General election 2010
As a professional membership body representing 120,000 UK workers and employers, AAT believes it’s important that those aspiring to government clearly explain how they will support you, should they be successfully elected.
For 30 years, we’ve played a leading role in training and developing the nation's accounting technicians and finance professionals, and believe a robust skills policy is central to economic recovery.
We’ve already published our own recommendations for change: Delivering skills that power the economy – and believe skills training should deliver a tangible return on investment, with less bureaucracy and more employer involvement.
However, one size does not fit all, and the system needs to be more flexible to take account of different sectors, and different learner needs – particularly in a cross-sector profession like accountancy - and focus on the practical outcome that the training delivers, not the hours spent in a classroom.
Do the UK’s political parties agree?
We took our questions directly to the senior education and skills spokespeople from all the UK’s main political parties – including Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party - and asked them to tell us how they intend to build the nation’s skills and support small businesses.
Providing skills for business
- How can we make sure that skills policy plays a central role in the economic recovery?
- How can the next government promote skilled staff, such as accounting technicians, to better support SMEs?
Download the PDF to view the responses.
Promoting vocational alternatives
- What can politians do to improve access to the professions?
- How can we ensure that students make the most out of skills based vocational qualifications?
Download the PDF to view the responses.
Improving the education and skills system
- At present, the education and skills system focuses on simple, process driven numerical targets, such as qualifications gained, or measuring the time learners spend in the classroom. Do you agree that the UK should refocus its attention more on output based success, such as learner employment success rates, wage gain, and satisfaction levels?
- Can the current education and skills system be simplified to benefit employers, learners and training providers? And, if yes, how?
Download the PDF to view the responses.
Have your say
We’ve also developed a short online survey to assess how current government policy has influenced or affected your business activities and what changes you’d like to see.