Plans for Growth – Industry and Skills

23rd November 2022

Katy Moss, Managing Director of Trent Refractories and John Pearce, CEO of Made in Britain, attended the Plans For Growth - Industry and Skills Roundtable Event at the House of Lords on 22nd November 2022.

At the Labour Party conference in September 2022, party representatives made a number of education and skills policy announcements. Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP unveiled Labour’s Industrial Strategy plans “Prosperity Through Partnership”, which sets out how Labour would work across sectors to boost economic growth, investment, resilience and employment rights, aiming to provide certainty to both businesses and investors.

As part of this Industrial Strategy, Shadow Further Education and Skills Minister Toby Perkins MP further presented a proposal to create a new national skills body entitled Skills England. This body would work alongside businesses, unions and training providers to tackle the UK’s skills shortage.

Labour also announced their plans to reform the apprenticeship levy, promising to transform it into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’ by making the levy more accessible to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and apprenticeships more targeted at entry level roles and education levels.

Further, a recent report by Labour’s Council of Skills Advisers, chaired by former Education and Employment Secretary Lord Blunkett, has set out a range of recommendations for a “radical overhaul of skills provision” in the UK.

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