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Mike sets talent challenge
Wednesday July 09th 2008. Posted: 17:15
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Mike Rake says businesses have a crucial role to play in helping employees increase their skills
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BT chairman Mike Rake says businesses have a crucial role to play in helping employees increase their skills as part of the UK’s drive to be competitive in the new global economy.
He makes the comment in a Financial Times supplement article on the importance of attracting and retaining talented people in the light of rapid growth in the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and other emerging markets, which is expected to provide stiff competition for British workers. Speaking in his role as chairman of the UK Commission for Employment and Skill (UKCES), Mike says: “This demand for talent and skills is not new. What is new is the sheer scale of the challenge and the speed at which things are changing.” The issue has become a hot topic since Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged business leaders to rise to the “talent challenge” at a Business in the Community (BITC) summit last year. And the UKCES - which was set up by the government three months ago - has been challenged to raise UK prosperity and opportunity in the area of employment and skills. The BITC has warned that, by 2020, the UK may have lost five million unskilled jobs. Mike goes on: “The stark reality is that almost three-quarters of our 2020 workforce has already left formal education. “There is a pivotal role therefore for business, in partnership with government, to not only up-skill staff we already have but make sure we bring in those that are hardest to reach.”
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Last updated:
10:55