Employers in the housing, facilities management, fashion and textiles sectors are to benefit from a £93m government investment in training. New skills minister Lord Young said the money would be earmarked to tackle current and future skills shorta  More...
17 October 2008 08:19

Home improvement retailer B&Q became the 100,000th company to sign up to Train to Gain, but employer groups say more should join. The service, which launched in 2006 to improve skills, has helped more than 570,000 employees in England to find tr  More...
08 October 2008 09:52

The Constructing Better Health initiative was set to provide an effective conduit between construction firms and OH providers. Wendy Stimson explains what has been achieved so far.   More...
01 October 2008 09:00

Two senior HR directors from the hospitality industry have been appointed trustees of People 1st, the sector's skills council. Robin Mills, HR director at Compass Group UK and Ireland, and Natalie Bickford, HR director at Sodexo UK and Ireland, will   More...
11 September 2008 11:10

The UK government has failed to tackle 'chronic underfunding' in the social care sector despite a growing demand for services, research has found. A report by the Social Care Employers Consortium (SCEC) claims that local authorities must cover the  More...
03 September 2008 08:00

The chief of HR at a social care charity has voiced serious concerns about the lack of people choosing to work in the sector now, which could cause major staffing problems in 20 years' time. Moira Brown, HR director at Care South, which provides r  More...
07 August 2008 11:00

The scale of the UK's skills challenge has been laid bare by a regional survey showing that three in four food and drink manufacturers in the North East have no training budget. Research carried out by the National Skills Academy (NSA) for Food and D  More...
24 July 2008 10:00

I read your report of Chris Humphries' China trip with much interest ('Smog, skills and spices',   Personnel Today , 8 July). Research just completed by the Institute of Leadership and Management confirmed that the UK needs to take swift and po  More...
10 July 2008 13:22

UK skills supremo Chris Humphries returns from China today (Tuesday) after a five-day trip to help the fast-growing economy with its own training problems. Humphries, chief executive of the Commission for Employment and Skills (CES), spoke at a Chine  More...
01 July 2008 00:07

The government is set to unveil a series of skills 'compacts' that will channel millions of pounds into training initiatives in specific sectors. Employers in the construction and hospitality industries will be the first to benefit from these new dea  More...
25 June 2008 08:00

Residents of a quiet Yorkshire street got a surprise recently when TV presenter and former lingerie model Carol Smillie and a posse of Learning and Skills Council (LSC) experts banged on their doors to ask them about their skills and ones they'd l  More...
13 June 2008 08:53

HR news and analysis including: Imelda Walsh talks exclusively to Personnel Today on the flexible working review to extend the right to request flexbile working to parents of children aged 16 and under HR directors from Topps Tiles and   More...
16 May 2008 16:58

Gordon Brown used the draft Queen's Speech to announce a new right to request time off work for training. Revealing his plans for the next parliament, Brown said every adult should have the right "to make the most of their potential". He sai  More...
14 May 2008 14:00

Skills minister David Lammy has expanded the National Skills Academy network with the approval of three new academies: Sport and Active Leisure, Creative & Cultural, and Hospitality. The new academies aim to reach more than 400,000 learner  More...
08 May 2008 09:24

The government wants a major rise in the number of apprenticeships on offer - and it's willing to subsidise their training through employers Prime minister Gordon Brown signalled his commitment to modern apprenticeships with an announcement to busin  More...
22 April 2008 10:00

A new strategy aimed at boosting skills in the Civil Service has been launched. Civil Service head Gus O'Donnell said the 'Building Professional Skills for Government' programme would help departments improve value for money and ensure employees   More...
02 April 2008 13:39

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has agreed to support the government's skills pledge, despite its recent criticism of the closing of its main skills funding vehicle, the Learning and Skills Council. However, David Frost, director general of th  More...
27 March 2008 09:45

Employer groups have expressed "utter amazement" at the government's decision to close the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), its chief skills funding vehicle. The government last week announced that the LSC, which has an annual budget exceeding £11b  More...
24 March 2008 08:29

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC), with an annual budget exceeding £11bn to improve UK skills, is to be closed down by 2010, as revealed by Personnel Today. The government announced its intentions in a White Paper which underlines de  More...
17 March 2008 15:44

Training cash for the social care workforce should bypass local authorities and go straight to the skills council to deliver funds where they are most needed, according to senior figures in the sector. Skills for Care, the body responsible for impro  More...
17 March 2008 08:30