Budget Speech: £60 million for skills

The Chancellor Alistair Darling announced an extra £60 million for skills and training in his first Budget speech today. He said that extra funding would help 3 million adults gain new skills by 2011.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling announced an extra £60 million for skills and training in his first Budget speech today. He said that extra funding would help 3 million adults gain new skills by 2011.

An extra £60 million is being provided over the next three years to “provide new opportunities for people to gain the skills needed to enter the labour market, to remain in work, and progress in work.”

The Chancellor added that the funding would go towards expanding the number of apprenticeship places on offer. He also confirmed a £12.5 million fund with the aim of encouraging women entrepreneurs.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber welcomed the commitment to extra funding for skills: “The extra £60m in funding for adults skills training and apprenticeships underlines the Government’s commitment to improving the UK’s skills base.

“The TUC has been calling for more adult apprenticeships, so additional funding in this area is very welcome. We hope the commitment to give adults the chance to retrain will help people in redundancy situations or with outdated skills, and particularly women returning to the labour market.

”We now need to see more employers playing their part by offering more training, including high quality apprenticeships, and making a real effort to increase equality and diversity in training places.”

Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, said: “The expansion of ‘Train to Gain’ and the introduction of skills accounts should ensure public funding follows the needs of employers and employees more closely. The focus must be on developing the economically valuable skills the UK needs to compete – today’s announcement of additional funding for intermediate skills and adult apprenticeships is welcome, as employers’ skills needs are often at these higher levels.”