CABINET OFFICE News
Release issued by The Government News Network on 1 April 2008
Issued On behalf
of Government Skills
A strategy committing leaders in the civil service and armed
forces to work together on common skills issues was launched
today, Tuesday, 1 April 2008, by head of the civil service, Sir
Gus O'Donnell.
Government Skills, the sector skills council for central
government, has worked with HR directors and learning leads, heads
of professions and permanent secretaries to develop the strategy.
Called 'Building Professional Skills for Government', it
will help departments to deliver higher professional standards, to
improve value for money in closing skills gaps and to ensure that
candidates for the future workforce are better prepared for a
civil service career.
Commenting on the strategy, Gus O'Donnell said:
'Skills are critical to all employers. The global economy is
changing rapidly. China and India are growing dramatically and
their workforces are becoming ever more highly qualified. The
UK's ability to keep pace in this competitive environment
will be determined by the skills of its workforce. The civil
service is no exception. The public rightly expects us to do more
with less. In order to meet the demands of tomorrow, to retain the
public's trust and confidence, and to deliver ever-improving
services we must use our talents to the full.'
'The successful delivery of this strategy depends on all of
us playing our part. Each of us has to make a commitment to learn
- to recognise that today's standards are not good enough for
tomorrow. This is a challenge that applies to all colleagues
across all levels. And I am determined we must meet it.'
The strategy is based on research carried out by Government
Skills during 2007 with employers, employees and training
providers across the UK. Results showed a strong degree of
commonality in the skills issues faced. Evidence from the
Capability Reviews of government departments has shown that
delivery of services could improve further if skills gaps are
addressed. Despite the commonality of the skills issues faced,
Government Skills research with training providers showed that
departments are not acting together.
The strategy - agreed by government departments and the armed
forces - will deliver over a three-year period a new environment,
in which:
* increasingly, employees at all levels will understand the
professional standards they need to attain, and see the career
benefits of attaining them
* employers across government will
work together to target investment on current and future common
skills priorities
* providers will deliver higher quality,
better value skills development programmes, responsive to the
needs of the sector
* educational institutions and government
employers will engage in practical dialogue to find fresh
approaches to strengthening the skills within the talent pool from
which we recruit our future workforce.
The strategy identifies a number of specific initiatives at a
strategic and tactical level to demonstrate the benefits of common
action. These include a programme to create 500 additional
apprenticeships in government departments, which for the first
time will be part funded by the Learning and Skills Council.
Speaking about the apprenticeships pilot, Ian Watmore, permanent
secretary for the Department for Innovation, Universities and
Skills - and the new champion for apprenticeships within the civil
service - said:
'Apprenticeships are the centrepiece of government policy on
skills. They enable individuals of all ages to make the transition
that they want to make to succeed in their lives. I am very keen
to see apprenticeships take root in the civil service - building
on the good work already done on apprenticeships by the Department
of Work and Pensions (DWP), the Ministry of Defence and Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).'
Government Skills will work on a range of initiatives designed to
improve training commissioning. This will include working with the
Office of Government Commerce Buying Solutions (OGCbs) to create a
learning and development framework contract which can form the
basis for delivery partnerships across government. This will
improve government's ability to operate as an intelligent
customer of training provision.
Finally, the strategy also identifies a programme of engagement
with the HE and FE sectors to help to develop the future workforce
of the civil service to ensure they develop the skills required by
government employers in the years to come. Government Skills will
create an Employer Network to bring together employer
representatives to exchange knowledge and good practice and
increase the quality of individual departmental relationships with
HE/FE providers.
Notes to editors
1. Government Skills was licensed as a
Sector Skills Council in January 2006 and is one of 25 SSCs
charged with driving forward the skills agenda and representing
the views of employers. Government Skills became part of the
Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills on 1 April 2008.
2. Government Skills covers the skills and development of over
half a million Home civil servants, 26,000 Northern Ireland civil
servants, an estimated 65,000 in executive non-departmental public
bodies and almost 200,000 armed forces personnel. The small team
of learning and development, qualifications specialists and
project and stakeholder managers work with employers to develop
strategic solutions to common skills issues.
3. 'Building Professional Skills for Government - a strategy
for delivery' is available from 1 April 2008 on the
Government Skills website under Research and publications:
http://www.government-skills.gov.uk/research_and_publications/skills_strategy/index.asp
4. John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities
and Skills will speak at the Civil Service Live event on Wednesday
2 April at 4.40pm setting out how DIUS will lead on boosting
skills and innovation in the public sector and more widely
throughout the supply chain.