The Ford Motor Company's in-house staff training programme looks set to become the model for the Government's promised University for Industry, writes Phil Baty.
Prime minister Tony Blair was due to meet Ford's British chairman and chief executive Sir Alex Trotman this week. Sir Alex is expected to be invited to act as a senior advisor to the UFI scheme.
A spokesman from 10 Downing Street confirmed that the UFI, "among other issues, such as Europe", would be on the agenda.
The UFI was a Labour manifesto promise first proposed by Gordon Brown, now chancellor, and developed by the Institute of Public Policy Research.
It is to be a distance learning network, providing courses and information from existing education providers such as the Open University.
Josh Hillman, senior research fellow at the IPPR, welcomed the move. "In the original proposals we had a whole range of models of best practice and Ford's employee development assistance programme was one of them," he said.
"I would like to see the good practice in some of the other companies we were impressed by, like Unipart and Rover, also drawn on," he added. "It is important that the individual is allowed to take control of their own learning and that they are given specific entitlements with high-quality support."
A study earlier this year by adult learners organisation NIACE of the impact of the Ford scheme found it to be a success in widening participation. The scheme is specifically separated from direct vocational training in the company's training department.