Aim 2: training provision meets employers' business needs and employers can recruit people with the vocational and employability skills needed to increase productivity.
The Leitch review highlights the need to improve the level of skills to raise UK productivity to rival that of comparator nations. Despite improvements over the last decade in the skills profile of the working-age population, over a third of adults in the UK (double the proportion of Canada and Germany) do not have a basic school leaving qualification; five million people have no qualifications at all; one in six adults does not have the literacy skills expected of an 11 year-old, and half do not have a similar level of functional numeracy.
It is anticipated that, by 2020, the proportion of working-age people without any qualifications will fall to four per cent; however, at least four million adults will still not have the literacy skills expected of an 11 year-old and 12 million will not have numeracy skills at this level.
Working with employers and the further education system, the Improvement Strategy will ensure employees achieve a 'basic platform of skills' as well as the intermediate and higher level skills needed by employers and the necessary vocational and employability skills to address these challenges.
The overall objectives to support Aim 2 are that:
2.1 Employers increasingly become strategic partners of colleges and providers to ensure that their skills and training needs are met
2.2 Standards for excellence in employer engagement are rationalised so that colleges and providers are clear what is expected of them and employers can choose provision that suits their needs
2.3 National partners work together through the Sector Skills Agreements, with employers and their representatives and with colleges and providers, to help colleges and providers deliver provision to meet the needs articulated by employers
2.4 The profile of skills and training is raised and their value to the economy and society as a whole is more widely recognised
The detailed implementation plan for how these objectives will be achieved is set out here.
The achievement of these objectives and actions will mean that colleges and providers become more responsive to employers' needs, and employers will invest in this provision.
The indicators that will be used to measure how well these objectives are contributing to this aim are set out here.