Member

For all those reasons, I have to say that, despite agreeing with the arguments made by the noble Lord about the need for cross-government impact and change with respect to skills, I am not convinced that the development of a network of chief skills advisers would be the most appropriate way to achieve that. I intend that the chair and board of Skills England will be the champions of skills, representing different parts of the skills system and its users. As I said earlier, we are in the process of recruiting them, and we have received a very high volume of quality applications. When appointed, a permanent CEO will lead the organisation in delivering its intended purpose to bring disparate functions together in one place to provide an authoritative voice on skills needs and how to meet them.