Gerwyn Davies, Public Policy Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said:
“Political speeches and policies on migrant labour come and go. What remains constant is the desperate need of employers for workers with the skills and attitudes required to drive growth and performance for their organisations. Real solutions to the challenge of getting more British citizens into jobs won’t come in the form of quick fixes. What is required is a culture change which sees policy makers, education providers and employers engaging consistently and with commitment to improve the academic, technical and, crucially, the employability skills of young people. Only by doing this do we have a chance of getting to a point where employers no longer tell us so readily that they turn to migrant labour because they prefer the skills, experience and work ethic to that they see when they recruit more locally.
“This is one of the reasons why the CIPD has launched our “Learning to Work” campaign, which will see us working with employers to bridge the gap between education and work, making young people more ready for the workplace, helping employers to ensure work is more “young-people ready”, and breaking the vicious cycle of no-experience, no-work.”
