Skills drive makes sense

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has welcomed the Government's announcement of an extension of training provision for people lacking basic skills, and of thousands more apprenticeship places for both younger and older workers.

CIPD research, however, shows that employers are increasingly more concerned about personal and general employability skills when looking to recruit then they are about basic skills.

So long as the initiatives the government is announcing today fully take into account the need to boost these core employability skills, the result should be lower unemployment, lower net migration, higher earnings, more stable employment patterns and a boost to labour productivity.

But, as Dr John Philpott, the CIPD's Chief Economist warns, the Government should drop the 'British jobs for British workers' tag from its skills and employment policy rhetoric since this makes no sense in economic terms and appeals to the worst sentiments in our society.

Dr Philpott continues:

"A moment's reflection demonstrates the economic nonsense of thinking about jobs in a nationalistic way.

"Thousands of UK employees earn their living either directly or indirectly as a result of foreign investment. More still can thank the efforts of foreign entrepreneurs who have migrated to our shores to set up successful businesses. The jobs provided in these ways are 'British' only insofar as they are located here many could be performed almost anywhere in the global economy. But no one in their right mind objects to them. Indeed the more 'imported' jobs of this kind the better for our overall living standards, not least because inward investors inject state-of-the art technology, adopt excellent management practices and offer relatively good pay and working conditions.

"In similar vein British firms are investing heavily in emerging markets overseas and creating employment offshore. Estimates by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) indicate that at least 30,000 'British jobs' are being offshored every year, mostly to Eastern Europe, India and China. Although this is inevitably a cause for concern - especially where offshoring is accompanied by redundancies in depressed local economies - the protectionist argument that these jobs should be retained at home is misguided. There is no guarantee that a limit on offshored jobs would result in more jobs in Britain.

There might even be fewer - CIPD research finds that organisations engaged in offshoring also create some new, mostly skilled, jobs in the UK as a result of spin-offs from overseas operations. And this takes no account of the potential long-run benefit to the UK economy of increased demand for goods and services from economies British investment is helping to grow.

"In truth of course the Government's focus on Britishness in this context is designed to assuage mounting public concern about record levels of net migration. The trouble in this respect, however, is that it's harder than one might think to define "British worker"
for purposes of employment policy.

More than 1 in 10 people working in this country are foreign born. Some are footloose but many have put down roots and consider themselves, if not fully British, at least as committed to their work as us natives. More to the point, all who work here legally pay taxes and, assuming they are entitled to remain and have worked for long enough, can receive welfare benefits if made unemployed and should be offered the full range of support, including skills training, to help them find new jobs.

"The Government should make clear that its aim is to provide skills and jobs for the jobless in order to achieve full employment.

If successful, this would limit the need for immigration at current levels, cut the associated costs and buttress the Government's managed migration policy. But clouding this with talk of "British jobs for British workers" is simplistic, misleading and at worst encourages racist and xenophobic elements in our society whose activities undermine the common good."

Members of the Work Place Learning Centre team are available to provide journalists and media organisations with expert comment on all aspects of learning at work.

View our editorial policy click here.