The UK government has announced a major £3 billion ($4 billion) investment in job training, aimed at equipping domestic workers with the skills needed to fill labour shortages and lessen the

country's reliance on migrant labour.

According to the Department for Education, the funding will create 120,000 new training opportunities across key sectors including construction, engineering, healthcare, social care, and digital technologies. The initiative is intended to “refocus the skills landscape towards young, domestic talent.”

This move comes as the UK grapples with a growing segment of the population that is economically inactive. Recent data shows that 21.4% of working-age Britons are neither employed nor actively seeking work—a figure that has steadily climbed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Labour government is responding to political pressure to curb immigration, especially following gains made by the right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party in the May local elections. In response, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged stricter immigration measures, including tighter citizenship rules and limiting skilled worker visas to roles requiring graduate-level qualifications.

A key part of the new strategy includes a 32% increase in the Immigration Skills Charge, a fee paid by employers who hire foreign workers. The government estimates this will fund an additional 45,000 training places for domestic workers in sectors most affected by labour shortages.

However, many businesses have expressed concern, warning that the current lack of skilled local labour could damage the economy if immigration is restricted without simultaneously overhauling the UK’s training infrastructure. Employers say that unless domestic training efforts are significantly improved, the tighter immigration policies may exacerbate staffing shortages rather than resolve them.