Robert Buckland on Institutes of Technology and tackling the skill gap

Conservative MP Robert Buckland made a speech to the House in a 10 minute rule bill which will “provide local businesses with the skilled workforce that they need”.

Buckland highlighted the “greatest challenge facing our country” as a “so-called skill-gap”. He proposed that Institutes of Technology or IOTs receiving a royal charter would help these qualifications “be seen as an equivalent alternative to studying at university”.

The MP for Swindon South suggested that this bill would not just benefit employers and learners “the economy as a whole”.