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Business leaders welcome “Facebook for skills sector”
Posted on 03/03/08
Chief Executives from the UK's leading companies have thrown their weight behind Skillstories.org, applauding its use of innovative social networking technology familiar to sites such as Facebook to enable employers to profile their skills and training initiatives and interact online with a comprehensive database of resources, events and news for the skills sector.
Skills Minister, David Lammy MP, said “Poor literacy and numeracy costs the UK around £10bn per year in lost revenue from taxes, lower productivity and the increased burden on the welfare state. We are making huge headway and I believe we can crack the problem of low skills, but only in partnership with business."
Dr. Ashley Steel, Global Chair for Transport at advisory firm KPMG, also welcomed Skillstories saying, "This is a fantastic new initiative which addresses a major issue for many businesses in the UK. The magnitude of this problem in the UK, compared to other countries, is striking. We must ensure that businesses tackle the issue now in order to maintain our competitiveness in the global economy."
DHL Aviation, part of DHL Express, was one of the first companies to register and add their profile. Colin Butler, the company's HR director, said: "Through projects like Skillstories you can share knowledge, experience and contacts rather than scratching around in the dark. This is a great resource to help make the business case for skills."
David Fairhurst, Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer for McDonald's Restaurants, pointed to the collaborative potential of Skillstories saying, "employers are increasingly willing to work together on improving the skills of their people. There's a lot of help out there from companies that are already doing this."
Chris Humphries, Chief Executive of the Commission foe Employement and Skills called the project "incredibly timely".