Unemployed people in the UK will be sent to skills ‘bootcamps’ that will train them to fill roles where there is a shortage of workers.
Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has outlined plans to help the unemployed retrain in jobs that have been hit the hardest by changes to the UK’s immigration policies, in sectors including construction, logistics, hospitality, care and manufacturing.
Stride admitted that recent measures to cut immigration, including hiking the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700 and the introduction of tighter rules on who can bring dependants with them to the UK, have presented a “recruitment challenge” for employers.
He said the government intends to build a new economic model “based on British talent”.
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The new programme, which will be developed by a cross-government ministerial taskforce he is chairing, would be based on measures introduced in 2021 to increase the number of HGV drivers, which included bootcamps and training schemes at Jobcentres.
The government intends to work with businesses to identify the areas where worker shortages are most acute and develop training schemes to help them source the talent they need.
Stride said: “For too long we have relied on labour from abroad when there is great talent right here in the UK – I am determined to put that right.
“The new visa rules brought in by the home secretary will mean around 300,000 people who arrived last year would not be able to under the new rules. I know this presents a recruitment challenge for some employers in certain sectors, particularly those that have relied more on migration in the past.
“But this is also a huge opportunity for the thousands of jobseekers within our domestic workforce to move into roles that have previously been filled by overseas workers.”
Speaking at a Jobcentre in London, Stride also announced an advertising campaign across TV, radio and online that will encourage employers struggling with staff shortages to tap into the specialist services at their local Jobcentre.
“It’s great that many employers are already using our services. And I want more to join them,” he said.
“So from next week, we’ll be running a significant national marketing campaign that will put Jobcentres centre stage. Reaching over 90% of business and recruitment decision makers, our campaign will focus squarely on those sectors where recruitment is a challenge, especially from significant reductions in migration. It will bring home all the ways Jobcentres can support employers – whether that’s help with running a recruitment campaign or attending one of the thousands of job fairs we hold across the country.”
I have yet to meet a British employer that doesn’t want to invest in their talent pipeline and support job opportunities for local people” – Kate Shoesmith, REC
However, Alison McGovern, Labour’s acting shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The Conservatives have run down our skills and training system. And we now have record levels of net migration. They should be putting in place proper plans to tackle worker shortages and adopting Labour’s plans to connect the immigration system to skills, not setting up another talking shop. Labour have a plan to get Britain working by cutting NHS waiting lists, reforming job centres, making work pay and supporting people into good jobs.”
Kate Shoesmith, deputy chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said that businesses were at “breaking point” over worker shortages.
“Efforts to support more British people into work should be a priority of the government and all political parties in the run-up to a general election later this year,” she said.
“I have yet to meet a British employer that doesn’t want to invest in their talent pipeline and support job opportunities for local people. It shouldn’t be about picking winners or employing British workers over foreigners. It is about creating the right conditions for long-term, sustainable economic growth – and that starts by creating the right conditions for the UK labour market. We need calm and coherence across skills, health, transport, infrastructure, childcare, devolution and, yes, immigration policy.”
Rain Newton-Smith, the chief executive of the Confederation for British Industry, said: “A cross-ministerial group to identify solutions to sector specific recruitment challenges is exactly the kind of governmental-grip that industry needs. Whilst better matching domestic workers to local vacancies by bolstering the role of Jobcentres is a smart play that can help ease some of the blockages within the labour market.”
Jamie Cater, employment and skills lead at Make UK said: “As the number of live vacancies across UK manufacturing remains at more than 60,000, the importance of the relationships between employers in the sector and Jobcentre Plus is only growing. With the support of local JCPs, manufacturers are already taking opportunities like National Manufacturing Day to engage with their communities and fill vacant job roles.”
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