Four key focus areas could help tackle the skills gap which the 海角视频 is facing and the Liverpool City Region is urgently trying to address.
That鈥檚 according to Claire Warnes, Partner and Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG, who called for businesses and regional policy makers to help change the approach to skills and learning during a Skills Matter roundtable forum in Liverpool.
The event, in association with Liverpool City Region Business Post, follows the arrival of KPMG's Skills Matter report, which highlights the importance of learning when it comes to boosting growth in the 海角视频.
The document proposes actions to help close the skills gap, fund and deliver skills training and create a culture of lifelong learning across the country.
Addressing more than a dozen city region business leaders at Liverpool City College鈥檚 Academy Restaurant, Claire Warnes said: 鈥淲hatever the Brexit outcome and indeed the general election outcome, all parties are surely going to have to place a greater focus on skills.
鈥淵ou could say we鈥檝e been focusing on it for decades and haven鈥檛 been able to crack it. But now鈥檚 the time for us to address the fact the 海角视频 skills and productivity isn鈥檛 good enough.
鈥淲e are the business community and the education community and we have to crack this. If we wait for government it won鈥檛 get cracked.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been working with business but also the education sector; we鈥檝e produced the Skills Matter document and a number of videos associated with that to just get people thinking differently and hopefully more collaboratively about how we might solve the skills and productivity crisis.
鈥淭here is a major skills and productivity gap and it is different in different nations of the 海角视频. It鈥檚 different in different places of the 海角视频. But there are some common issues and there are four areas we should address.鈥
Claire offered the insight alongside fellow KPMG senior national director Justine Andrew, the Market Director for Education, Skills and Productivity during the event, which was part of a series of major debates sponsored by the firm in association with Business Post and hosted by Jennifer Lee, the recently appointed Head of KPMG in Liverpool.
Here are the four suggested areas which could help boost skills and productivity.
Recognise and accredit skills, not just qualifications
鈥淚 lived in Frankfurt for two years and experienced the values of a technical education alongside the values of an academic education,鈥 explained Claire.
聽鈥淭hat鈥檚 about helping people define themselves not just by the value of their GCSEs or A Levels but on the technical skills they have and could develop. And creating a mechanism for people to be able to explain and accredit those skills. And then enabling an easier transfer of skills from one vocation to another.
鈥淭oo many careers are still career escalated. People have to jump off, drop down to the bottom and start again. Why is that when many skills are endemic or much needed across all sectors? Most of our generation value qualifications; we鈥檝e been encouraged to push ourselves towards qualifications and that is a good thing.
鈥淵et I believe skills should be given a similar value to qualifications. It鈥檚 going to need some attention - there鈥檚 a cultural thing here.鈥
Investing in digital learning
鈥淒igital learning is the way to offer accessible learning but only if we deal with digital literacy and digital infrastructure,鈥 Claire explained. 鈥淣ational government policy needs to act. But regional and local policy needs to step in similarly.聽
鈥淲e may all be rushing towards 5G at a time when many parts of the country don鈥檛 have 4G and don鈥檛 have access to decent digital learning.
鈥淵et we know digital learning is the way to enhance social mobility and create greater accessibility to learning, to help people to learn in a way that suits them; when they are able to, when they can afford to etc.
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 address digital literacy and digital infrastructure, we risk creating an even bigger divide within our societies and disadvantaged parts of our economy. Now is the time to address that.鈥
Embracing apprenticeships
Highlighting the third area to place greater focus on, Claire explained: 鈥淎pprenticeships have been around for decades. But apprenticeships as a concept is much maligned.
鈥淚 just think we need to embrace it. And embrace the fact that technical education, more expansive education, more inclusive education and the opportunity to earn while you learn - and develop at a pace that suits you and your family circumstances - must be a good thing.
鈥淲e have to change our understanding of what apprenticeships are for. They are not for young people - they are for all people.
鈥淧eople should think about apprenticeships as an opportunity to develop their skills. That鈥檚 an area where we need to talk to government whether it鈥檚 local, regional or national government.鈥
Overhauling lifelong learning
鈥淢aybe we need a national skills framework,鈥 said Claire. 鈥淚t is extremely complex, but surely we can make it more simple, yet also acknowledge there are four nations of the 海角视频 with different regional deals; there are city and rural economies which need to be dealt with differently. And yet skills are skills and we need them wherever we look within our economy.
鈥淗ow can we help all citizens to recognise the value of lifelong learning, changing that deal that we鈥檝e all done, which is that you get as much education as possible and then you get into work?聽 Well that鈥檚 not sustainable, that鈥檚 not what we need.
鈥淎ll of these require a cultural change. They require us to think about education differently. They require us to embrace apprenticeships as of huge value to our economy, society, social cohesion and mobility.
鈥淎nd you need to think about how we incentivise that cultural shift. Is it through the welfare and tax system; is it through benefit schemes and employer contributions schemes, where we are actually asking people to invest in their own learning?
鈥淭hese are types of ideas we must talk about as businesses and as education providers if we are serious about addressing our skills and productivity gap, rather than thinking that the education infrastructure we currently have is going to move fast enough to accommodate this.鈥
Making change happen
Looking ahead, Claire told business attendees at the forum that they could start making the changes happen themselves at a regional level.
She said: "So maybe these aren鈥檛 radical ideas - I鈥檓 sure these are the conversations that you are having with businesses and with talented individuals that you want to hire.
鈥淭here is a shift in government policy but also a shift in civic leadership and regional engagement and in addressing skills and doing things in a more innovative and creative way.
鈥淚 think a better place to start is in not looking to Whitehall and Westminster to come up with that but to look to the Liverpool region, and to the North West and say 鈥榃hat is it we are going to do to get that happening?鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 very much of the view that we may be talking about things we have tried before,聽 but I say try them again. And try them on a regional basis, in a place based way with the energy and vigour that I think we need to bring to this - because we all care about it.鈥
For more information about KPMG's Skills Matter report click .
