Justine Greening says Britain needs a “skills revolution”

Education secretary Justine Greening has set out her mission to spark the skills revolution needed to help Britain make a success of leaving the European Union.

In a keynote speech to business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce Education summit, Justine Greening told business leaders that the country can only rise to the challenge of developing the skills and talents of our young people if government and business work together.

This includes developing plans for new T levels, backed by an extra £500 million of government investment per year announced in the budget, which will help build the army of skilled young people that business and the country need.

Greening also outlined plans to deliver the huge range of skills needed to make Britain a success, everything from coding to engineering and construction to design, at a time when migration remains high on the political agenda.

She told the business audience: “I want to create an army of skilled young people for British business. But I need your help, government can’t do it alone. Because that’s what we need, never more than now. A skills revolution for Brexit Britain. That’s the real strategy on migration.”

Greening continued: “Great companies need great people. And my department has a mission to give our young people the very best start – to become those great people. The introduction of T-Levels will be the next stage in this journey - a gold standard for technical and professional excellence. Offered alongside apprenticeships, they will form the basis of our new technical education system.

“Delivering these reforms will be a challenge. I am clear there is only one way to get this right – through a genuine partnership between business, government and education professionals. This means we need a collective plan. One plan. One team. for skills.”

Justine Greening also announced a £50 million investment from April 2018 to fund high-quality work placements - a key component of every T Level – to help prepare young people for skilled work; £15m to contribute to improvements in further education so we have the colleges and teachers we need to deliver the new T levels; and plans for a Department for Education summit with businesses in the autumn to start developing the T level curriculum