If you’ve got ideas to improve the UK’s current employment and skills systems, then the Commission for Employment and Skills would like to hear from you.
Established by the governments of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in April this year, part of the remit of the commission is to provide well-informed and independent advice to government on employment and skills strategies, targets, policies and practice.
As part of its work on a five-year plan, it is seeking views and opinions on the following questions:
- What are appropriate future goals for the employment and skills systems for the next five years to 2014?
- What strategies will enable us to achieve these goals?
- What changes does the current system need – some of which might be changes to the ‘demand side’ (eg employers and individuals) and some may be to the ‘supply side’ (education and training providers, employment services, qualifications bodies etc).
Commission chief executive Chris Humphries said: “We want to see more people in the workforce with more of the right skills. That’s easy to say, and it’s a goal shared by employers, politicians and the general public alike.
“Putting strategies in place which will achieve this goal is much more difficult, but it’s essential if the UK is to succeed, both as an economically competitive, and socially inclusive, nation.
“We may have to implement some creative and radical changes, and that’s why I'd encourage anyone with an interest in the skills and employment system to feed into this consultation process. It’s vital that we get this right.”
The initial closing date for responses is 15 August 2008. Submissions should be no longer than four sides of A4 and should be emailed to strategic.plan@ukces.org.uk
A further opportunity to comment on the emerging strategic options will be available in September. All responses will be treated as public documents and may be published in whole or in part unless the submission is clearly marked as private.
For more information, visit www.ukces.org.uk and click on ‘strategic plan’.
