Business as Usual? Increasing employer investment in skills
| Title | Business as Usual? Increasing employer investment in skills |
| Author(s) | Scott Kelly, Raj Patel, Darshan Patel, Charlynne Pullen, Josephine Balfour, Bethan Ashmead |
| Organisation | LSN |
| Date | 2011 |
| No. of pages | 41 |
| Theme | training; apprenticeships; workplace training; workplace learning; on-the-job training; employer investment in training; employer investment in skills; employment and skills; national skills academies |
| Description | Employers invest less in training than our economic competitors. This is despite the Train 2 Gain initiative. They also provide fewer apprenticeships and less on the job training. This is a contributor to a low level of skills among the UK’s workforce. This report examines how employers could be encouraged to invest more in training and skills. |
| Select quotations | “Average hours of non-formal job-related training over the course of an adult’s working life are just 315 in the UK, less than half the level of France, and significantly behind other leading economies like Germany and the United States.” “Sustainable growth and a rebalanced economy is dependent on generating the right skills, but cuts to the FE and skills budget mean that the UK is destined to see a constriction in training investment unless a comprehensive strategy is adopted to secure greater investment from individuals and employers…” “If the ownership of skills within industries is to truly shift to employers then this requires many more national and local skills academies. Whilst the Government continues to encourage the establishment of National Skills Academies (NSAs) which could play a central role in this, only 18 NSAs have been established or confirmed, with 2% of employers engaged.” “Where appropriate the Government should make contracts and grants conditional on participation in skills academies.” “SSCs need to play a clear role in identifying where skills gaps are an impediment to growth in key sectors.” “Greater research effort should be put into informing policy on workplace learning with emphasis on understanding the most productive systems in the context of particular industries, the effectiveness of local learning systems and how behaviour economics could be applied to shape employer and individual behaviour.” “There is a tendency for public policy makers to view voluntarism and compulsion as either/or options. In fact, policy makers should consider compulsion slightly differently…We recommend putting in place a timetable and set of concrete triggers for compulsion negotiated with each sector.” “The government should consider pursuing one of three options: - “…where a compulsory levy does not operate, triggers for the introduction of a compulsory levy should be put in place.”
- “Another option would be to challenge every sector that has a SSC to increase co-payments in the publicly-funded system or compulsory levies would be introduced.”
- “Alternatively, a decision could be made to introduce a statutory licence to practice before 2013/14.”
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| Link | https://crm.lsnlearning.org.uk/user/login.aspx?code=110012&P=110012PD&action=pdfdl&src=WEBGEN |
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