World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England

In July 2007, the Government published major new plans for England to make the country a ‘world class leader in skills’ by 2020. The document lays out plans to create new opportunities for citizens and businesses, and deliver prosperity for all. The plan is the Government’s response to the independent Leitch Review of Skills and sets out how the Government will lead the country into a skills 'revolution' in order to make it economically competitive with the rest of the world. 

In relation to staff and volunteer workforce development, the measures include:

• improving work-related learning e.g. the pilot of a scheme to enable employers to award their own accredited units and qualifications

• giving employers greater involvement in design and delivery of qualifications;

• pilot the concept of ‘Skills Accounts’ which will give individuals greater ownership and choice over their learning (may be of interest to volunteers)

• providing a skills brokerage service and opening up Train to Gain to the voluntary sector (from 2008/09), providing funding to support training of volunteers who have less than a level 2 qualification

• from 2008/09, employers will also be able to access matched funding for level 3 programmes under Train to Gain; and

• the introduction of a pre-Apprenticeship programme for those who do not quite meet the standard for their chosen occupation. Trialing to begin in 2008.

Useful Links
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) >> World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England, Crown Copyright, July 2007

For more information >> Train to Gain