Labour pledges skills focus to boost Britain’s next generation

Ahead of the quarterly immigration stats publication on Thursday, Labour has called on the government to “get a grip” of “sky-high immigration” by overhauling the skills system, to give Britain’s young people more opportunities to secure good jobs and brighter futures.

New stats released by Labour today show sharp drops in the number of apprenticeships completed in courses that lead to key jobs where there are current labour shortages.

Construction apprenticeships - which pave the way for bricklaying and other vital infrastructure roles - have plummeted by 38 per cent since 2017. Engineering and manufacturing completions have dropped by 49 per cent in the same period. While the numbers completing science and maths have fallen by a massive 67 per cent in that time.

It was announced in May that annual net migration has hit 606,000 – almost three times higher than when the Conservatives promised to reduce it in their 2019 election manifesto (232,000). The number of work visas granted has also doubled since the pandemic started.

Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of having no plan to address the high levels of immigration, the major cause of which has been 13 years of the Conservatives’ failure to train up homegrown talent to fill skills shortages, especially in health and social care.

Just last month it was announced bricklayers, plasterers and other construction jobs had been added to the Shortage Occupation List. They join care workers, engineers, web designers, laboratory technicians on the growing list of roles where a loophole allows for overseas recruitment that could mean applicants are paid 20 per cent less than the going rate and benefiting from a lower application fee.

Some of these roles – including nurses and engineers - have remained on the Shortage Occupation List for 15 years, without any concerted action to address the underlying causes.

Labour is committed to equipping the next generation with the skills and support needed to flourish. The party is setting out a series of proposals to ensure businesses seek to recruit and train local workers before looking overseas. These include:

• Scrapping the 20 per cent migrant worker wage discount on the salaries businesses are required to pay for jobs on the shortage lists
  
  
• Reforming the apprenticeship levy to support upskilling and skilling in key shortage areas including IT and engineering
  
  
• Placing responsibilities on employers who recruit from abroad to introduce new training plans and other requirements – including Labour’s plan for more homegrown doctors and nurses and Fair Pay Agreements for Social Care.

Stephen Kinnock MP, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, said:

“It’s time the Tories backed Britain’s workers and got a grip on the double whammy of sky-high immigration and endemic skills shortages.

“With plummeting numbers getting apprenticeships in key jobs and an immigration system which incentives cheaper overseas recruitment, the Conservatives risk stunting the ambitions of a generation.

“In contrast, Labour will support homegrown talent and reduce reliance on migrant Labour. Our plans put skills and fairness at the heart of a properly managed and controlled immigration system. We will end the licence to undercut pay, which is unfair on everyone and undermines training and recruitment here at home, and ensure employers who do recruit from abroad introduce training plans to skill up Britain’s young people.”

Ends

Notes:

Fall in the number of apprenticeships completed in key workforce shortage areas:

Source: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f11ff0f3-3db9-4230-7802-08db997aeba0

The measures outlined above are informed by the party’s ongoing review into immigration reform, conducted by Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock, and have involved consultation with businesses and trade unions. 

The commitments sit alongside Labour’s wider plans to get people back to work, whether they are off long-term sick, on NHS waiting lists, or have left the workforce during Covid. Labour’s plans, which would reduce reliance on migrant labour, include:

• The biggest NHS workforce expansion in its history: Labour has also set our NHS workforce recruitment and training plan to bring down NHS waiting lists and get people back to work, including 10,000 more nurses and doubling medical placements.
  
  
• Fixing the Access to Work scheme by improved targets for assessment waiting times and by giving people who are looking for work ‘in principle’ indicative awards. This will mean people searching for work – and employers – know what support is available to help in the workplace.
  
  
• Targeted help for over 50s: work across government, to offer all those who have previously worked but recently left the labour market “back-to-work support and guidance”.

• Scrapping the 20 per cent migrant worker wage discount: under current arrangements, the general immigration route for work purposes is the Skilled Worker visa. Lasting for up to five years, an employer can recruit from abroad using this route providing (i) the salary offered is at least £26,200 and is at least the “going rate” for the occupation; (ii) the employer is licensed as a sponsor; (iii) the occupation is at the requisite skill level, RQF3+ (approximately A-Level or above); and (iv) the individual can speak English to the requisite standard.

• NOTE: the “going rate” for the job is calculated by the ONS as being the 25th percentile for that occupation/skill/experience level so it is already at the lower end of the salary scale. In theory the “going rate” provision is  designed to prevent undercutting, especially on pay and conditions.

• For jobs on the Shortage Occupation List the minimum salary threshold falls to a floor of £21,600 and people can be paid up to 20% less than the going rate. visa application fees are lower (alongside other exemptions).

• Labour would work with business to develop a timetable for the implementation of these combined reforms to training and the points-based system, as part of Labour's review into work-based migration led by Stephen Kinnock

• Data on average earnings and going rates for civil engineers are available here:
• • Employee earnings in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
  • Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

• In their 2021 Annual Report, the Migration Advisory Committee recommended scrapping the ‘20% discount’ on the ‘going rate’:
  
  “The MAC has never supported lowering the salary threshold below the ‘going rate’ for an occupation. If there is a shortage in the occupation, it seems perverse that paying lower wages will address the issue. Furthermore, the ‘going rate’ thresholds are in place to prevent undercutting of resident workers and being placed on the SOL should not enable employers to avoid this constraint. In practice, few employers are using this advantage, with only 15% of applications for these select SOL occupations in the first nine months of 2021 paying below the ‘going rate’. The evidence that few are taking advantage of this suggests it is not helpful for employers either, and we would therefore recommend that the Government reconsider whether SOL occupations should be allowed to pay below the ‘going rate’ for the occupation.”
  
  MAC Annual Report, 2021 - Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) annual report, 2021 (accessible version) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)