Over the past few decades there has been a steady shift in how we all work, with ever more automation and digitisation of the workplace. Having worked for more than three decades I have seen many technological shifts in the workplace from robotics in car manufacturing, to the internet, and a move to online across many industries.
The coronavirus outbreak has escalated the shift towards digitisation and transformed how we go about our day to day business and lives. With this in mind, we need to speed up our retraining and upskilling programme so people can learn new skills and possibly move into new sectors if the job they have has been impacted by these changes.
That is why, this week, the Prime Minister set out our plan to transform the provision of skills to help adults to retrain and find new, well-paid jobs as part of our agenda to ‘Build Back Better’. We have already brought in a huge package of measures to support youth employment so this week the focus was on adults. We have created a lifetime skills guarantee, offering fully-funded college courses to adults without an A-level or equivalent qualification, boosting our digital skills boot camps with an £8 million investment, and we’ve expanded our online Skills Toolkit that offers free training, designed with leading businesses, to increase employability.
This virus has hit some industries more than others. In West Sussex, Gatwick Airport is just one that has been heavily impacted. The Coast2Capital LEP is one body working on this issue, with their 360 skills board; identifying gaps in the market and then developing a pipeline of talent and skills. From regular meetings with the County Council, I am aware that Chief Executive, Becky Shaw, has already brought together our higher and further education institutions including Chichester College, and our county’s three universities. They are collectively working together to ensure we can offer courses that add value to learners and can fulfil the needs of local business and industry.
There are also fantastic local support programmes such as Chichester District Council’s Choose Work scheme, that offers coaching, mentoring and guidance to help local people not only identify their employment goals but achieve them.
We’re all living longer and with that, we may have several careers - I’ve moved from an apprentice in a car factory at 16, to an international business career spanning three decades. Now, as the Minister responsible for Apprenticeships and Skills at the DfE, I am excited that we will expand our offering to allow anyone, at any age, to access high value training which will give them the skills they need to succeed.
