Political

£10,000 “skills wallet” for all adults proposed by Liberal Democrats

I’ve regularly covered in the last few years the work of Vince Cable in particular to get the Liberal Democrats to focus on life-long learning, particularly for the (near)majority of teenagers who don’t get to university.

It’s become one of the party’s central policy pledges at this general election, as the BBC reports:

The Lib Dems are proposing a £10,000 grant for every adult in England to put towards education and training.

The money would go into a “skills wallet” over a period of 30 years, to help with the cost of approved courses.

The party says it would pay for the policy by reversing government cuts to corporation tax – returning the business levy to its 2016 rate of 20%…

Employers and local government will also be able to contribute to the wallets, and free careers advice will be given to people to decide how best to use the funding.

However, the courses will have to be regulated and monitored by the Office for Students.

Lib Dem business spokesman Sam Gyimah said: “In an ever changing workplace people often need to develop new skills, but the cost of courses and qualifications shuts too many people out.”

(As education is a devolved matter, the Westminster government cannot impose this on Scotland and Wales, but matching increases in the grants to those governments will be made to enable money there to be spent on this policy too if the devolved governments agree.)

 

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