Saturday 16 May 2009

Investing in Skills During a Recession

Everyone who works in the world of learning and developing is witnessing the impact of the current recession. It will be interesting to look back and see which organisations managed to hold their nerve to continue investing in their people during the tough times.

Mike Rake, the chairman of BT made this short video recently to discuss this very point. He is also the chairman of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills who have recently published a report on this called "Ambition 2020: World class skills and jobs for the UK"

The report recommends the government adopt an ambition of being in the top eight countries in the world by 2020, and sets out five key priorities for achieving that aim. They are:
  • Create a clear and integrated cross-government strategy for economic transformation and renewal.
  • Develop a simpler, more agile and demand-led skills and employment system, capable of anticipating and addressing both existing skills needs and emerging industrial opportunities and challenges.
  • Transform individuals' aspirations, maximising motivation and opportunity for everyone to develop their talents.
  • Build employer ambition and capacity to be world-class, capable of competing globally as high skill, high value added organisations.
  • Support better integration of skills into economic development activity in cities and local economic communities.
If Mike Rake is putting his name to it then it's worth taking note.....

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