4. Current skills system problems

The adult skills crisis in the UK has been exacerbated by historic and systemic skills training weaknesses and failures of government policy. These include a complex centralised funding system, higher education fees which have discouraged adult learners; hugely reduced funding of further education which has affected access to upskilling and retraining; and not least, the failure of the Conservative government’s flagship policy to boost workplace training — the apprenticeship levy.