Fulfilling Labour’s five missions for government depends upon harnessing the talents of everyone, with a world class education and skills strategy, in all parts of the country. The plan for a bold reforming agenda to expand opportunity includes:
- Early years reform to boost child development with an ambitious target of half a million more children hitting their early learning targets by 2030.
- School reform by modernising the curriculum to properly prepare young people with the knowledge, skills and personal qualities needed to thrive in work and life.
- Strengthen the teaching profession to end the recruitment and retention crisis that is damaging standards.
- Skills reform through creating more opportunities for young people to learn vocational skills and adults to retrain in the skills businesses need.
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Keir Starmer is right to expose the ‘class ceiling’ that narrows ambitions for working class kids, which follows them into adulthood and leads to economic insecurity and injustice. This mission launched today focusses a future Labour Government on fighting for every child regardless of their background to give them a chance from the very beginning to thrive and prosper throughout their life.
“The development and introduction of new technology and automation is a critical challenge in many workplaces. The resultant job insecurity and retraining need is massive. An estimated nine in ten employees in the UK will need to retrain by 2030. Despite this, the Government has scrapped the Union Learning Fund in England and refuses to address the significant failings of the Apprenticeship Levy system.
“It is clear that only Labour has the ambition to give children the education opportunities they deserve and provide the lifelong learning that a modern economy needs so that Britain can compete in the future world economy.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 350,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades
www.usdaw.org.uk
Labour’s 5 missions for a better Britain: https://labour.org.uk/missions/
- Secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.
- Make Britain a clean energy superpower to create jobs, cut bills and boost energy security with zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.
- Build an NHS fit for the future that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.
- Make Britain’s streets safe by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels.
- Break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage for every child, by reforming the childcare and education systems, raising standards everywhere, and preparing young people for work and life.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
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