Why should employers invest in training in a flexible labour market?
The recent ‘Slouching towards utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century’ by the US economist J Bradford DeLong shows a turn in the world…
Campaign for Learning
FE colleges, business innovation and meeting employer skills needs
There are 163 further education colleges in England. They work with around 130,000 employers – an average of 800 employers each. There are around 2.4…
Universities, R&D, business innovation and meeting employer skills needs
Universities play a vital role in the UK’s business and innovation ecosystem; their network of labour, skills, research and commercial activity is an important part…
Local inward investment, business support and employer demand for training
The 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are business led partnerships between the private, public and third sector. They play a central role in determining the…
Job quality, job design and driving-up employer investment in training
Evidence shows that employer investment in training in England remained stable in real terms between 2015 and 2019 (see Table 1). But there was a…
Transitioning to net zero, green skills and employer investment in training
Transitioning to net zero is an economic challenge and it must work for the whole of society. Central to transitioning to net zero will be…
Strategies to drive-up employer investment in training
The starting point for progress is to recognise that in England, the rights, roles and responsibilities of employers in relation to skills are remarkably unclear.…
Derived demand, British management and employer investment in training
“Skills are a derived demand: employers’ skills needs are a consequence both of their product strategy and the firm’s characteristics. Management is a key determinant…
Employer investment in training in England
Over decades, a problematic trend in the UK has emerged – employers are failing to invest in training the workforce, despite technological change and the…
UK enterprises and investment in capital and training
The UK enterprise population It is often said that small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are the backbone of the UK economy. According to the…