The government’s “lack of action” on training and skills is worrying, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has said.

Speaking today after chancellor Rishi Sunak’s statement in the House of Commons, Ms Dodds asked when Mr Sunak would “get serious about training”.

She said: “Will the scheme incentivise training and retraining? The German scheme does, and Labour has called for a UK version to include incentives for training, but that’s missing here.

“Indeed, while, as I said, we welcome many of the elements the chancellor has announced today, the lack of action on training and skills is worrying. I was waiting and waiting for the chancellor to talk about training. He mentioned the word once in passing - that’s not enough. His government has already allocated funding for a national skills strategy, but it’s not being delivered on the ground.

Supporting training and skills

“So when will the chancellor get serious about training, so people can be ready for the jobs of the future? He mentioned the fact our economy is changing. Let’s make sure that our population is ready for that change.” 

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Background: Chancellor to announce £2bn job scheme for young people

Today, Mr Sunak announced the new jobs support scheme - and highlighted “new investment in training and apprenticeships”. 

He said: “Together with the jobs retention bonus, the Kickstart Scheme for young people, tens of billions of pounds of job creation schemes, new investment in training and apprenticeships, we are protecting millions of jobs and businesses, Mr Speaker, if we want to protect jobs this winter.”

In July, the chancellor announced a £2 billion Kickstart Scheme to create work placements for young people and cash incentives for employers to hire apprenticeships. 

A jobs training scheme 

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, called for a jobs training scheme. 

He said: “The government has made a sensible decision to protect jobs through its new support scheme. We look forward to seeing the details but hope this will reduce the number of apprenticeship redundancies. We remain concerned that the measures are still focused on jobs only. The retention scheme is now a support scheme.

“Perhaps the next step is a jobs training scheme. Now is the time to start planning for the vastly different labour market people will need new skills for. Unfortunately, redundancies will still have to be made, and these people need the opportunity to retrain as quickly as possible to get back on their feet. 

“The chancellor has not yet set a date for the autumn budget. Some funding paid to colleges runs out in March 2021. We hope that the Treasury confirms departmental budgets in November and acts on college funding in the forthcoming spending review.”

Jane Hickie, managing director of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The chancellor was well within his rights to respond that the Plan for Jobs contained welcome measures to support skills training, including the incentives for apprenticeships and traineeships. 

“We were, of course, concerned that Kickstart might crowd out new apprenticeship opportunities and that there was more needed to protect the jobs of current apprentices, but if the new Job Support Scheme keeps many of them in employment, this is another good step forward.”

‘A sticking plaster’

But Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City and Guilds Group, said that the announcement felt like “a sticking plaster”.

She said: “While the new Job Support Scheme goes some way to saving ‘viable’ jobs in the short term, it also raises the question of what will happen to all of those in ‘non-viable’ jobs in hard-hit industries who are set to be displaced - and the resulting job losses that could significantly impact the UK economy. 

“This is our act-now moment and we are urging government to develop a more permanent solution to provide meaningful, long-term support to stem unemployment. In our CSR submission, we detail how skills funding could be better used to help people understand their transferable skills as well as the new skills needed to get back into work. Unless we think differently and help people to retrain and reskill throughout their careers, we run the risk of a whole generation of people being permanently left behind.”