Government Embarks On Skills Drive

The Government s British jobs for British workers initiative has kicked off with the promise of 7.5 million skills boosting training places to be implemented over next three years.

The plan, laid out by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, includes 3.5 million basic literacy and numeracy courses; 120,000 apprenticeships for the under-25s, 30,000 for those above age 25 and an extra 95,000 with poor qualifications, allowing them to gain GCSEs or equivalent. Many of the courses will be part-funded or supported by employers.

With an estimated third of people of working age in the UK being poorly qualified and 7 million struggling with literacy or numeracy, the Government places skills at the forefront of raising the employability of UK workers. The initiative is also in line with the Welfare to Work strategy, aiming to get benefits claimants back to employment.

John Denham, Universities and Skills Secretary, said that raising skills levels would be vital to remaining competitive as well as ensuring that nobody here is unable to get a job because it is easier to employ a skilled or better qualified migrant worker.

Critics, however, see the plans as an acknowledgment that the education system is not performing as it should, (Stephen Alambritis, chief spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses).