A new industrial society?
We have been told for some years now that skills will be vital as the UK develops a knowledge based economy. The financial crisis has reinforced that thinking and now the talk is of a new industrial society, rather than a post industrial one.
The Government published a skills agenda last year, with such targets as: more advanced apprenticeships; investing in skills in the sectors on which future growth and jobs depend; empowering individuals through skills accounts; and a simplification of the skills landscape.
But where will skills be on the list of priorities once the inevitable cutbacks in Government spending - before or after the election - kick in?
