The FT has reported:

“Boris Johnson on Wednesday promised an apprenticeship to every young person, as the government braces for a wave of youth unemployment in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The Prime Minister confirmed the government was drawing up a strategy for tackling widespread job losses caused by the virus, including through major investment in skills and training.

“In dealing with the fallout of coronavirus, we will be as activist and interventionist as we have been during the lockdown,” said Mr Johnson. He added there would be investment in infrastructure and green technology and that people would be given the skills they needed to work in the post-Covid-19 economy.

Mr Johnson said young people faced the highest risk of losing jobs and being out of work for a long time, raising the spectre of 1980s-style unemployment. “Young people, I believe, should be guaranteed an apprenticeship,” he added.”

If this promise is delivered it is welcome and demands considerable investment in and an identification of the skills that this country really needs.

Much of the talk will be of technology but many of the skills needed will be in the jobs required  to build a sustainable and more caring economy. Many of the businesses that have prospered during the pandemic have been in sectors such as food manufacturing and retail, healthcare and equipment supply.

But asking businesses to provide skills training will be pointless if the businesses that will use these skilled people do not exist.

For any programme to work the government does not just need to provide the funding for the training: it needs to facilitate the creation of the businesses that will employ these trained people. And it then needs to ensure that the funding is available for those businesses to meet the needs of our society.

This is where the opportunities lie for entrepreneurial business owners; as businesses fail new ones will emerge to take their place and sectors will open up to meet the demand for products and services to be delivered in new and innovative ways. A ready, willing and trained workforce will be welcomed by these businesses, but without the entrepreneurs who will take the risk in the first place– as we have always done – not a lot will change.

Stay safe

Noel Guilford