Investment in skills and innovation set to help UK firms stay ‘ahead o

Laying out his Budget, Philip Hammond underscored actions to boost young people’s skills so they can do the skilled future jobs needed of a competitive workforce, and to invest in pioneering technology and innovation.

The moves were praised by industry experts, but there were also calls for additional action to help achieve these goals. Among the measures outlined was £300 million to fund research, including support for 1,000 PHD places and fellowships focused on so-called Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths.

Welcoming this cash injection was Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), who described it as “one part of the solution we need to boost UK productivity and profit from post-brexit opportunities”.

She added: “The government is right to state that innovation in skills is paramount to improving productivity: poor management costs the UK economy £84 billion a year in lost productivity.”

She also said she believes broadening the investment in skills to supporting women coming back from maternity leave would be welcome.

Also commenting from the CMI was director of strategy and external affairs Petra Wilton. She praised the Chancellor earmarking £500m a year to support those aged 16 to 19 in technical education, with new T-level qualifications to be introduced boosting vocational training.

But she said that to create the required workforce, “these technical routes must be developed with employers and aligned with the new breed of apprenticeships”.

Hammond yesterday also unveiled investment of £270m for disruptive technologies that can “transform the UK economy”, including biotech, robotics and driverless vehicles.

Harry Gaskell, chief innovation officer at EY UK and Ireland, said such action by the government is “vital to building the right infrastructure, skills and new technologies to ensure the country remains competitive on the world stage”.

But he also said the investment must be Uk-wide, “helping to rebalance the economy while building centres of excellence”.

Also on the agenda yesterday was news of £16m for 5G mobile technology. Patrick Imbach, co-head of KPMG Tech Growth, praised the funding, but said that given factors such as regulator Ofcom wanting 5G to arrive by 2020, “you would need to question how much of an impact £16m will have”.