Skills strategy statement

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has unveiled plans to provide more technicians to meet the need for a greater number of workers with high-tech skills.

In a statement to peers setting out the government's skills strategy on 11 November, Lord Mandelson said investment would be put into further education courses that employers "judge are in line with their needs and requirements".

He announced that the government would create 35,000 new advanced places for 19 to 30-year-olds over the next two years to help create a "modern class of technicians".