NIESR's Matt Bursnall and Stefan Speckesser ask are we right to be concerned about access to skills in the UK? Recently, the FT showed that contrary to popular belief the most troubling issue for SMEs in Europe is not access to finance but access to skills a?? with the level of concern and the gap between the issues getting larger. If this is true, British business and SMEs in particular have even more reasons to be concerned in light of Brexit. The UK benefited greatly from the access to the EUa??s common labour market and was able to attract a sizeable workforce with intermediate and higher level technical skills from other EU Member States. Losing availability of potential employees with adequate skills from abroad to fill the gaps identified by SMEs is going to make it even more important to understand how learning in the workplace, and more generally, participation in technical education by adults, needs to develop to ensure an adequate supply of the skills needed by the economy.

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11 October 2017

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CVER Blog

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http://cver-blog.blogspot.com/2017/10/investment-in-adult-skills-in.html

This Blog is published under the centre's Education programme.