Employees

With the launch of sector skills councils (SSCs), the final pieces of the new national training framework are being put in place. This represents the present government's rewriting of the skills shortage route map, having abolished the previous government's efforts - which, for all their faults, did try to rope in business through training and enterprise councils (TECs) and national training organisations (NTOs). Despite the rhetoric that learning and skills councils (LSCs) and SSCs are "business-led", in reality it is a centrally directed solution, but without trusting the mainstream civil service in government departments to get on with the job. Hence, the alphabet soup of quangos.

Community affairs and corporate social responsibility managers can be forgiven for being utterly bemused, if not downright confused.

What should the socially responsible company do? First, continue to invest (huge sums, as the CBI survey shows) in the skills of its own employees, both for the immediate job and for their long term 'employability'. Second, in response to the nation's on-going educational failings, continue helping the next generation through partnerships with schools. That means driving up attainment overall - nearly half still fail to gain a GCSE grade C or better in English and maths - and helping stop a minority from falling out of the system completely, as the Prince's Trust is doing.

Third, for the current generation of workers, try to support the LSCs: it remains a scandal that seven million adults in the UK cannot read and write to the standard expected of an 11 year old. And fourth - new for some - work within your industry: this is where the 'rubber really hits the road'. Sectors such as construction, hotels and catering report difficulties in getting staff, while unemployment remains at historically high levels even in a region as apparently prosperous as London.

Community affairs departments usually take the lead on schools liaison, public affairs on government appeals for quango appointments, leaving HR to worry about the rest. Forward thinking companies should now have a joined-up strategy that can integrate all the elements.