Skills revolution

The Government’s next big test

IT IS ironic that Rishi Sunak, the current Chancellor, is too young to remember the 1980s recession when unemployment rose inexorably past the three million mark and left proud industrial communities scarred for decades.

He will, however, be aware of the lasting damage inflicted by the recession in the early 1990s – and how Britain was only just recovering from a period of spending restraint when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

And this political and economic scholar, born in May 1980, already knows that there’s a new generation of young people now counting on him to keep their own hopes and dreams alive.

Yet, while it’s paramount that individuals take personal responsibility for their future, and are proactive in their approach, one word has never been more urgent or crucial – skills.

Barely mentioned since the UK went into lockdown 10 long weeks ago, the focus on skills will need to be relentless as a recession-hit economy undergoes such a systemic reconfiguration to take account of new working practices and financial realities.

How times change. The upheaval has been so sudden, and far-reaching, that careers which looked sensible just a matter of weeks ago now look illadvised.

Yet it will be in the Treasury’s best interests if it empowers each and every region to invest in skills – and build on the work already taking place in Yorkshire. Investing now in today’s young people should pay off in the future with a skilled and dynamic workforce contributing to the renewed prosperity of Great Britain plc.