Apprentices are secret weapon in fight for productivity argues Professor Lord Bhattacharyya

Commenting in the Sunday Times (13 September), Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman of WMG, University of Warwick, says the neglect of technical education over the past decades means we lag our biggest competitors and success depends on understanding business needs.

He says “A highly skilled workforce is the key to creating virtuous circle where productivity improvement spurs increased investment which in turn drives productivity growth. The neglect of technical education over past decades means we lag our major competitors.

Unless skills training is given and funded by industry, it will be poorly targeted. We (WMG) succeed because we focus on understanding business needs, offering research and education that is both academically excellent and industrially relevant.

It is this vital role of the private sector in technical sector in technical education, which demonstrates the need for statutory apprenticeship levy, so that skill providers respond to business needs, not just government grants.

When I was a graduate apprentice, there was a levy on my company, so they lost nothing and gained much by providing quality training. I first called for a training levy eight years ago. If set at 1% of payroll, the levy would provide £2bn for skills training each year.

The government should not fudge this. While it is right that corporation tax should fall, it is also right that business should contribute to improving productivity through relevant skills provision. Industry should help design the apprenticeship levy but it must not be delayed or watered down. Without the levy, only cheap low-skill training will be offered, as is happening now.

Funding the levy properly is essential not only to apprenticeship but also to reshaping technical education. Only by embracing such radical change to the habits of our learning, working lifetimes can we secure Britain’s industrial revival.”

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya’s full article can be found here