The Association of Employment and Learning Providers will today call for more investment into skills programmes to ensure Britain’s post-Brexit workforce remains competitive.

Speaking at the AELP’s autumn conference in Manchester today, chief executive Mark Dawe will urge the chancellor to use the spending review to step up spending on skills, after it was revealed a letter from the government to car manufacturer Nissan included a pledge on funding skills training.

Mr Dawe will say ministers need to look at the whole picture for skills rather than the budgets of individual further education and skills programmes, and the spending review offers a good opportunity to do this.

According to Mr Dawe, the latest apprenticeship reform announcements last week contained some very encouraging signals that the social justice agenda was being incorporated into the government’s approach to skills. 

“But post-Brexit Britain will need highly competitive and productive businesses with skilled workforces.  If their access to European migrants is going to be constrained, then we need to get on with training more of our home grown talent now and the spending review is a good place to start,” he will say in his speech.

“The FE and skills sector now needs a period of stability to get on with the job of meeting these challenges rather than endlessly dealing with an onslaught of government reforms which can be confusing for employers and learners as well as taking away of important resources from the front line.”

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