Welcoming the focus on strengthening the economy by levelling up opportunity and supporting more people into work in today’s Queen’s speech, Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann OBE, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK said:
“The Government has rightly put the focus of our economic recovery on levelling up and creating highly skilled jobs.
As the ‘Levelling Up the United Kingdom’ white paper points out, one of the key factors in levelling up our economy will be making sure more parts of the UK can attract investment from international firms.
The Skills Taskforce for Global Britain’s recent report showed more than 50% of the UK’s foreign direct investment goes to London and the South East, compared to France where only 20% of FDI goes to Paris. The Taskforce called on the Government to create an ambitious UK-wide strategy for inward investment that recognises the vital role that high quality skills play in attracting and retaining investment.
The commitment to deliver a lifelong loan entitlement through the Higher Education Bill will be vital in helping more people develop world-class skills. With the UK facing a critical shortage of higher technical skills, this is key to both domestic and international firms’ ability to create highly skilled and well-paid jobs across every corner of the UK.
Building on our partnerships with colleges in Middlesbrough, Oldham, Dumfries & Galloway, Belfast and the Gower WorldSkills UK will help as many educators, students and apprentices as possible adopt international best practice in skills, helping to build a world-class skills economy that, alongside our world-leading knowledge economy, will help more of the UK compete for the investment that will create jobs and raise living standards.”
Read the Skills Taskforce report
