Appenticeship Levy reform can boost business performance: Beckie Hart

our Employment Trends Survey, in partnership with Pertemps Network Group, found that access to labour and skills remains the most pressing labour market concern for businesses.

To resolve some of our shortages, it’s crucial that firms operate in an environment that encourages more investment in training and development.

But companies are currently being held back by external challenges.

We recently published the results of our Education & Skills Survey, examining some of the issues firms in our region are facing.

Let’s start with the good news: 47 per cent of respondent firms said they plan to maintain investment in training and development – up from 43 per cent in the previous year.

Businesses remain committed to doing what they can to improve the skills of their workforce, despite economic pressures.

But the proportion of firms who wanted to increase investment in training and development over the next year has fallen – down to 38 per cent from 53 per cent.

Meanwhile our survey also showed a lack of awareness of important Government skills reform programmes.

Take the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE), for example: four in five of respondents said they were unaware of the initiative.

A majority of respondents also showed low, or no awareness of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPS) and T Levels (82 per cent and 65 per cent respectively).

Some respondent firms said they did not run apprenticeship programmes.

Those firms identified a mismatch between current apprenticeship standards and skills needs, the complexity of administration, and greater relevance of other forms of training, as key reasons for not offering apprenticeships.

There seems to be a disconnect between firms who want to be able to boost their training and development offer and some of the available options in place to facilitate these ambitions.

So, it’s crucial that we are all pulling in the same direction when it comes to increasing business investment in skills.

That means closer collaboration between Government and business to get rid of the roadblocks currently holding us back and impeding economic growth.

Reforming the Apprenticeship Levy into a Skills Challenge Fund would be an important first step - a measure that is wholeheartedly backed by firms right across Yorkshire and the Humber.

If we pull this lever, we can boost employer skills investment and business performance.

This is just one way a more flexible Government approach on skills can bolster firms’ ability to respond to the country’s economic needs and create more training opportunities.

Beckie Hart is CBI regional director for Yorkshire and Humber.