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CMI welcomes focus on education and skills in the CSR

Submitted by Mike Petrook CMgr MCMI on Wed, 20/10/2010 - 16:14

CMI's response to Chancellor’s Comprehensive Spending Review

Following the announcements unveiled today in the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has welcomed the Chancellor’s focus on skills and the education as a route towards economic growth. However, as the voice of the UK’s management and leadership community, CMI is concerned that the extensive budget reductions affecting the Department for Education and BIS will adversely affect the quality of talent available to employers.

Petra Wilton, director of policy and research at CMI, says: “There can be no doubt that cuts are necessary, so it is against this backdrop that we applaud the Chancellor’s decision to offset some of today’s announcements with recognition that improved skills and education are vital to our collective future economic security and prosperity.

“His actions have been designed to ensure that employers and learners make a greater contribution towards funding skills development. However the reduction in funding for both higher and further education will affect the volume and quality of education offered each year and with this, we are likely to miss out on developing the management skills needed to help grow business and bring Britain back on a sound financial footing.”

“Of course, it is great news that the Apprenticeship Programme receives an additional £250 million to help create 75,000 additional places, but questions remain about employer attitudes towards apprentices. The onus must now be on Government, professional bodies and employers to find a way of knocking down barriers that prevent further uptake and to work together to ensure that, whichever education route is chosen, employers have as wide a talent pool as possible to build for the future.”

Against this backdrop, CMI is calling on the Government to:

  1. work through key partners, including professional bodies, to help engage employers and learners so that the commitment to develop skills is shared and recognised by all
  2. ensure the skills needs of the current workforce are addressed so that employers are able to build for recovery now, not just rely on the future
  3. retain high quality leaders and managers to help drive the efficiency savings and reforms across the public sector.

- ends -

Further information:
Faith Riding/Vicki Cole
Telephone: 020 7612 8865/020 7612 8953
Email: faith.riding@kindredagency.com / victoria.cole@kindredagency.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

  • The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the only chartered professional body in the UK dedicated to promoting the highest standards of management and leadership excellence. CMI is the founder of the National Occupational Standards for Management and Leadership and sets the standards that others follow
  • As a membership organisation, CMI has been providing forward-thinking advice and support to individuals and businesses, for more than 50 years, and continues to give managers and leaders, and the organisations they work in, the tools they need to improve their performance and make an impact
  • As the only organisation to offer qualifications from Level 2 (GCSE) to Level 8 (PhD), CMI is committed to equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge to be exceptional managers and leaders. Qualifications and accreditations such as Chartered Manager, combined with products such as CMI’s Continuous Professional Development scheme and the online support resource, ManagementDirect, support the development of management and leadership excellence across the UK
  • Through in-depth research and policy surveys of its 90,000 individual and 450 corporate members, CMI maintains its position as the premier authority on key management and leadership issues

     

Comments

Submitted by Mike Davies on Thu, 21/10/2010 - 11:35

I might be mistaken here but how did the CSR focus on skills?  I thought the university budget was slashed pretty heavily?

Submitted by John Rye MCMI on Fri, 22/10/2010 - 16:31

CMI's somewhat mixed response to the Spending Revue strangely used the words 'welcome', 'applaud' and 'necessary'.

The reasons for the size of the cuts and the haste of their introduction are political - more to do with getting then 'out of the way' before the next general election than dire economic necessity.

Managing that debt downwards is certainly necessary.  However, is this Spending Review that management, or the assertion of long-held political objectives to reduce the state come-what-may?

There seems to be much of the latter and on that basis, I do not feel CMI ought to welcome or applaud very much about the cuts.

 

Submitted by John Griffiths FCMI on Sat, 23/10/2010 - 13:13

It's highly likely that most of the loss of students will be in the rather spurious degrees that don't offer the economy very much and the really determined people who want to make a difference with useful subjects will still get through.

Also a chance for the private sector to step forward in offering training and sponsorship to committed able people to do additional studies including MBA's and other Master's qualifications.

Submitted by Mike Davies on Sat, 23/10/2010 - 13:59

It is almost certain to have had political impact in mind when making this Review, I mean the NHS being spared any cuts is almost certainly a political measure rather than any underlying belief that no savings could be made, but I'm broadly in favour of what they're doing.  The spending will go back a few years so it's not like we're having public services destroyed.