Skills for Business is a new network at the heart of an increased effort to make the British economy a world-beater in terms of skills and performance.  The network comprises the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and a number of strategic, employer-led Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)

Sector Skills Councils will develop sector workforce development plans at national and regional level on a ten-year plan.  SSCs will benchmark performance against best practice world-wide, looking at where smarter investment, better working practices or new and more appropriate skills can lead to a step change in organisational performance.

At present output per worker is now 38% higher in the United States, and 15%  higher in France.

The vision is that by 2010 that the UK will be in the top quartile of the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) league of economic performance.

A new vocational higher education qualification that will follow on from the NVQ’s is being introduced:  ‘the foundation degree’.  It is aimed at the growing skills gap at associate professional and higher technician level.  It is predicted that there will be around 800,000 job vacancies at this level in the next ten years.

The frameworks will be developed in collaboration with higher education institutions, further education colleges and professional bodies.

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