23 January 2023
“I welcome CBI Director General Tony Danker’s speech today. As he rightly argues, achieving economic growth should be of paramount importance for UK public policy, and there is scope for improvement on this front.
“I would especially like to highlight his call for a bigger and bolder approach to tackle chronic skills shortages. The scale of this problem is often underestimated. AICPA & CIMA commissioned polling in December and found that 82% of SME employers have identified skills gaps within their organisation in the past 12 months. When this question was last polled in 2020 the figure was 65%, so the problem is getting significantly worse.
“Without action to upskill the workforce, we can expect a continuation of weak economic performance and depressed real wage growth. In our work on productivity, AICPA & CIMA have suggested ideas including introducing a rebuttable right to retrain, or mandated time for training, which could help plug the skills gap. It is time for these ideas to be given proper consideration.”
Paul Turner
Regional Vice President - UK & Ireland
AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants