Executive Summary
And, in addition to our major drive on Apprenticeship expansion, we're also now funding an additional 1,200 adult Apprenticeships in the best training companies available, to provide the skills needed for the workforce of the future.
Similarly, employers have a right to shape this skills support in return for meeting their responsibility to make sure their employees have the skills they need. We're already giving employers control of significant funding for training - over £1 billion by 2010-11 - through Train to Gain and are now going further, to make sure training fits with what employers want.
Employers of all sizes also need to have access to our full range of skills and recruitment services. We're therefore bringing these services closer together to make them more coherent and simpler to access.
We recognise that while skills are critical, people face additional barriers to getting on. It can be as hard for someone to change their job as it is to move into work in the first place, because of the wider issues that get in the way; not just a lack of skills but other potential barriers like childcare, travel and housing. To address this we're now starting trials of the new adult advancement and careers service, to help people tackle all the issues holding them back.
We are also looking to provide further help to adults who do not start the retraining at Level 3 that they need for the jobs of the future, because of barriers like childcare costs. We will pilot new ways to demonstrate how Skills Accounts could be adapted to support people in overcoming such barriers.
As Government continues to improve its skills support for both individuals and employers, expectations on people to acquire the skills they need for work are changing. We believe it is no longer acceptable for those without the necessary skills to work simply to remain on benefits. We are therefore taking the powers necessary to require unemployed people to attend training and will consult on extending the requirement to train to the other key out-of-work groups: lone parents with school-age children receiving Income Support and those who start to claim Employment and Support Allowance.
Achieving this step-change in support for individuals and employers will require changes to the way Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) work with all our partners to deliver these services.
Many local areas are already making progress to deliver just this kind of more integrated and responsive service; developing a personalised approach to individuals' and employers' circumstances. Each area is different, and a tailored approach needs to be driven by people on the ground. They are the ones who understand the opportunities available in the local economy, and who are close enough to the actual delivery of services to ensure these are working ever more closely together.
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