A lack of childcare is holding students with children back and preventing
many from studying or taking up training opportunities, according to a study by
Daycare Trust.
Learning for Life highlights the serious shortage of available childcare with
less than 40,000 childcare places for more than 5 million students in the UK.
It highlights that students are unable to claim the childcare tax credit in
Working Families Tax Credit and with childcare costing around £4,160 per child,
a year, the cost of childcare can place a huge financial burden on students.
Daycare Trust warns that unless there is an extension of available and
affordable childcare targeted at students, access to lifelong learning
opportunities will be a struggle.
Commitment to training evaluation techniques
Two out of three companies have increased their commitment to training
evaluation techniques in the past two years, according to research by the Industrial
Society.
The Society’s Training Evaluation report reveals that companies are
increasing their commitment to evaluation for three reasons: to establish links
between training and business strategy; to develop improvements in training
methods; and to establish future training needs. The survey of 487 human
resource and personnel specialists also showed that management training is more
likely to be evaluated systematically than in any other area.
£4.3m cash injection for Eastern skills push
The East of England Development Agency announced an extra £4.3m to raise
skills across the region, at a summit held last week.
The skills shortage in the region has become so severe that it affects one
in five local employers.
Speaking at the event attended by 170 trainers, business leaders and local
authority representatives, EEDA board member Sal Brinton said, "With an
extra £4.3m to help boost skills in the region, EEDA looks forward to working
with businesses and partnerships to raise achievement levels, improve the
skills base and increase the employability of the region’s workforce."
