Skilled migrants should train and mentor domestic workers in places like colleges to fill shortages and quell fears about immigration, a think tank has said.
Under a proposed new “work and teach” programme, skilled foreign workers would have to share their specialist expertise with local businesses and colleges as a condition of their visa.
The proposal was made in a new report by The Good Growth Foundation, a think tank with links to Labour ministers, which recommended linking immigration policy to a “revitalised” national skills strategy.
Experts at the think tank said a “lack of focus” on skills and opportunity for domestic workers is the undercurrent driving growing anti-immigration rhetoric.
Former education secretary Lord David Blunkett, who wrote a foreword for the report, said: “The public’s unease about immigration cannot be separated from their frustration about opportunity.
“When people feel locked out of progress, resentment grows; when they see investment in skills and prospects, confidence returns.”
‘Take back control’
The “take back control” report polled over 2,000 adults from across the country and held focus groups with former Labour voters who intend to vote for the Reform party or alternative left-wing parties in the next election.
Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) said adult and lifelong learning would have the most positive impact on the country and 57 per cent said colleges should play a “leading role” in adult skills.
But only 43 per cent “express confidence” that their local FE college “delivers high-quality, job-relevant training”.
Four in 10 (41 per cent) said funding cuts were the biggest barrier to skills and training opportunities while over half (52 per cent) called out employers for failing to provide enough training or apprenticeships.
Just less than half, 49 per cent, of polled participants approved of the work and teach programme, which would address shortages where there are not enough British workers to train the next generation. Among Labour voters, the approval rating reached 57 per cent.
“The appeal lies in fairness: people welcome immigration when they know it is helping to build opportunity here at home,” the think tank said.
Under the “work and teach” proposal, skilled foreign workers would be “granted visas on the condition that part of their time is dedicated to training and mentoring domestic employees – sharing their expertise with local workforces, SME (small and medium sized enterprises) and colleges”.
The think tank said this policy would “transform immigration from a perceived shortcut into a visible investment in Britain’s own talent pipeline”, adding: “In a labour market still recovering from years of undertraining and chronic shortages, this approach would make migration a tool for renewal rather than a source of tension”.
One example it gave was requiring an engineer hired from overseas to fill a technical vacancy to spend 10 to 15 per cent of their week teaching specific software skills or advanced manufacturing techniques to a cohort of junior domestic engineers.
‘This proposal is an exciting one’
The report’s authors said this pathway should be tied to “skills transfer plan”, which would mandate employers to build their own strategy for upskilling their workforce and would have to report the plan to the Home Office as part of their licence to sponsor skilled workers.
As part of the skills transfer plan, the government could “explore making safeguards available, such as colleges and other educational providers, for foreign workers to use for delivering training as part of their work and teach visa”.
Ben Rowland, CEO of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “This policy proposal is an exciting one, bringing two problems together to create a solution: the political tension created by having to bring in skilled overseas workers and the shortage of skilled trainers.”
The foundation also recommended a migration budget that transparently shows how immigrants’ fiscal contributions, such as income tax, National Insurance, visa fees, and the immigration skills charge, are reinvested into the economy.
Calls have long existed for the government to publicise where receipts from the immigration skills charge are invested. The Treasury has faced criticism for treating it as “simply a tax” that goes into its main “consolidated fund”.
It follows an FE Week investigation that found “zero transparency” over whether the tax actually funds domestic training as was promised.
Recent figures show ISC income fell for the first time in four years, by £100 million.
This week’s skills white paper confirmed the ISC is set to rise by 32 per cent.
The Good Growth Foundation said transparency would help “flip the narrative” that “every gain for newcomers is a loss for British workers”.
“For sceptics, this distinction is decisive. Immigration framed as a substitute for investment in Britons is resented. Immigration framed as a complement – directly tied to expanding opportunity at home – can command broad support,” the report said.
Praful Nargund, director of the Good Growth Foundation, said: “Linking immigration and skills reform flips the narrative from pressures to partnership, giving new arrivals and British workers the chance to work together to fix our country.”
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