World class skills

Book excerpt: This document sets out a plan for England in developing world class employment skills and is a companion document to the Green Paper, Cm.7130, In Work, Better Off (ISBN 9780101713023) also published today, and follows on from the Leitch Review, published December 2006 (ISBN 9780118404860) along with an Executive Summary (ISBN 9780118404792). This publication aims to explain how the Government will provide the right supporting framework to act as a catalyst for a skills revolution. More than a third of adults in the UK don't have the equivalent of a basic school leaving certificate; 6.8 million people have serious problems with numbers and 5 million people are not functionally literate. As part of this development, the Government has set out new rights that learners and employers will have, under what are called Skills Accounts and the Skills Pledge. The Skills Accounts will be part of the new adults careers service done through Jobcentre Plus, which aims to give every adult easy access to skills and careers advice. The Skills Pledge enables employers to demonstrate their commitment to improving skills in their workplace, with the Government supporting employers through Train to Gain brokerage. Also current funding entitlement for adults to free training in basic literacy and numeracy skills, will be strengthened. Produced by the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the document sets out the Government's policy direction to build better skills.