IOP responds to Public Accounts Committee report on workforce skills development

The UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee today published its report into the provision of workforce skills training.

Responding, deputy chief executive of the IOP, Rachel Youngman, said: “There is a clear need to improve the depth and quality of technical skills available to our economy and businesses and this report makes some useful contributions to the thinking around the support provided to employers to develop skills and the co-ordination of training and development.

“We are pleased the committee has listened to our calls for incentives for employers to invest in up-skilling and re-skilling and shares our concerns about the reduction in skills provision which we are seeing in the private sector.

“There is also real confusion from employers about the complex skills landscape they face and the recommendation that the Department for Education works to better co-ordinate the wide number of skills programmes and eliminate overlap between them is eminently sensible – provided it does not mean valuable routes to skills are sacrificed.

“The report has also missed an opportunity to acknowledge the barriers facing too many young people in our educational system. Girls and young people from many minority backgrounds are under-represented in physics and missing out on the life-changing opportunities studying physics can offer – the government must commit to breaking down stereotypes and opening up physics for all.”