LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Britain will launch training
options for adults to learn new skills in an effort to boost
productivity and help the country recover from the coronavirus
crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate, already at over 4%, is expected to
rise further as a job subsidy scheme put in place early in the
pandemic expires next month to be replaced by a scaled-back job
support programme.
"We cannot, alas, save every job. What we can do is give
people the skills to find and create new and better jobs,"
Johnson will say in a speech, according to excerpts sent by his
office.
"We're transforming the foundations of the skills system so
that everyone has the chance to train and retrain."
The measures will include funding to allow adults without
qualifications to take certain college courses without paying
fees, as well as flexible loans allowing people to space out
their study and transfer credits between colleges.
The government will also seek to boost the number of
apprenticeships, with more funding for small and medium firms
taking on apprentices, and will extend a pilot programme known
as digital skill boot camps to new locations.
The number of people doing vocational training has been
falling over the past two decades, the government said, adding
that 10% of adults in Britain held a higher technical
qualification as their highest qualification, compared with 20%
in Germany and 34% in Canada.
British businesses have complained for a long time of a
shortage of skills in the workforce, and the country's
productivity has persistently been lower than in some comparable
economies.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)