‘FE must be central to our post-Brexit re-evaluation’
Less reliance on imported talent could be good news for further education and skills, but only if we change the culture that produced Brexit, argues Dame Ruth Silver President of FETL, in an article for TES.
As the discomforting reality of our decision to leave the European Union emerges from a morass of inflated claims, deliberate distortion and downright falsehood, many in further education and skills are beginning to see the likely post-Brexit skills shortage as an unprecedented opportunity for the sector.
Inevitably, a reduction in imported skills will increase our reliance on homegrown talent. Brexit is already having an impact on the UK’s skills profile. Net migration is down due to EU citizens emigrating from the UK while last month’s KPMG survey of European Union workers suggested that almost a million EU citizens working in Britain are either planning to leave the UK or have made up their minds to do so. This significant loss of talent – many of those opting to leave are highly qualified and working in sectors where skilled staff are hard to recruit – will hit the economy hard. With freedom of movement likely to end or be substantially constrained after Brexit, employers will increasingly have to look elsewhere for the skills they need and increasing investment in homegrown skills and talent would seem the obvious response.
Read the full article here.
