleges and schools need to come together to tackle the stigmas attached to certain vocational roles. Young people are often choosing to become social media influencers or streamers because it looks fun and what they’re seeing on a daily basis. No job is worth more than another, but employers will have to start competing with what is perceived to be more attractive employment options.
Apprenticeship Levy reform is a positive step. The current system has often been criticised for its inefficiency and complexity. The proposed Growth and Skills Levy would better support businesses to invest in existing workforce development, ultimately benefiting the economy and more quickly reducing skills shortages.
The Apprenticeship Levy is essentially another tax on business. To alleviate this burden, the Government could reduce the levy and implement a zero-rate for organisations who already employ apprentices. This would boost participation and ease cash flow pressures on businesses, while preventing the millions in unspent Levy income disappearing into wider government spending.
Despite the merits of increasing apprenticeships, Labour's plans are conspicuously silent on the issue of staffing in Further Education (FE). The success of any apprenticeship programme hinges on the availability of qualified lecturers to deliver the necessary training. Without addressing the critical shortage of FE staff, even the most well-intentioned reforms will struggle to achieve their desired outcomes.
While the introduction of Skills England and reform of the Apprenticeship Levy are steps in the right direction, the approach should be more regionally focused and less entangled with migration policies. Labour needs to complement these efforts with practical measures to support FE staffing, ensure a robust infrastructure to train the future workforce and make apprenticeship an aspirational career path.
