News: Performance Management
British training would result in fewer migrants
07 December 2007
A report in the Daily Mail newspaper suggests that fewer migrants would be allowed into Britain if Britons learned more skills.
It claims that the government will not admit that the economy could cope with a reduction in the number of migrants from outside the UK, even though Gordon Brown has promised "British jobs for British workers".
It points out too that the chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, David Metcalf, said that many skilled foreign workers are given permits because Britons are "insufficiently trained up".
He said: "Why do you need people from abroad? You need them because presently the national labour is insufficiently trained-up for some of these occupations.
"As we improve the human capital of the British people - experience, training, education - it is quite plausible we would need fewer people coming in."
The definition of "shortage occupations" will be whether British workers could be trained to fill these positions.
