Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Sam Francis & Lora Jones
- Role, Political reporter & Business reporter
-
Unemployed Britons will be pushed towards “skills bootcamps” in a bid to plug gaps in the labour market left by overseas workers, the work and pensions secretary has announced.
Mel Stride said the UK had relied on foreign labour “for too long”.
But industry figures suggested the plans may not be enough for British businesses that are at “breaking point”.
Labour also dismissed the proposals as a “talking shop” that would not deal with the scale of the problem.
The plans, overseen by a new ministerial taskforce headed by Mr Stride, come ahead of official net migration statistics set to be published on Thursday.
These include drastically hiking the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700 and reforms to make it harder for Britons earning under the national average to bring over foreign spouses.
Mr Stride said the new rules, which aim to reduce the number of people arriving in Britain by 300,000, present a “recruitment challenge” for employers.
He insisted the government was building a new economic model “based on British talent”.
Under the latest plans, benefits claimants would be given training for roles in key sectors facing shortages including hospitality, care, construction and manufacturing.
The new model will be partly based on the measures introduced in 2021 to target a chronic shortage of HGV drivers, which included skills “bootcamps” and Jobcentre training schemes.
Mr Stride said: “It’s a plan providing more opportunities for people here at home to get on, to progress, and to increase their pay.
“I know this presents a recruitment challenge for some employers in certain sectors, particularly those that have relied more on migration in the past.
“For too long we have relied on labour from abroad when there is great talent right here in the UK – I am determined to put that right.”
Mr Stride will also chair a new cross-government taskforce to develop recruitment initiatives for industries with major shortages.
However, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation questioned the prioritisation of British workers over foreign workers when employers are struggling to fill many job postings.
“The bottom line is that many British businesses are at breaking point because of labour shortages,” said Kate Shoesmith, its deputy chief executive.
“It shouldn’t be about picking winners or employing British workers over foreigners. It is about creating the right conditions for long-term, sustainable economic growth”.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Alison McGovern accused the government of “running down our skills and training system”.
She said: “We now have record levels of net migration. They should be putting in place proper plans to tackle worker shortages and adopting Labour’s plans to connect the immigration system to skills.”
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman, Wendy Chamberlain, said: “In many ways this is an admission that the Conservatives have no plan to tackle the biggest reason that people are unable to work, which is that NHS waiting lists are through the roof.
“Thousands are struggling to access the healthcare they need, meaning people are unable to go back to work.
“This Conservative government has neglected our NHS which is continuing to damage the country’s economic recovery. We will only get the economy back fighting fit by fixing the health crisis.”