The Engineering and Building Services Skills Alliance (EBSSA) welcomed the recommendations of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Select Committee on their inquiry of Future Skills which includes Government to explore greater financial incentives for employers to invest in training, ahead of the Financial Statement this week. The Committee noted with the concern the downward trend of employer investment and wrote with their concerns to the Minister for Skills, Baroness Smith of Malvern.
EBSSA’s written evidence to the Committee highlighted these issues and also the hope that the development of Skills England will bring better coordination and collaboration amongst employers and providers to help SMEs navigate through the skills system. We agree with the Committee’s call for a national skills strategy with improved delivery and engagement at local level.
The Committee and EBSSA asked Government to carefully think through the Apprenticeship Levy 'rebalancing'; we agree with more support for young people to enter and progress with industry-approved qualifications but also provision for those who need to re-skill and upskill.
The Committee also highlighted our observations on the detrimental effect of prolonged funding cuts to colleges and the need to invest in training providers to recruit and retain high quality staff from industry to use as trainers and qualifications’ assessors.
You can read our full submission here: SFF0117.
The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee will hold a final session on this inquiry on 26th November. More detail on the inquiry for Future Skills: Apprenticeships and Training can be found here.
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Actuate UK, welcomes Government’s intention to act on its proposed reforms on late payments and take legislative measures to ban the use of retentions in construction contracts. Actuate UK and its members have been calling for a legislative change to stop the payment abuse of cash retentions in construction. We will continue to engage with Government and our members to ensure the implementation of this action is effective and drives the cultural change in our industry towards a safer and higher-quality built environment.
Engineering services alliance, Actuate UK, welcomes the first ever sector skills plan for the Engineering & Building Services brought together by the Engineering & Building Services Skills Authority (EBSSA) with input from Actuate UK and its members.