RHA welcomes Skills England announcement

The RHA welcomes the recent announcement by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson launching Skills England.

The RHA has long campaigned for a reform of the current Apprenticeship Levy system. The Government’s proposed reform aims to make the system more flexible and responsive to the evolving training requirements of businesses, ensuring that funds are used more effectively to train both existing and new workforce. 

Commenting on this news, RHA Skills Policy Lead, Sally Gilson said: "We are pleased to see that the Labour government has prioritised Apprenticeship Levy reform.

"The proposed changes will undoubtedly provide businesses with greater choice and the ability to tailor training to better meet their specific needs. This is a critical step towards building a skilled workforce that can drive growth and productivity in the UK." Skills England will seek to create Technical Excellence Colleges, to provide high-quality technical education. 

Given the technician skills shortages our sector is experiencing, we welcome the focus on technical education. It will be crucial that colleges, along with independent training providers are supported in funding new technologies in line with Net Zero targets for the decarbonisation of transport. 

We also welcome the review into qualifications at Level 3 and below. These entry level vocational qualifications are vital to the sector. 

Given the skills shortages that logistics is still experiencing, we would welcome a specific logistics qualification to be developed which will help raise the profile of the sector, as well as giving students an entry point either into industry via an apprenticeship or university degree.