date: 8 January 2009

embargo: 00.01hrs Friday 9 January 2009`

State funded training should be made available to all those facing redundancy

As the Government prepares for its job summit next week, a TUC report published today (Friday) is calling for state funded training to be extended to all workers facing redundancy.

Skills in the Recession welcomes the Government's recent £350 million expansion of Train to Gain for small and medium-sized employers to train staff. The TUC report calls for this to be expanded further by relaxing Train to Gain funding rules, so that all workplaces threatened with job losses can access funding.

The report also calls for the Government to revise the '16 hour rule' that prevents people studying for more than 16 hours a week from claiming unemployment and housing benefit. This discourages benefit claimants from taking further education courses, even though evidence suggests that it can help people back into work.

As well as short-term measures to help dampen the impact of the recession, the report calls on the Government to link its skills strategy with a more active industrial strategy.

The TUC wants the Government to match investment in sectors that the UK is performing well in, such as creative industries and low energy manufacturing, with investment in appropriate skills so that the UK workforce can meet the demand for new jobs in these sectors.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Providing more training will give the millions of people who have lost their jobs a better chance of returning to work as quickly as possible. The Government deserves credit for increasing investment in training, such as the extra £140 million announced this week to boost apprenticeships.

'But more can be done, such as expanding Train to Gain to all those at risk of redundancy and removing the '16 hour rule' that discourages benefit claimants taking further education courses.

'As well as the short-term need for training, the Government must also look at the kind of economy we want to emerge from the recession. We want to see a fairer, more balanced economy, with a greater emphasis on high value jobs. To do this, the Government must ensure that UK workers have the skills to take up new jobs in high performing sectors like our creative industries and low energy manufacturing.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC reportSkills in the recession can be downloaded at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/skillsintherecession.pdf

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (500 words) issued 9 Jan 2009