Morrisons HR boss says the right kind of staff training is vital

Mon, 10 Jan 2011

Morrisons HR boss says the right kind of staff training is vital

The group HR Director for Morrisons supermarkets has written in the Guardian newspaper about the importance of staff training.

Norman Pickavance asserted that it is the responsibility of larger UK companies to make sure their staff have the skills needed to do well in the workplace. He claimed that rising unemployment among young people shows that many have been failed by the education system in terms of their preparedness for the workplace.

Pickavance has welcomed the news that the government intends to increase the number of apprenticeships in the UK by 50,000. However, he added that educational inequality is still a huge problem. Although billions of pounds each year is spent by companies on training for staff, it is vital that more is spent on providing staff with recognised qualifications that can boost their employability for life.

Pickavance wrote in the Guardian: "Government and business have a shared responsibility to ensure that the UK has the right skills development framework for the future.’ He went on to talk about how qualifications and business requirements should be more closely aligned to ensure the economy can make the most of the recovery.

By 2011, some 100,000 Morrisons staff will have passed the Level 2 NVQ in retail skills, which is the largest vocational training programme in the UK.

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