If the mantra of the first Labour government was “education, education, education”, the second term’s is “education and training”.

The new thinking reveals itself in the debate on enabling 50 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds to participate in higher education by 2010. The Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Learning and Skills Council say 21 to 30-year-olds as well as 18 to 21-year-olds should contribute to the target. Contributions from 21 to 30-year-olds will depend on improving progression to HE through workplace learning, so strategies need to address the needs of those at work.

HE providers must go to those in work, to work with employers to “give those in the workplace better access to HE”. The LSC is funding centres of vocational excellence, while the HEFCE backs new technology institutes and the development of foundation degrees.

Adult learning outside HE is also changing. Last November, the pre-budget report set out a “vision for UK skills” and the development of a “new training policy” for adults without qualifications at Level 2 (equivalent to a top GCSE grade). The package to increase training requires public funding of 100 per cent tuition and examaccreditation costs, and compensation to employers for staff who undertake training during working time.

But one of the consequences of this new emphasis is the need to engage employers.

Every publicly-sponsored education, training and business support body is developing an employer engagement strategy. The Learning and Skills Council has a statutory duty to do so, and employer engagement is what makes the new Sector Skills Councils different from national training organisations. Similarly, the Department for Trade and Industry-sponsored Small Business Service and Business Links are charged with engaging small and medium-sized enterprises.

While increasing expectations are being made of employer engagement, unco-ordinated approaches by publicly- supported education, training and business support institutions is a recipe for trouble.

The DfES needs to recognise that supplying employers with endless public subsidies simply misunderstands employer demand for workforce development.

The Performance and Innovation Unit report “In Demand: Adult Skills in the 21st Century” explains how supporting businesses to improve themselves - through better planning and value-added products and services - is critical. Achieve this, and employer demand for workforce development will follow.

But where employers are helped to improve their performance and the post-14 education and training system supplies the skills and qualifications employers need, employer engagement still might not be forthcoming.

Tucked away deep in public borrowing requirement 2001 is the most significant suggestion for UK training policy since the abolition of the Industrial Training Boards, namely “statutory time off for training and development”.

The killers to small businesses are employees being away from the workplace, managing employee absence and trying to find suitable temporary cover. As a stand-alone intervention, the introduction of statutory time off for training and development at Level 2 might be manageable for employers. But the policy would be on the back of a series of family-friendly policies such as the working time directive, increased maternity rights, unpaid parental leave, paid paternity leave and rights to part-time working.

If statutory time off for training and development is the “big-idea” for a third-term Labour government, the issue will need to be handled sensitively so that it benefits both industry and workers.

Mark Corney is director of MC Consultancy