The current furore about the use of the apprenticeship levy for higher level training and development for managers and executives, provides some measure of just how poorly people understand the breadth and depth of the skills challenge we face in the UK.

It is, people argue, simply wrong for employers who pay the apprenticeship levy to use the funding to put their people through MBAs and management training. What we need are more technicians, engineers and, in particular, younger people in general going through vocational training routes.

On the second of these points, I do not disagree.

As Dean of a business school situated in Tees Valley, a region whose economic health depends on people acquiring the skills and knowledge to do business in a tech-driven world, we need people who can work in high tech manufacturing and the digital industries of tomorrow.

Thriving in the face of this fast-paced and disruptive change requires the ability to lead, manage and colloborate in new ways.

But the challenges we face in our regional economy – which mirror those faced by the UK as a whole – aren’t just limited to acquisition of technical skills or the availability of vocational training for younger people.

One of the most important tasks businesses in the Tees Valley have had to learn through economic shocks which have accompanied deep and dramatic changes in the nature of industry is the ability to stay relevant, responsive and able to adapt to change, at speed.

Thriving in the face of this fast-paced and disruptive change requires the ability to lead, manage and colloborate in new ways. Few can genuinely claim to be born natural leaders nor more than then they are good managers and it is clear that management and leadership skills must be learnt as we progress through our careers.

So if one of the consequences of the levy is for employers to invest in this training, then I believe that is positive.

Another reason to support the use of the levy for management training is because in the exec or part-time modes it is likely to give people who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to get this sort of development.

To a great exten

The current furore about the use of the apprenticeship levy for higher level training and development for managers and executives, provides some measure of just how poorly people understand the breadth and depth of the skills challenge we face in the UK.

It is, people argue, simply wrong for employers who pay the apprenticeship levy to use the funding to put their people through MBAs and management training. What we need are more technicians, engineers and, in particular, younger people in general going through vocational training routes.

On the second of these points, I do not disagree.

As Dean of a business school situated in Tees Valley, a region whose economic health depends on people acquiring the skills and knowledge to do business in a tech-driven world, we need people who can work in high tech manufacturing and the digital industries of tomorrow.

Thriving in the face of this fast-paced and disruptive change requires the ability to lead, manage and colloborate in new ways.

But the challenges we face in our regional economy – which mirror those faced by the UK as a whole – aren’t just limited to acquisition of technical skills or the availability of vocational training for younger people.

One of the most important tasks businesses in the Tees Valley have had to learn through economic shocks which have accompanied deep and dramatic changes in the nature of industry is the ability to stay relevant, responsive and able to adapt to change, at speed.

Thriving in the face of this fast-paced and disruptive change requires the ability to lead, manage and colloborate in new ways. Few can genuinely claim to be born natural leaders nor more than then they are good managers and it is clear that management and leadership skills must be learnt as we progress through our careers.

So if one of the consequences of the levy is for employers to invest in this training, then I believe that is positive.

Another reason to support the use of the levy for management training is because in the exec or part-time modes it is likely to give people who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to get this sort of development.

To a great extent MBAs remain the domain of those who are lucky enough to have employers generous enough to subsidise them or who have found their own way of paying for and the balancing their studies outside of work.

MBAs remain the domain of those who are lucky enough to have employers generous enough to subsidise them or who have found their own way of paying for and the balancing their studies outside of work.