Government Launches Skills England
As anyone working in the childcare and education sector knows, a highly skilled workforce is critical to a provider’s success. Yet for many sectors this has proved elusive. Despite Further Education’s vital importance to the economy, it rarely receives the attention given to other education sectors. Reforms to qualifications such as BTechs and T-Levels are often half-hearted and lead to only a mixed reception.
The new government hopes to change this with the launch of Skills England, a new body that will be established over the coming year, looking to bring together government, businesses, training providers and unions to create a strategic plan to meet the UK’s skilled workforce requirements. This is intended to give businesses more flexibility to fund training, and to reduce the reliance some sectors have on overseas workers.
The childcare sector will need to be a central plank of this strategy. With the ambitious entitlement expansion continuing, there is desperate need for more skilled staff on an ongoing basis. While this problem is not unique to the childcare sector, skills shortages are said to account for 36% of all job vacancies, there are few sectors where the need is quite so urgent. Once again, the sector will need to make sure its voice is heard as the strategy is developed.