Employers have been called on to sign up to a 'Skills Pledge' to ensure that all their employees reach a skills level equivalent to five good GCSEs.
Launched today by the chancellor Gordon Brown and education secretary Alan Johnson, the Skills Pledge is designed to stimulate demand for training services and "support a new culture where gaining skills is taken as a matter of course".
Chancellor Gordon Brown said: "In the future skills will be the only route to prosperity and jobs. Of 3.4 million unskilled jobs today, by 2020 we will need only 600,000. So if the UK is to continue to succeed in the new global economy we will need to be more ambitious with more people training and employers, employees and government each meeting their responsibilities.
"This will only succeed if the British people themselves are involved in discussing and agreeing this priority to invest in education and skills. This way we can build the consensus essential if today's working men and women are going to achieve better-paid jobs and a better future for their children."
The Skills Pledge will be open to all employers irrespective of size, status or sector.
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