A Shared Responsibility for Skills

Co-investment between the state, employer, and employee is an intrinsic feature of most vocational and education training systems. The government's strategy is to "profoundly" shift responsibility for funding learning and skills from the state to individuals and businesses. At a time of stringent cuts in publicly-funded further education and the withdrawal of individual learning entitlements, the challenge for policymakers is how to increase private investment in the skills of the workforce. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has long argued that employers should increase investment in the development of their workforce if the UK is to improve its productivity, competitiveness, and social inclusiveness. There is a powerful argument that a stronger culture of co-investment in adult learning between employers and employees would lead to increased expenditure on workforce development, over a wider range of provision, leading to more transferable skills. It is in the area of transferable skills and long-term personal development that there is the greatest need for collaboration and co-investment between the employer, the individual and the state. This will not just come about through government exhortation. It can only be achieved through dialogue between the employer and the employee. This is best articulated through intermediaries such as trade unions and their union learning representatives (ULRs) within formal frameworks such as collective learning funds (CLFs). (Contains 1 figure.)