Call to improve UK working skills
January 17, 2007
Urgent action is needed to improve the skills of British workers or the UK may face a "serious decline" in business, ex-CBI boss Sir Digby Jones has said.
Sir Digby, who has been appointed the "skills envoy" by the government, has told the BBC that skills training should be made much more accessible.
He also said training should be offered free of charge, as an incentive for businesses to train their staff.
He will outline his ideas when he speaks at a breakfast seminar.
Sir Digby was appointed as the "skills envoy" to coincide with the publication of the government-commissioned review - led by Lord Leitch - into Britain's skills needs.
That review warned that Britain was "on track for undistinguished mediocrity" if it failed to upgrade the skills of the workforce.
In the first indication of how he will tackle this challenge, Sir Digby said the government must offer a "fiscal bribe", through tax incentives to employers, especially small businesses, to get them to train their staff.
Meanwhile, a study from the international business school, INSEAD, due to be published, suggests Britain's ability to innovate economically could be hampered by its "relatively poor skill levels".
The study puts Britain in 16th place on an international table measuring countries' "human capacity".
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