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This week has seen the first major step in the Government’s overhaul of the skills system.
It was announced that Skills England will be established to coordinate skills policy across England, bringing together curriculum development, course approval and funding decisions. This aligns with our focus on workforce and skills, building on our workforce strategy which outlines the key areas integral to solving the workforce issues faced by the sector.
Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of UKHospitality, said:
Kate Nicholls, Chair, UKHospitality
The establishment of Skills England is a positive step that brings skills and education together under a single organisation to help drive economic growth and upskill the current and future workforce. Given the right circumstances, the hospitality sector is capable of delivering growth of 6% per year, and a focus on skills is central to this ambition. The sector is already the third largest employer in the UK, providing 3.5 million people with jobs, so it’s vital that our voice is represented within the new body.
We are pleased to see the commitment of the new body to broaden the types of training that the Apprenticeship Levy can be spent, which will allow us to deliver a Hospitality Skills Passport, however we also need to see a focus on how apprenticeship delivery can be improved for the benefit of both workers and businesses and a focus on pre-apprenticeship training and we look forward to working closely together to achieve this.
What does this mean for skills?
Skills England will bring representatives together, from central and local governments, trade unions, training providers and business.
The Government is committed to allowing businesses to have more control of their Apprenticeship Levy funding, with the ability to spend the funds on different types of training. Skills England will be responsible for deciding which training courses are eligible.
We have made it clear that there needs to be strong hospitality representation given our important role in providing people with first jobs, bringing people back into the workforce and enhancing their careers.
What does this mean for the sector?
We have made skills reform a crucial part of our agenda with the new Government, allowing the sector to get more people into work and ensure our workforce is fit to deliver for our customers and our businesses.
To expedite the delivery of the sector-backed Hospitality Skills Passport, it is vital that its components are eligible for this funding. This initiative, first launched at our Workforce and Skills Event earlier this year, allows businesses to deliver high-level training that gets their teams up-to-speed quickly and ready for an apprenticeship, if they wish.
We will be working with Skills England and wider Government representatives to ensure that this is the case.
There are also wider opportunities to reform the delivery of apprenticeships, to make them more accessible to learners, more suited to business practices and more portable across employers and different periods to support seasonal workers, for example.
What next?
Our work in this area is headed by our Skills Director, Sandra Kelly, allowing us to be at the forefront of conversations.
Our team will be meeting with Ministers and having meaningful discussions over the next six months, and we’ll be sure to keep all our members updated.
The new Government’s ambition on skills is considerable and this chimes with the needs of hospitality. As a sector, we have a huge opportunity to reshape the skills landscape to work for our businesses and our people, while helping even more people into work.
We will be working tirelessly, building on existing relationships and expertise, to make the new system one where hospitality learners can excel, supercharging the hospitality offer.