Employment and Skills: six critical priorities for the next government

Meager N, Hillage J | IES Paper  | Institute for Employment Studies | Mar 2010

Following the 2010 general election, it was recognised that whichever party took office it would be faced with a range of pressing policy issues on all fronts. However, high unemployment, the changing demands for skills, the need to increase productivity and to reduce expenditure on welfare meant that policies relating to employment and skills would be among the most important. As the UK was emerging from recession, tackling these policy issues was an urgent priority.

With over 40 years’ experience of policy evaluation and labour market research in the UK and abroad, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) gathered a wide range of evidence on the most important issues that needed to be tackled to raise employment and skills levels across the economy. IES identified half a dozen important policy issues to be first across the desks of the new ministers with briefs relating to education, skills, health, welfare and work, and some of the solutions needed to consider to help tackle these key issues.