Contribution
My hon. Friend names a fantastic business in his constituency and the contribution that it makes. There is a lot more that we need to do to support smaller employers to be in a stronger position to benefit from apprenticeships.
This Bill will bring together the many disparate parts of a very fragmented system, which employers, particularly smaller employers, often find hard to navigate the right way through, and are not always clear about the best training and qualification routes in order to find the people that they need. Also, the changes we have made to English and maths in particular will support employers to create 10,000 additional apprenticeships every single year.[Official Report, 26 March 2025; Vol. 764, c. 6WC.] (Correction) This was a call that we heard loud and clear from employers, and it is a simple, straightforward change that will open up opportunities for people across our country. They will still have the English and maths standards as part of their apprenticeship, but they will no longer be held back by some of the red tape that has denied them the chance to get on in life.
The skills system that we have right now is too fragmented, too confusing and too tangled up across too many organisations. There is no single source of truth, no single organisation able to zoom out and see the big problems and no single authority able to bring the sector together to solve them. The result is a system that amounts to less than the sum of its parts. For young people, it can be hard to know where the opportunities lie. Adults looking to upskill or reskill and working people hoping for a fresh start are too often met with confusion, not clarity. They are presented with a muddling mix of options when they need clear pathways to great careers.
It is no better for employers. They tell us that the system is difficult to navigate and slow to respond. They tell us that they are too often shut out of course design and that their voices are too often not heard. The result is frustration. Learners and employers are frustrated, and they are right to be frustrated. Many businesses do a good job of investing in the skills of their workforce, but others simply are not spending enough.
Investment is at its lowest since 2011 at just half the EU average. We must empower businesses to reverse the trend by investing in their employees, and for that, we need to move forward. There will always remain a strong and galvanising role for competition, but where it is harmful, adds complexity, duplicates efforts or twists incentives, we will balance it with supportive co-ordination to ensure that all parts of the system are pulling in the right direction.
Here is our vision and the change we need. From sidelined to supported, we need a system that helps everyone so that businesses can secure the skilled workforce they need. From fragmented to coherent, we need a system defined by clear and powerful pathways to success and towards effective co-ordination. We also need a system of partnership with everyone pulling together towards the same goals. That is the change that Skills England will oversee.
This Labour Government are a mission-led Government with a plan for change, and skills are essential to Labour’s missions to drive economic growth and break down the barriers to opportunity. In fact, skills go way beyond that. Skills training contributes across our society, and great skills training driven by Skills England, supported by my Department, guided by the wisdom of colleges, universities, businesses, mayors and trade unions, and directed by national priorities and local communities is the skills system we need. It is a system that will drive forward all our missions. It will help us fix our NHS, create clean energy and deliver safer streets.
Skills are the fuel that will drive a decade of national renewal, which is vital for our plan for change. That is why earlier this month we unveiled our plans to help thousands more apprentices to qualify every year. That means more people with the right skills in high-demand sectors from social care to construction and beyond. We have listened to what businesses have told us. We will shorten the minimum length of apprenticeships and put employers in charge of decisions on English and maths requirements for adults.
Last November, the Government announced £140 million of investment in homebuilding skills hubs. Once fully up to speed, the hubs will deliver more than 5,000 fast-track apprenticeships a year, helping to build the extra homes that the people of this country desperately need. We are driving change for our skills system, and Skills England is leading the charge. It will assess the skills needed on the ground regionally and nationally now and in the years to come. Where skills evolve rapidly and where new and exciting technologies are accelerating from AI to clean energy, Skills England will be ready to give employers the fast and flexible support they need.