Issue 8 | January 2007
Leitch Report calls for increased employer engagement and investment in skills
The Leitch Review was tasked in 2004 with considering the UK’s long-term skills needs. The recently published Review has found that, even if current targets to improve skills are met, the UK’s skills base will still lag behind that of many comparator countries in 2020. Unless the UK can build on reforms to schools, colleges and universities and make its skills base one of its strengths, UK businesses will find it increasingly difficult to compete. Leitch’s main recommendations include:
- Increasing adult skills across all levels
- Routing all public funding for adult vocational skills in England, apart from community learning, through Train to Gain and Learner Accounts by 2010
- Strengthening the employers' voice, e.g. rationalise existing bodies, strengthen the collective voice and better articulate employer views on skills by creating a new Commission for Employment and Skills
- Increasing employer engagement and investment in skills (reform, relicense and empower Sector Skills Councils.)
- Launching a new ‘Pledge’ for employers to voluntarily commit to train all eligible employees up to Level 2 in the workplace
- Increasing employer investment in Level 3 and 4 qualifications in the workplace
- Increasing people’s aspirations and awareness of the value of skills to them and their families
- Creating a new integrated employment and skills service
To read the full report, click here.
Customer First UK have been working closely with the LSC Yorkshire & the Humber, over the past 3 years, to support colleges and training providers to improve their employer engagement. Over 110 have achieved the customer first standard and research shows that they perform significantly better than those who are not compliant. To read this research click here.
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