Bid to boost 'average' skills level

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said a new "national effort" was needed to raise skills amongst workers and job seekers, otherwise millions of people would be left without work.

He also backed an announcement from the fast food chain, Network Rail and budget airline Flybe of in-house diplomas which will be nationally recognised training awards. Mr Brown denied the move would amount to dumbing down, insisting the courses would be tough and intensive.

He told a conference of employers that he wanted to see one in five young people on apprenticeships within 10 years, in a push to win the global "skills race".

Whitehall departments will be told to create more apprenticeships, and firms will be encouraged to target more girls for certain jobs, such as those in engineering and construction.

Mr Brown said that, a generation ago, a British Prime Minister faced tackling the global arms race, but today his challenge was the global skills race. He said that, of today's six million unskilled workers, only a fraction would be able to find work in the future unless they increased their training.

The Prime Minister said the urgency of the task had been brought home to him during his recent visit to India and China, which between them are producing five million graduates a year, 150,000 computer scientists and 200,000 engineers.

"It is more obvious to me than ever that globalisation rules out competing on low pay."

Mr Brown urged trade unions not to press for higher wages for apprentices, arguing that pay rates should be lower during training.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said it was "disappointing" that the Government had delayed addressing a key problem with apprenticeships - that of poor pay. "Although the poorest paid apprentices, often young women, are now protected from the worst ravages of exploitation by an £80 wage floor, this has not increased since August 2005."