Wolverhampton Business Breakfast 2025 at Molineux, with key note speaker Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister for Skills and Minister for Women and Equalities
00:00The only way that we will see the widespread economic growth that is this government's number
00:06one mission and as you've said is so important for Wolverhampton, Stephen, is by using your
00:14precious local insight to provide the skills training that the local economy needs and the
00:22good jobs that local people deserve. Skills really matter to this government. We see
00:29them as a much greater force for good than simply one small lever in the big machine of
00:37the economy. Of course we want skilled labour to power economic growth, to drive businesses
00:43and workers' austerity, to boost the tax take and our public services. But skills can do
00:50so much more than that. They've got the power to improve the nation's health as well as its
00:56wealth, to drive social renewal, to support and help us to fight climate change. And we're
01:04determined therefore to get the structures right around skills, to fix the foundations of the
01:12skills system as we said when we came into government. Because skills have this tremendous potential
01:20to change our country for the better. And of course also construction is absolutely key
01:27to this region. A huge number of skilled construction workers will be needed to build the 1.5 million
01:35homes that we committed to deliver during this parliament. But we know that the construction sector
01:41already has over 35,000 vacancies with half due to a shortage of candidates with the right skills.
01:49That's the highest rate of any sector. There aren't enough construction students and apprentices and
01:57we need to tackle that. There aren't enough students completing their courses and capitalising on what they've learned.
02:06And in order to challenge and to deal with that, we'll need to work with course providers on changes to improve
02:13those outcomes, to fix that leaky pipeline of learners. And overall, the commitment to construction skills
02:23has been shown by the Chancellor announcing our construction skills package earlier this year, committing over 600 million pounds over the next four years to deliver up to 60,000
02:35up to 60,000 skilled workers. And that package includes new construction foundation apprenticeships to inspire young people to join the industry.
02:46Ten dedicated technical excellence colleges across the country working with employers to drive better courses and more staff throughout the college system.
02:57It's a really exciting and important moment for construction, an opportunity to grow the sector, to solve one of the country's most persistent social problems.
03:07And we'll work with post-16 providers like those here today so you can make the most of this funding to meet local and regional construction skills demands.
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