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Government rejects criticism of post-Leitch skills progress

<p>The Government has hit back at critics of its post-Leitch skills agenda, saying its own report will extinguish any doubts about the progress made on skills. </p><p>The CIPD has released a report saying that policies inspired by the Government-commissioned Leitch Report on skills are failing to make an impact with employers. More than half of organisations say their learning and development work has not yet been influenced by the Governments skills agenda, while just 13% have signed the Employer Skills Pledge. </p><p>But the Government, which later this year releases its own report on its skills policies, insists it has made significant progress </p><p> Since 2001, 4.7 million adult learners have taken up 10.5 million Skills for Life learning opportunities, said a Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills spokesperson. Going forward, the Government is increasing funding for adult skills and apprenticeships to 4.3 billion a year by 2011." </p><p>Victoria Winkler, CIPDs learning and development adviser, said: There appears to be more work to be done to convince employers that the Government has the right answers to the problem. There is a disconnect between what Government is offering employers and what they feel they need. </p>

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