The Department for Skills and Education and unveiled new proposals to achieve world class skills for adults. The proposals will be put out for consultation.

Key measures will enable employers to determine the content of qualifications and advise on curriculum design. Funding will follow employers' demand and they will be able to choose their preferred suppliers.

Adult learners will be given purchasing power to use entitlements to learning through new learner accounts. A new career service will give them a free 'skills health check' and high quality information advice and guidance.

Higher and further education minister Bill Rammell said: "Our proposal is simple - place the power to choose in the hands of the individual and the employer, and empower and enable the best of providers to engage and excite more learners and employers.

"A new ambition for world-class skills has been set in the Leitch Report last month and echoed in the chancellor's Pre-Budget Report. We have to raise our game if we are to continue to compete in an increasingly competitive global context.”