Hello and welcome to Onward’s weekly summary of research, events and opinion. We hope you enjoy it. If you do, tell your friends or donate to support our work.
Onward activity
We are hiring a new Deputy Director, to help plan, write and communicate our research and events output. Please do send to anyone who might be interested. Link.
On Wednesday, Onward is hosting a private event for our Business Leaders Network on the US election, with Tom Tugendhat MP, CNN’s Mike Shields and the latest polling from C|T Group. By invitation only. Contact Katie Fairclough to join the BLN.
We are hosting a panel event on Building connectivity: How best to harness digital infrastructure to level up the country? with Matt Warman MP, Jo Gideon MP, Alan Mak MP and Vodafone’s Nick Jeffery. The date and time is to be confirmed. Email us to be first to hear.
Last Wednesday, Neil O’Brien MP and Gareth Davies MP cited Onward’s research in the House of Commons, which argues that without action, the economic recovery will be held back by corporate debt that has built up since the start of the pandemic [Link] and calls on the Treasury to create a national development bank to invest in businesses and municipal infrastructure to level up regional growth. Link
Neil O’Brien’s report for Onward, Measuring Up for Levelling Up [Link] was cited in Martin Kettle’s piece in The Guardian. Link.
Over the next decade, nine in every ten workers in Britain will need to be retrained, at a cost of £130 billion. That is the top line from a CBI report yesterday, alongside which Carolyn Fairbairn, the Director-General, said: “a failure to act will leave businesses facing skills shortages and workers facing long-term unemployment.” [Link]
The impression given is that this is ministers’ problem to solve. But over the last two decades, it is employers’ spending on workers that has fallen fastest. At the turn of the century, nearly 16% of working age employees received some form of job-related training. Today that figure is 13%. That is the equivalent of 130,000 fewer people receiving job-related training a year due to reduced firm-level training.
Moreover, it is precisely the kind of large firms who are part of the CBI who have shed training budgets the most. As Onward showed last year, businesses with over 250 staff now train their staff the least, providing trainees with 4.7 days of training a year, down from 6.4 in 2011. [Link] This is nearly half the 8.9 days of training delivered by micro firms with 2-4 workers.
Of course, this corporate disinvestment affects younger workers the most, who face the bleakest effects from the pandemic. Just 17% of 18-24 year olds received job-related training in the first two quarters of this year, compared to 23.5% in H1 2000, or 182,000 fewer young workers receiving on-the-job training.
There is no doubt that the UK suffers a long tail of low skills, and is falling behind other countries. That is why the Government’s announcement on adult education two weeks ago was so important. [Link] But it is equally clear that we will not close that gap without concerted effort from the business community, including CBI members, to reverse two decades of training disinvestment. That means business leaders must put their money where their mouth is and invest in their workers.
Newslinks
Green space. There are 1,257 neighbourhoods deprived of green space, according to the ONS. 42% of people from BAME backgrounds live in one of these areas, compared to only 15% of white people. Link.
Lost generation. There will be approaching 1 million young people needing help to find work in November, according to the respected labour market economist Professor Paul Gregg. Link.
Levelling Up Index. A new paper by WPI Economics ranks every constituency in the UK based on its levelling up need. 70 per cent of the constituencies most in need of levelling up are in the North and Midlands. Link.
Jobs for a Net Zero future. This new report by LSE identifies six key areas where Government investment could create up to 80,000 jobs which will also help in reaching Net Zero. Link.
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