Labour’s national mission champion for opportunity talks skills with IEMA and the Aldersgate Group

IEMA and Aldersgate Group members were delighted to be joined by Labour’s National Mission Champion for Opportunity, Sarah Smith MP, to discuss the potential of the new Growth and Skills Levy. Ben Goodwin, IEMA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, reflects on the key points from the roundtable session. You can visit their website here.

Labour has organised its approach to government into several key missions, one of which is focused on breaking down barriers to opportunity by reforming and improving the education system.

In opening the roundtable, Sarah reflected on the challenges that she is grappling with as the National Mission Champion for Opportunity including the need to tackle the entrenched high rates of youth unemployment and providing the right opportunities for those later in life to reskill and upskill to play a valuable role in a growing economy.

Increasing apprenticeship numbers is a key plank in building a workforce that can deliver sustainable economic growth i.e. growth that has our long-term climate and wider environmental commitments at its core.

The current apprenticeship system is fraught with difficulties, most notably how inflexible it is for employers in terms of how funds for training can be spent.

The discussions were a useful opportunity for James Fotherby (Senior Policy Officer at Aldersgate Group), to set out recommendations from work the Aldersgate Group has undertaken, mapping out complementary policy measures to maximise the effectiveness of the new Growth and Skills Levy, mitigate against potential negative knock-on effects, and help propel green growth.

The report recommends greater focus on improving career advice, offering financial support for SMEs, and creating greater transparency in how apprenticeships are funded, among others.

There was broad support for this thinking when IEMA and Aldersgate members attending the roundtable were invited to participate in the roundtable discussions, with the necessity for there to be appropriate support mechanisms in place for SMEs reiterated several times.

Other discussion points focused on the need for policy certainty to enable businesses to make strategic investments in training. The flip flopping that’s been seen on electric vehicles policy was highlighted as an example of how uncertainty can stifle investment, with similar concerns expressed in relation to the inconsistent approach that’s been taken over decades to building retrofit policy for energy efficiency.

The discussion also touched on the need to improve access to apprenticeship funds to boost social mobility. There was reflection on the stark situation that exists in the environmental and wider sustainability sector, where diversity and representation from minority groups are particularly poor.

Along with the new Growth and Skills Levy, the government has also established Skills England to help develop the pipeline of talent that can deliver sustainable economic growth. There were calls to ensure that Skills England regularly engages with industry on its work and long-term approach.

Finally, the conversation turned to ensuring that the new policy architecture for funding and developing skills provision is tied to the need to embed green skills and jobs throughout the workforce.

The Green Jobs Delivery Group that existed prior to the July election had completed wide ranging research and produced several recommendations for the development of a cross-sectoral plan that could help achieve this.

IEMA and the Aldersgate Group would urge the government to feed these insights into how the Growth and Skills Levy, alongside Skills England, drives progress on sustainable growth.