Improving the skill levels of British workers will form the centrepiece of this week’s pre-budget report (PBR), press reports claim.
The 'Financial Times' said following publication of the recommendations contained in Lord Leitch’s review of skills training, chancellor Gordon Brown will accept the demands of employers’ groups that that the UK skills system needs to shift from being supply to demand-led. The Confederation of British Industry in particular has called for the scrapping of the current regime under which further education colleges dictate what the UK’s needs should be.
As a result, the newspaper reported that Brown will announce measures to overall the UK’s skills system by boosting every employee’s productivity by an average of £1,800 a year.
It said that the chancellor wants to channel more of the training budget through employee-led schemes like the “Train to Gain” programme, via which companies outline their skills needs in return for government subsidies to help firms meet them.
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