Leaders of the Skills for Business network welcomed the launch in Parliament by the John Denham MP, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, of ‘World Class Skills: Implementing The Leitch Review of Skills in England’.

Mark Fisher, chief executive of the Sector Skills Development Agency, said: “The government is absolutely right to take on fully Lord Leitch’s ambition of what’s required to be a world leader in skills. To be amongst the top quarter of OECD countries by 2020 so as to meet the challenges of the new global economy means that we cannot simply do what we have always done.

“It’s essential, as has been announced, that the Government strengthens the employer voice at the heart of the system.  That way we will start to see the radical culture change needed to ensure that at least one in every two people in the entire working age population, not just those currently in the workforce, raises their skills by at least one educational level. This will also strike a blow for social justice and social mobility.”