The UK government's "real strategy" aimed at curbing immigration centres on a skills revolution, Education Secretary Justine Greening claimed on Thursday.Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce education summit, Ms Greening called on businesses to help create "an army of skilled young people" by helping the government to overhaul technical training for teenagers.

Technical training to the forefront

"I want to create an army of skilled young people for British business. But I need your help. Government can't do it alone," she said. "Because that's what we need, never more than now. A skills revolution for Brexit Britain. That's the real strategy on migration."Great companies need great people. And my department has a mission to give our young people the very best start – to become those great people."Ms Greening said that the government's new 'T-level' technical qualification, which will be offered alongside the expanded apprenticeships scheme, would be at the heart of a new technical education system. 

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Under the T-level system announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in the spring in a bid to boost technical training, qualifications will be based on schemes being developed with business organisations in 15 disciplines, including construction, electronics and engineering."Delivering these reforms will be a challenge," said Ms Greening. "I am clear there is only one way to get this right – through a genuine partnership between business, government and education professionals. This means we need a collective plan. One plan. One team. For skills."A skills revolution. A technical education revolution. That is how we meet those challenges – head on. It's how we build our future."Some £50 million is to be made available from next April to fund work placements under the T-level programme, in addition to £15 million to help improve further education courses. The education department will host a working summit with business groups in the autumn to work out how the system will operate in practice.

Research finds work placement ‘fatigue’

However, coinciding with Ms Greening's speech was publication of research commissioned by the Department for Education, which found that employers were already experiencing work placement ‘fatigue’, even before the T-level scheme has become a reality.The study by the Learning and Work Institute looked at the T-level proposal for the introduction of a one-to three-month work placement for every student.“The evidence suggests that further investment will need to be made to increase providers’ capacity to successfully engage employers and boost the number and range of work placements offered to the levels described in the Skills Plan,” the report said.“Concerns were raised at the workshops that employers may already experience fatigue as a result of the number of requests they receive from learning providers, and that a more coordinated approach will be necessary to ensure this issue is not exacerbated.”

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Read David Sapsted's article on Establishing Right to Remain – which discusses the uncertainty over immigration which the UK faces following Brexit – in the Summer 2017 issue of Relocate Magazine.

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For related news and features, visit our Immigration section.

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