UK to spend billions on job training to cut reliance on migrant workers

Britain will spend a record 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) to boost training opportunities, the government said on Tuesday, part of a broader strategy to train locals to fill gaps in the labour market and reduce reliance on foreign workers.

The investment will "refocus the skills landscape towards young, domestic talent" by creating 120,000 new training opportunities in key sectors such as construction, engineering, health and social care, and digital, a statement from the government's education department said.

More than one in five working-age Britons do not have a job and are not seeking one, with the latest official data showing the inactivity rate at 21.4%, having steadily risen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Labour government has been under pressure to cut immigration following the local election success of the right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party in May, and has since set out plans to tighten citizenship rules, restrict skilled worker visas to graduate-level jobs, and push firms to train locals.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that the open border experiment was over when the measures were set out.

Tuesday's statement said a planned 32% rise in the immigration skills charge, designed to dissuade businesses from hiring foreign workers, would deliver up to 45,000 additional training places to "upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration" in priority sectors.

Businesses have said they cannot hire enough staff locally, warning that the tougher rules would harm the economy unless they were accompanied by a fundamental overhaul of the country's skills training system.

($1 = 0.7380 pounds)