15:32 Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab)[V]

What is urgently needed is for the Government to get serious about creating jobs and training opportunities for adult workers in the industries of the future, such as green energy and the digital economy. Yet, it is not clear how the recent further education White Paper relates to the 10-year industrial strategy unveiled in 2017. Moreover, the Business Secretary’s disastrous decision to axe the Industrial Strategy Council suggests that this Government are not interested in the long-term, joined-up planning that will be essential to deal with the unemployment and skills crisis that confronts us today.

[Source]

15:43 Rachael Maskell (Labour)

On funding, I agree with the call from the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) for a long-term plan, which is an economic necessity, and for Labour it goes to the core of our values. Withholding vital funding chokes off the economy and chokes off opportunity, yet the Minister is significantly holding back on the resources needed, not least at this time of crisis. We have heard about the ageing workforce and the loss of skills through Brexit, advances in technology and automation. Obviously, the fall-out from the pandemic, which we are facing now, and the climate catastrophe will demand real new skills to turn the situation around. Therefore, adult skills and lifelong learning have to be funded effectively.

[Source]

15:53 Fleur Anderson (Labour)

Lifelong learning is essential for skilling up, for enabling people to develop their potential and achieve things, and for tackling inequalities in all our communities, which have grown ever wider under covid. It is essential for mental health and wellbeing, and for tackling isolation. It is also vital for our economic growth as a country, and for keeping our workforce skilled, adaptable and able to respond to climate change and to changing circumstances in the labour market. That is why this report asks for no less than a revolution in lifelong learning.

[Source]