Thursday, July 28, 2005



Industry training

Labour has announced its third "pledge card" policy for the election: a significant increase in apprenticeships and industry training. Modern Apprenticeships would be increased to 14,000 from the current 9,000, while funding for structured industry training (carried out by autonomous Industry Training Organisations) would also be boosted. In many ways this is just "more of the same", rather than a new policy, but it also highlights Labour's chosen themes. Education and training is the key to opportunity, and Labour is promising to provide more of it. Likewise, education and training are vital to improving the county's productivity (the sticking point in our economic growth), and Labour is working to boost that as well. And its a contrast with National, who support opportunity only for those who already have it, and whose employment policy will discourage any real productivity gains.

This isn't as exciting as the tertiary policy, but its a good, solid, progressive move. I wonder what the other four pledges will be?

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