Measures announced to tackle skills problems

IN today’s Budget from Chancellor George Osborne, the Government committed itself to increasing apprentices, as well as making controversial decisions on higher education funding.

The plans were met with derision from Opposition interim leader Harriet Harman, who said the apprenticeships the Government is offering are “skewed towards the lower level skills” when businesses need higher-level skills.

Osborne said that is was a “national shame” that the skills of the 16-24 year old age range were ‘no better’ than our 55-64 year olds.

For those aged 18-21 the Chancellor announced that the Government is introducing a new Youth Obligation that says youngsters must either “earn or learn.”

It is also abolishing the automatic entitlement to housing benefit for 18-21 year olds.

Osborne said the Government has doubled the number of apprenticeships to two million and is now committing itself to three million more.

The Government will also be introducing an apprenticeship levy on all large firms.

Osborne said: “The money will be directly controlled by employers and we’ll work with business on how to do this, it’s exactly the sort of bold step we need to take if Britain is going to raise its game.

“To fund those apprenticeships and make sure they’re of high quality, we have to confront this truth.

“While many firms do a brilliant job training their workforces; there are too many large companies who leave the training to others and take a free ride on the system.”

The Chancellor said that Britain’s higher education system was “one of the jewels in the crown of the…economy”

He claimed that increasing student fees in the last Parliament did not prevent students from low income backgrounds from going to university – “a triumph of progressive reform.”

He added that the government will remove the artificial cap on student numbers so that students would not be prevented going into higher education if they have the right grades.

He proposed the cutting of student maintenance grants, which are reportedly set to double to £3bn in this decade. Instead, loans will be introduced to be paid back once former graduates are earning over £21,000 a year.

Osborne explained their position saying: “There’s also a basic unfairness of asking taxpayers to fund the grants of people who are likely to earn a lot more than them.”