Shadow Minister John Penrose stresses need for higher skills in Britain's economy

The National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS) hosted a conference for South West financial services employers - Recession, Recovery and Regulation.

Keynote speaker John Penrose, Shadow Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform, said there was a need for better skills across all sectors including financial services to help the UK remain competitive.

He said: "If we are going to earn a living in an increasingly globalised world, we have to have a far higher than average rate of skills in Britain's economy than we have had in the past.

"Our plans at the moment are to have 20,000 more graduates than we have had in the past, but also far more Apprentices - 200,000 more Apprentices is what we reckon we can afford at the moment by redeploying money from elsewhere."

Other speakers at the conference included, Paul Beesley, Chairperson of the South West Employer Board and Nationwide and Sylvia Perrins, CEO of NSAFS, as well as Alun Powell, Senior Economist at HSBC.

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