Reuters – Staff Writer
“Britain plans to spend an extra half a billion pounds a year to improve skills training, the government said on Sunday, seeking to address the country’s nagging productivity problems as it prepares to leave the European Union. Weak productivity growth has hindered Britain’s recovery from the financial crisis, and many employers say the problem is largely due to a shortage of workers with sufficient training. With Britain seeking to impose more controls on workers from the EU once it leaves the bloc, the government is looking with increasing urgency to bridge the skills gap. The extra spending on developing the skills of 16- to 19-year-olds will be announced in finance minister Philip Hammond’s annual budget statement on Wednesday. It will be rolled out from the 2019-20 financial year, reaching 500 million pounds ($615 million) a year from 2022.”(more)