UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute to Warn Pols of Need for More Skills

September 22, 2008

The UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute announced that it will “highlight, at both the Labour and Conservative party conferences, the stark lack of skills in the UK workforce at this crucial time in the economic climate.”

The CII said it “believes that the issue of skills needs to stay top of the political agenda, after its latest MPs survey found that politicians agreed that of all the factors involved in driving competitiveness, a well-trained workforce was the most important.

“Earlier this year the CII annual membership skills survey found that 83 percent of employers questioned said they thought that there was a clear link between a firm’s profits and its investment in training.”

At this year’s Labour Conference in Manchester, CII Director of Policy and Public Affairs David Thomson will join a fringe event on Sept. 23, chaired by Skills Minister David Lammy, discussing the skills challenge facing UK business.

On Sept. 29 he will join Shadow Minister for vocational education John Hayes in Birmingham to discuss the UK skills crisis.

Thomson explained: “With the turmoil in the global financial markets, with yet more employees in the UK workplace feeling under threat, we must not take our eye off the ball in terms of skills. I am pleased that both the Labour and Conservative parties have decided to raise this important issue at their respective conferences.

“Businesses are at the moment focused on the immediate concerns of the economic slowdown and rightly so. But long-term sustainability of any business, as our membership survey shows, relies heavily on expertise, knowledge and competent staff.
It is a big challenge – but it is a big prize.”

Source: Chartered Insurance Institute – www.cii.co.uk

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