(The Secretary of State for
Education): The world of work is transforming. In
particular, automation is a key opportunity for the economy,
creating new jobs and raising wages, but it could also bring
significant changes to the economy. This means it is critical
that we develop a National Retraining Scheme that helps prepare
citizens for future changes to the economy, including those
brought about by automation, and supports them to retrain into
better jobs.
That is why we are developing the National Retraining Scheme
through a unique partnership between the Confederation of British
Industry, the Trades Union Congress and Government, which will
keep the voices of workers and businesses at the heart of the
service.
The scheme will initially focus on employed adults aged 24 and
over, without a qualification at degree level and earning below a
certain wage threshold that we are testing to focus on those
earning low to medium wages. We are investing in this group of
people first as they have comparatively less access to existing
government support and are most in need of adapting their skills
to take advantage of the opportunities the future changes to the
economy will bring.
A key feature of the development of the scheme has been to start
small, test, evaluate and scale-up. We are putting the needs of
individuals and employers at the heart of the development of the
scheme, conducting extensive user research to understand what
they need from a National Retraining Scheme. We are also
conducting a range of pilots investigating innovative approaches
to overcoming barriers to training that adults face.
Today, I am pleased to announce the release of the first part of
the National Retraining Scheme, ‘Get help to retrain’, to a small
number of eligible adults in the Liverpool City Region. This
digital service will help adults to understand their existing
skills, explore alternative roles or occupations and find
relevant training to unlock opportunities for a broad range of
good jobs that could be within their reach. Get help to retrain
will be rapidly expanded to more people and more areas throughout
the testing phase before being made available to all eligible
adults in England in 2020.
This is the first of a series of products that will make up the
complete National Retraining Scheme and marks the first step of
an adult’s journey towards gaining the skills needed to secure a
better job.
