Member

A little book by Matthew Syed examines the brilliance of the CIA at one point in its iteration, with the best possible east coast minds that could be drawn together, all of whom thought exactly the same and had the same educational and social experiences and led to the CIA’s near-demise. We must send a message to the Treasury: if you do not get this right in supporting the department and what my noble friend wants to do, forget everything else in terms of net zero, housing and construction, and preparation for the massive and rapid onset of artificial intelligence. Just forget it all, because without getting the skills agenda right and ensuring that there is proper devolution where that is appropriate and that it can be surefooted, as I described a minute ago, we will lose out very badly indeed. My appeal is: do not let the transfer of IfATE swamp what is being attempted; in other words, let us not have a reverse takeover of what is still in its embryo—namely, Skills England.