The organisation has brought together experts in education, training and industry to diagnose the wide scale problems in the skills system and create an effective talent pathway into manufacturing.
Co-chaired by former Minster for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon and former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest, the Industrial Strategy Skills Commission aims to identify key priorities that Government must address to support vital skills creation, while highlighting emerging issues so industry and Government can respond effectively.
The Commissioners will be supported by an advisory group of leading education experts, industry experts and policy makers.
According to Make UK, the country’s manufacturers are still struggling to recruit with some 58,000 unfilled live vacancies, while the talent pipeline continues to decline at an alarming rate.
Apprentice starts are down 42 per cent since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced seven years ago and T-levels, designed to deliver much-needed technical skills into industry, still do not have the required uptake to make a ‘meaningful difference.’
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Over the coming months, the Industrial Strategy Skills Commission will meet regularly, supported by an advisory board from across the skills and industry spectrum.
The Commissioners will draw from a mix of written evidence from the widest possible range of stakeholders and will make on-site visits to manufacturers and training providers to look at best practice as part of their solution gathering. Their findings will be reported into the Government early next year.
In a statement, Robert Halfon, Co-Chair of Make UK’s Industrial Strategy Skills Commission, said: “The new Industrial Strategy Skills Commission has urgent work to do. This unique bringing together of business, industry, government, educational experts and providers and policy makers must change the perceptions of working in industry and find the quickest and most effective way of attracting the best talent into the engineering and manufacturing sectors.
“The new Government has committed to reforming the current Apprenticeship Levy and replacing it with a Skills and Growth Levy. But it is imperative that we make sure this new levy provides enough of the right apprenticeship opportunities at all levels so that employers across the length and breadth of the country have access to the skills they and our country need to grow.”
The new Industrial Strategy Skills Commission is set to issue a written call for evidence in order that the widest possible number of companies across the whole of the manufacturing sector can contribute to make sure the solutions work for all companies, large and small. The Commission will also be hosting targeted evidence panels to delve deeper into specific issues within the skills system.
