Conference backed Usdaw’s call for Labour to ensure:
- Support for the further education institutions and training providers that are crucial to the delivery of meaningful and effective lifelong learning for workers.
- Workers have a right to paid time off for lifelong learning and training.
- Reform of the Apprenticeship Levy into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’.
- Workers have a voice in decisions made, locally and nationally, about Labour’s skills strategy and how the skills budget is used.
Addressing delegates,
Jane Jones – Usdaw President said: “The world of work is undergoing a period of rapid transformation. Global challenges, a cost of living crisis and developments in new technology have all created an uncertain and changing work environment and choices made by successive Tory Governments have seriously undermined skills and development.
“They’ve needlessly scrapped the Union Learning Fund in England and consistently failed to address huge flaws in the Apprenticeship Levy, leaving the country completely unprepared for the challenges that lie ahead. This appalling record must be reversed, before it’s too late.
“Labour has already committed to developing and supporting a modern skills system, this will be a huge piece of work. We need more support for further education and training providers, to help deliver meaningful and effective lifelong learning. And we need a legal right to paid time off for training. So that all workers have the opportunity to advance and develop new skills, because in reality the majority of working people simply can’t afford to take unpaid time off work to retrain.
“We also need urgent and fundamental reform of the Apprenticeship Levy. The Levy has been a complete disaster, with one-third fewer people starting an apprenticeship since it was first introduced. Labour has already committed to reforming the Levy into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’, to deliver accessible training and development opportunities for workers, especially disadvantaged workers, and to give businesses the flexibility they need.
“Workers both need and deserve a real say in Labour’s skills strategy. Trade unions have a fantastic record of supporting workers into training and we have insight from our members into what’s happening in the workplace. It’s clear that only a Labour Government, working closely with unions, can deliver the skills system needed to secure the future of Britain. So that all workers can benefit from the changing world of work.”
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
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