The UK Work and Pensions Secretary has announced that unemployed Brits will be sent to 'skills boot camps' to fill the gap in the labor market created by overseas workers.
The government already runs intensive training “boot camps” to help retrain unemployed people in a number of sectors, but the new plan will help those hardest hit by labor shortages due to new immigration rules. The focus will be on the type of job you are taking.
Mel Stride He said the UK had relied on foreign workers for “too long”.
The plan is being overseen by a new ministerial taskforce led by Mr Stride and comes ahead of official net migration figures due to be released on Thursday.
Labor rejected the proposal as a “talking table” that did not address the scale of the problem.
Net immigration (the difference between people entering and leaving the country) in the UK will reach a record high of 745,000 in 2022.
Since then, the government has announced a series of measures aimed at significantly reducing the number of people entering the UK.
This includes a significant increase in the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700 and reforms to make it more difficult for Brits earning below the national average to bring in a foreign spouse. is included.
Mr Stride said the new rules, which aim to reduce the number of people entering the UK by 300,000, created a “recruitment challenge” for employers.
But he insisted the Government was building a new economic model “based on British talent”.
Recipients of the benefit will be provided with training for roles in key sectors facing labor shortages, including hospitality, care, construction and manufacturing.
The new model is partly based on measures introduced in 2021 to target the chronic HGV driver shortage, including skills 'boot camps' and jobcentre training schemes.
“This is a plan that will provide more opportunities for people here at home to grow, advance and increase their pay,” Stride said.
“We know this is a recruitment challenge for some employers in certain sectors, especially those that have relied on immigrants in the past.
“My message to businesses is clear: Our Jobcentre team is ready to help you find the right candidate and wants to work with you to overcome your recruitment challenges.
“For too long we have relied on labor from overseas, despite the great talent we have here in the UK. I am determined to set that right.”
Stride will also chair a new cross-government task force to develop recruitment efforts for industries with severe labor shortages.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Alison McGovern accused the Government of “depleting the skills and training system”.
He said: “Net immigration is now at record levels. The Government needs to get a good plan in place to tackle the labor shortage and adopt Labour's plan to link immigration to skills. We should,” he said.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrats' work and pensions spokeswoman, said: “In many ways this means that plans to tackle the biggest cause of people not being able to work, which is huge NHS waiting lists, are underdeveloped. “It is an admission that the party does not have.”
“Thousands of people are struggling to get the medical care they need and are unable to return to work.”
“This Conservative government has ignored the NHS and continues to damage the country's economic recovery. We can only get our economy back to health by solving the health crisis.”
