Top of the Policies: Skills
Hosted by: Pragmatic Radicalism
At: Barley Mow, Westminster
Two minute speech on 'Bringing transparency and accountability to the skills agenda, followed by Q&A
Draft speech (check against delivery)
Skills policy isn't just about improving the quality of the workforce, its also about ensuring that workers are fairly remunerated for using the skills they already have.
At the moment, public sector organisations are subject to Freedom of Information requests, yet if a service they run is privatised, and ran by say, IBM or Serco, this no longer applies and the cloak of secrecy falls upon their operations.
This prevents the public finding out information about how much they pay their workers and whether this is equal between genders and indeed any characteristics. FoI legislation would ensure fairness in these instances.
Currently organisations such as McDonalds also run qualifications which are not subject to FoI rules, and this is also a concern. Even exam boards such as Edexcel aren't subject to transparency laws about their practices.
To change this, the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is currently at Committee Stage in the Lords, should be amended to apply FoIs to any organisation running public services and also those providing people with qualifications.
This will ensure workers are fairly compensated for their skills, whilst ensuring qualifications meet the standards expected of them. Doing so will give people confidence that by upskiling further, glass ceilings won't block their way
Hosted by: Pragmatic Radicalism
At: Barley Mow, Westminster
Two minute speech on 'Bringing transparency and accountability to the skills agenda, followed by Q&A
Draft speech (check against delivery)
Skills policy isn't just about improving the quality of the workforce, its also about ensuring that workers are fairly remunerated for using the skills they already have.
At the moment, public sector organisations are subject to Freedom of Information requests, yet if a service they run is privatised, and ran by say, IBM or Serco, this no longer applies and the cloak of secrecy falls upon their operations.
This prevents the public finding out information about how much they pay their workers and whether this is equal between genders and indeed any characteristics. FoI legislation would ensure fairness in these instances.
Currently organisations such as McDonalds also run qualifications which are not subject to FoI rules, and this is also a concern. Even exam boards such as Edexcel aren't subject to transparency laws about their practices.
To change this, the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is currently at Committee Stage in the Lords, should be amended to apply FoIs to any organisation running public services and also those providing people with qualifications.
This will ensure workers are fairly compensated for their skills, whilst ensuring qualifications meet the standards expected of them. Doing so will give people confidence that by upskiling further, glass ceilings won't block their way
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