High quality skills will be absolutely critical for the future of the UK economy. This is the message that comes across loud and clear again in EY’s 2020 Attractiveness Survey “Building back better” which looks at trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK.
We know what it takes to develop world-class skills and we are using our unique international benchmarking, insight and access to drive the greatest skills education and policy from across the world into UK practice to help improve outcomes in our skill systems.
EY’s latest Attractiveness Survey shows that skills are a top priority when investors are choosing where to place their capital. It also shows that the UK is a favoured location for new sectors such as digital and clean tech. And that current investment patterns are heavily skewed towards London, working against efforts to ‘level up’ the economy across the regions and nations.
This report explains a number of ways in which we can help address the skills questions raised by potential investors in this survey:
- benchmarking skills standards against the best of the rest globally
- achieving world-class standards through our training methodology
- developing skills that are strategically important for the UK economy
- boosting skills and opportunities in all parts of the UK.
It also sets out our action plan for helping develop the UK’s digital skills to make the most of international investment opportunities in this sector in all parts of the UK.
WorldSkills UK actions:
- explore new digital skills programmes to bolster the UK’s digital economy
- unite UK further education leaders around the need for excellence in skills development aligned with investment and business need
- convene leaders in skills, government and the private sector to use international best practice in skills development to help drive a skills-led recovery.
