If the Government’s levelling up agenda is to be realised - we must develop, deliver and promote world-class skills
The UK is respected for our world-beating knowledge economy: our top-ranking universities, reputation as a scientific powerhouse and that we punch above our weight in research are all things we are rightly proud of. However, to secure our seat at the global top table and realise the Government’s ambitious levelling up plans, we need to bring to life the world-class skills economy that Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi spoke about in November.
And this is also our mission at WorldSkills UK. We are the international arm of the UK skills sector, working with our peers in over 85 countries. We benchmark and share best practice in world-class skills development with countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. We do this to help more young people reach their potential with higher quality training and to help meet employer skills needs. We also do it to support the economy to be more competitive, productive and attractive to foreign investors so they see the UK as a prime destination to create highskilled jobs.
The UK has historically enjoyed a very strong position in terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). But since losing top spot in Europe to France, and with a renewed Government focus on attracting highskilled, high-wage jobs to all part of the UK, we need to learn from other countries how to make skills and inward investment work for each other.
Last year, WorldSkills UK established a Skills Taskforce for Global Britain to explore how more parts of the UK can use high-quality future skills to attract and retain valuable inward investment.
As part of that work, we commissioned an international report from OCO Global looking at how other competitor economies promote technical skills to win FDI. We found an inward investment landscape that is becoming more competitive and is changing in focus. Competition is becoming fiercer, with a greater number of markets entering the race to attract investors and established markets becoming more strategic and less laissez faire in their approach to FDI.
Investors’ needs and priorities are changing with an increasing focus on talent and on the technical skills which may have been overlooked in the past, but which are critical for thriving sectors such as clean tech, advanced manufacturing and life sciences.
The global locations successfully bringing in foreign investment not only have a sophisticated skills offer to attract investors, but also target firms for the high-quality skills they can bring and for the positive productivity and spillover effects they have on the local skills base.
Put bluntly, if you want to attract investment you need high-quality skills, and if you want high-quality skills you need inward investment. So whether you’re interested in attracting more investment to the UK or developing world-class skills, the message is clear - skills and inward investment need to be part of the same conversation.
If the Government’s levelling up agenda is to be realised - and the UK is to be internationally competitive and create high quality jobs – we must develop, deliver and promote worldclass skills.