Tackling skills shortages

That this House notes that there are significant skills shortages across the economy; further notes that the Open University and British Chambers of Commerce Business Barometer Report 2022 found that 72 per cent of responding private, public and third-sector organisations said that skills shortages are causing increased workload on other staff and that 78 per cent of respondents said that they reduced output, profitability, or growth; notes with alarm that adult education participation fell from 4.4 million in 2003-04 to 1.5 million in 2019-20; further notes that while recent spending on adult skills and apprenticeships has increased, total adult skills spending is still 22 per cent below 2009 funding levels; and therefore calls on the Government to support the calls from the Future Skills Coalition, Right2Learn, and other professional bodies to commit fair, accessible and effective additional spending on adult skills training, apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships, to develop a national strategy to support local, inclusive growth through our further and higher education systems, to commit to a statutory right to lifelong learning, to extend lifelong loan entitlement maintenance loans to distance learners, to support local research and development through additional funding to support small and medium-sized enterprises in feasibility and scoping studies, and to provide funding to employ industry liaisons to support staff at further and higher education institutions.