Sarah Green column

Jun 19 2007 By Sarah Green, The Journal

On Thursday I attended Nissan to witness the first sign-up to the Government's skill pledge in the North-East.

The pledge requiring all employers to sign up to upskilling their workforce to a Level 2 qualification is seen by government as a critical step.

Raising the skills of our workforce is essential to our productivity and the UK's future economic success.

We live in an era of rapid global change and many companies and employees will need to raise their game.

So the CBI is pleased to support the skills pledge and we'll encourage our members to sign-up.

This is a three-way partnership between employers, employees and the Government.

The Government must ensure that employers will be given the support they need through the Train to Gain programme to access relevant training for their staff.

The Government is rightly focusing resources on those who lack basic skills to ensure everyone can become literate, numerate, and employable. It is right that the Government has taken responsibility for investment in tackling these market failures. Poor literacy and numeracy damage lives and hamper employment prospects - but employers often see little return in investing in these lower level skills.

Employees - as well as employers - will have to step up to the mark.

Delivering will be easier for larger firms but almost three million people nationally without Level 2 qualifications work in firms with less than 50 employees. SMEs need support if they are to deliver.

We must also recognise that the vast majority of employers are already providing their staff with high quality training, spending £33bn per year - but this is often competency-based and only around a third of employer training leads to the qualifications employees frequently value and that employers look for in recruiting.

Delivering on the pledge will require a greater proportion of this employer provided training to be captured within the qualifications system. Ultimately, what employers want is economically valuable training delivered in a way that suits the running of their business.

And finally, there's a huge opportunity for the new Commission for Employment and Skills to take a strategic approach to the skills agenda and ensure the whole skills infrastructure better meets the needs of employers and employees. All sides will have to play their part.