Employees Given Time Off For Free Training

07 Dec 2004

Gordon Brown has announced the launch of the Employer Training Programme; a scheme aimed at improving employee skills in the UK, which has the highest level of unskilled workers in Europe with one in three employees having very low or no skills.

The Employer Training Programme will offer all employees without skills at GCSE level or equivalent free training, each employee will be entitled to time off work and the government will help employers to do this.

Mr Brown said; "For decades low skills have been our 'Achilles' Heel' as a modern economy - and the post-war 'laissez faire' training system has not, and will not, meet the skills needs of the future."

He also announced that the government would be commissioning a report into the country’s skills needs which will be assessed by the Chairman of the National Employment Panel, Sandy Leitch.

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