December 2006 Leitch Report
Skills and Innovation: A Response to the Leitch Report
December 2006
NESTA endorses the ambitious skills targets set out in the Leitch Report, but more thought needs to be given to how to assess the needs of the future economy, and foster the skills fundamental for innovation.
'The Leitch Report is right to identify the skills gap as a major barrier to the future competitiveness of the UK economy.'
The Leitch Report's 'big idea' is that skills provision should be 'fully demand-led' - which it interprets chiefly as reflecting the priorities of employers.
To this end, the main recommendations are concerned with routing public funding for vocational skills in England through employers and proposing institutional reforms by which employers set funding priorities and make decisions on what vocational training is eligible for public funding.
If fully implemented, these recommendations would mark a fundamental change in public sector support for skills provision.
However, in implementing these provisions, careful consideration must be given to the requirements of other stakeholders, and the Report should go further in developing clear recommendations that will improve the skills essential to the improvement of the UK's innovative capacity.
View NESTA's response (PDF, 122KB)