Boris Johnson to offer free college courses to those who lost jobs due to coronavirus

The PM says his plan will guarantee ‘life-long learning’.

The Prime Minister will today outline plans to offer free training courses to people who lose their jobs in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Boris Johnson will use a speech on Tuesday to promise to guarantee ‘life-long learning’ – and help people without A-level or equivalent qualifications that are made redundant with skills for new positions. He will also reinforce a bleak message from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak that not all jobs can be saved as Covid-19 batters the economy.

In a move the Government claims will help people upskill regardless of their age, the PM will say his plan will create conditions for retraining to begin at any stage of people’s lives.

Last week Mr Sunak admitted that there will be job losses as Covid-19 hits the economy, and that his focus is turning to helping prop up ‘viable’ employment.

Later today, Mr Johnson is planning to say: ‘As the Chancellor has said, we cannot, alas, save every job.

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‘What we can do is give people the skills to find and create new and better jobs.

‘So my message today is that at every stage of your life, this Government will help you get the skills you need.’

The guarantee, according to Downing Street, will see adults without an A-level or equivalent qualification offered a free, fully funded college course to provide them with ‘skills valued by employers’.

They will also be given the opportunity to study at a time and location that suits them.

The offer will be available from April in England, and will be paid for through the National Skills Fund – which will be topped up with an additional £2.5 billion.

A full list of available courses will be announced next month, Number 10 confirmed.

Labour claims the move will come too late for many who have been out of work and that it will not reverse the ‘devastating impact of a decade of cuts’.

The Prime Minister is expected to claim: ‘We’re transforming the foundations of the skills system so that everyone has the chance to train and retrain.’

As part of the measures, the Government plans to make higher education loans more flexible, allowing adults and young people to space out their study across their lifetimes, rather than undertake it all in three to four-year intensive blocks.

Ministers suggest the shake-up will allow would-be students to take more high-quality vocational courses in further education colleges and universities, while allowing people to retrain for ‘jobs of the future’.

Number 10 added that the reforms will be backed by more than £1.5 billion of investment, targeted at college buildings and facilities.

Apprenticeship opportunities will also be increased as part of the Prime Minister’s plan, with more funding for small and medium-sized enterprises taking on apprentices, and greater flexibility in how their training is structured, particular in the creative industries and construction.

The CBI branded retraining a ‘vital priority’ and said the Government’s learning reforms are a ‘strong start’.

Director general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn said: ‘The significant unemployment coronavirus is leaving in its wake only accelerates the need for people to develop new skills and adapt to new ways of working.

‘The lifetime skills guarantee and flexible loans to support bitesize learning are a strong start. But to really shift gears, this must be backed up by meaningful progress on evolving the apprenticeship levy into a flexible skills levy.’

Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said: ‘What the government proposes is simply a mix of reheated old policies and funding that won’t be available until April.

‘By then many workers could have been out of work for nearly a year, and the Tories still think that they will need to take out loans to get the training they will need to get back in work.

‘These measures will not reverse the devastating impact of a decade of cuts, and will not give workers the skills and support they need in the months ahead.’

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