Times business editor @fletcherr has spoken to the heads of Unilever, Salesforce and the CBI, as well as the government's Minister of Apprenticeships and Skills, about the future of work and higher education
Why is the UK experiencing a skills gap?
The speakers agreed that while Covid had exacerbated the issue, the transformation of the labour market in general over the last decade is rendering many peoples' skills redundant #TimesCEOSummit
.@Unilever's solution to this has been to 're-skill' its staff as roles within the company change
“It’s much more attractive to retrain and re-skill than it is to pay redundancy…we’re committed to reskilling all of our employees by 2025” says Alan Jope, the company's CEO
Is higher education failing to train people for work then?
Tony Danker, the Director General of the CBI, has pushed back against Kate Bingham's earlier comments about the need for a greater focus on STEM subjects
Gillian Keegan, the government's minister for apprenticeships and skills, herself argues that the issue is a broader disconnect between education and business - one that can be solved with greater employer involvement in education #TimesCEOSummit
The panel also noted that covid has forced many employees to reconsider their options, as well as what value work brings to their lives
In some cases, this has led to resignations #TimesCEOSummit
The CBI believes now that values, not perks or gimmicks, are what make staff want to stay with their employers #TimesCEOSummit
Gillian Keegan says that the government believes in a "need to create a culture of lifelong learning. That means adults coming back into education and re-skilling”
She's confident that the government can achieve this cultural change in the near future #TimesCEOSummit
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