Department for Education and Skills, White Paper, July 2003
Realising Our Potential, the White Paper on skills
training published in July 2003, is the Government's proposes
state funding to help employers in low-skilled industries
train their workers.
It sets out what the Government calls a new "post
voluntary" approach to solving the country's training
problems by offering financial support to employers willing
to enter into schemes. It is seen as moving form a supply-led
to a demand-led training system.
The white paper points out that only 27% of the workforce
has the equivalent of two A levels, compared with 65% in
Germany. The key point of the paper is a new entitlement
for all adults to have free training up to the standard
expected of 16-year-olds and a new £30-a-week adult
learning grant for those over 19 in full-time courses at
further education colleges.
The Government wants the £20 billion a year spent
by British industry on training to be spent largely within
the new framework, supplementing the £9 billion a
year allocated for post-16 training by the state.
But in a surprise move, state aid will be directed to sectors
with the biggest skills shortages. State funding will be
focused on basic skills - with 7 million people identified
as needing help with literacy and numeracy. Information
technology is identified as a third basic skill.
Visit www.dfes.gov.uk/skillsstrategy.
(Financial Times, 9 July 2003)
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