The
Pre-Budget report has allocated an extra £130m to extend Employer Training
Pilots, which will help cut the number of workers with low level or no
qualifications.
The
pilots give employees time off to train, with compensation paid to employers,
and provide advice to employers and employees on decisions about learning.
Education
Secretary Charles Clarke welcomed the measures as a basis on which to build
long-term improvements in the UK skills base.
Other
measures include:
That
by 2010 90 per cent of young people by age 22 will have participated in a
full-time programme to help them enter higher education or skilled employment
Five
days enterprise activity for pupils in secondary schools – which involves
work-related learning. This was a recommendation made by Howard Davies, who
looked at the role of enterprise and education in the economy.
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Clarke
said: "Our economy needs more graduates as well as skilled workers and our
new young people’s target proves we are determined to do both. It will also
ensure we have fewer young people with poor or no qualifications at all."