PM focuses on British skills to build British jobs
Gordon Brown promised to maximise British workforce skills today in his first speech to the trade unions as prime minister.
He warned Britain must increase the skills of its workforce if it is to remain competitive alongside the growing economies of China and India.
The next decade will see a fall in demand for unskilled jobs but will require five million more skilled workers, the prime minister told trade union delegates.
He called on delegates to campaign for skills and in return the government would invest to meet the demand for the five million skilled jobs required by the British economy.
Mr Brown told delegates his central concerns were:
- “All of us must prepare for the global era
- “We must maximise its opportunities for working people and seek to minimise its insecurities.
- “Nothing should stand in the way of building jobs and prosperity
- “If we do so and mobilise the talents of all our people than I believe Britain will be the great success story of this new age.”
Mr Brown unveiled a series of measures to fast track workers into available vacancies.
Lone parents available for work will be guaranteed a job interview, he said, while all lone parents will also receive six weeks of benefits during a work trial. Single parents in their first year of work will also receive an additional payment of £40 a week, rising to £60 in London.
The government has agreed training schemes with 64 of the country’s best-known companies to employ and train people who are currently inactive or unemployed. This will create 250,000 extra jobs, the prime minister said.
With plans to raise the education leaving age to 18 yet in the coming years, Mr Brown announced an extension of apprenticeships. All school leavers this year will be guaranteed a place on a pre-apprenticeship course of college, while a nationwide system will link employers with young people looking to train.
The prime minister also announced plans to expand apprenticeship schemes into new sectors such as the NHS, civil service and local government, with the aim that half a million young people can be on an apprenticeship by 2020.
Mr Brown also promised tougher action against employers attempting to flout the minimum wage or provide an unsafe workplace. Higher fines will be levied against employers and the government promised to impose tougher punishment on people traffickers.
