Unlocking the potential of the UK Workforce

CMI Policy Paper on Future Skills

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the UK economy. As we enter the recovery phase of the crisis, it has deepened the need - and created a moment of opportunity - to unlock the full potential of the UK workforce. Significant new investment is needed to ensure we can equip workers with the skills they will need to remain competitive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and we should focus on two key areas: supporting employers to create training opportunities and an environment that is conducive to retraining, and ensuring employees take up the training available.

CMI’s latest policy paper on Future Skills and Retraining makes a number of recommendations to unlock the potential of the UK workforce, including:

• Accelerating the roll-out of the National Retraining Scheme (NRS), offering a Right to Retrain to anyone who wants it.
• Using the tax system to better incentivise employers to invest in training.
• Retaining the employer-led principle for all skills policy interventions, to ensure a close link between training and employment.
• Making greater use of bite-size courses and modular learning to meet employer demand for greater flexibility to fit their needs.
• To support an apprenticeship guarantee (which means a job creation scheme as well as training) employers, especially SMEs, should be supported with the initial non-training costs of employing an apprentice with incentive payments and grants targeted up-front, where employers need it most.
• There should be continued job retention support, which must be more explicitly linked to retraining and skills.
• To receive this support, employers should commit to a social contract, asked to make firm commitments to embed a culture of retraining and professional development, and build capacity to retrain, to access support.

We are also calling on the government to work with, and lean on, Chartered organisations - such as CMI - that have the ready-made networks and ready to rollout training and resources that we need to upskill and reskill the nation, at pace.

For more information on these recommendations, and case studies on the impact of management education in the workplace, read the full policy paper below.

Read the Future Skills Policy Paper