CONFRONTING THE SKILLS CRISIS: Agents for change

The Government's new training structure puts the demands of employers centre-stage. Through licensed Sector Skills Councils, they'll be able to tell training providers exactly what skills and talents they need.

If the International Olympic Committee introduced a new event for the Athens games next year - that of 'Reinventing the wheel' - the UK would be favourites for the gold. In spite of past initiatives, reviews and reforms, the problem of our low educational attainment endures.

We now have a workforce in which nearly eight million people have failed to acquire the equivalent of five decent GCSEs, and where too many still enter the world of work having had a dismal experience of education and training.