Extra cash hope for skills councils

The government looks set to provide extra money to ensure that local employers sitting on the new learning and skills councils understand national training requirements.

Local employers, representing broad industrial sectors, will comprise a significant proportion of the membership on each of the 47 local learning and skills councils. They will be briefed by national training organisations (NTOs) on national skills needs. An NTO spokesman said he was optimistic that government will provide extra money to enable them to carry out briefings.