UK unveils training effort to reduce reliance on migration

LONDON

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to reduce the U.K.'s "long-term reliance on overseas workers" as he unveiled a new skills training organization aimed at boosting productivity and economic growth.

Starmer said his government hopes the new body, named Skills England, will transform "not just how we train our young people and adults, but also the relationship between business and education system".

"I do not criticise businesses who hire overseas workers and I certainly don't diminish the contribution that migration makes to our economy, to our public services and of course to our communities," he said in a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Starmer said his Labour government, elected on July 4 and facing calls to outline how it will tackle migration, "won't be content just to pull the easy lever of importing skills."

"We're turning the page on that," he insisted, pledging to "reduce our long-term reliance on overseas workers."

Skills England will work with another public body, the Migration Advisory Committee, to identify current and future skills gaps and address them.

It will bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to do that, while providing strategic oversight of the skills system for over-16s, according to the Education Ministry.

Between 2017 and 2022, U.K. skills shortages doubled to more than half a million and account for more than a third of job vacancies, the ministry said.

Net migration levels, the difference between those coming to the country and those leaving, have soared in recent years, reaching a record 764,000 in 2022.

Last year it was 685,000, driven by non-EU citizens.