After Kier Starmer made reference to the skills gap crisis in yesterday’s white paper proposals on immigration, British Institute of KBB Installation (BiKBBI) CEO Damian Walters has warned that this approach “has the potential mask the real issue” of needing to develop the UK’s workforce.
In a BiKBBI press release, Walters said: “Whilst I wholly accept that immigration, not to be confused with illegal immigration, will play a positive role in filling the skilled labour shortages in the UK, I can’t help but feel that the much bigger problem is the fact that we have, for decades, neglected the development of our own homegrown vocational workforce and that by including the topic within the latest immigration proposals, has the potential mask the real issue.
“As I said back in 2016 when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Economic Union, valuable migrated skilled labour was already masking a festering British problem – trade neglect.”
Walters also said he felt that the government was perhaps linking the subjects of immigration and the skills crisis “to gain political points”, but acknowledged that the government had made progress in this area already, such as “with a long-overdue focus on apprenticeships being a key mandate”.
The BiKBBI CEO continued said that having “legitimate, tax-paying, migrated skilled labour to plug the gaps” was a good short-term solution to the skills gap crisis. Hiwever, he said that the government’s longer-term strategy “must be on growing our own talent”.
Walters concluded: “Are parents supportive of their children embarking on a trade over an academic career pathway and, more so, what’s in it for the current workforce? Because, right now, I’m not sure they really understand the benefits for them… and I don’t blame them!
“Small businesses need support to embrace apprenticeships, whether that’s financial incentives, or if it’s simplifying a complex process to take on an apprentice. By all means fix the immigration issues (because they need fixing), but please don’t lose sight of why the skills gap is evident. I simply fear that today’s announcement is confusing the real issue here.”
Walters has been vocal about the topic of the skills gap crisis for many years. He has particularly argued that there has been significant growth in demand for skilled KBB installers over recent years, but that the KBB industry has an aging and shrinking workforce and a shortfall of skilled new installers entering the sector.
In related news, a poll by small business insurance provider Simply Business earlier this year found that six-in-ten UK tradespeople believe that investment in apprenticeship schemes will be the key to resolving the skills gap crisis.
