UNITE: Government announcement on skills shortages today is ‘yet another knee jerk reaction’
Commenting on the government’s announcement today (7 March) to inject £50m per year into boosting skills to avoid skill shortages, Unite assistant general secretary, Tony Burke said: “the government’s announcement is yet another ‘knee jerk’ reaction to a problem Unite has been warning about for a number of years.”
“While any help to boost skills is welcome, the problem is this government has no long-term strategy on skills which is what we really need in manufacturing.
“There are a number of companies who do invest in the skills of their workforce. However, we are facing skill shortages because of a ‘make do and mend’ attitude from some employers and the lack of awareness of the benefits of taking on apprentices and retraining the workforce.
“We are also aware that some companies will not invest in skills and take on apprentices, because they don’t know what is round the corner. They are fearful of interest rate increases. A number of companies who provide goods to the public sector are concerned as to whether the orders will dry up through the Government’s austerity measures – some companies have told us they just will not take the risk.
“Equally, the £50m per year has to be match funded by employers and we doubt whether some industries in manufacturing will show enough interest. We note that the government has now resurrected the issue of voluntary levies but our experience shows that employers will shy away from voluntary levies.
“What we really need is a long-term skills strategy, easily understood by industry, backed up by compulsory levies for those industries who fail to take on sufficient apprentices and invest in training. If this government is serious about rebalancing the economy, we need to invest in the UK’s manufacturing skills base with a long-term solution.”
ENDS
For further information contact Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite press office on 020 7420 8914 or 07980 224761.
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