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<p>The Department for Work and Pensions should be the first port of call for employers
seeking to fill vacancies, rather than the Home Office.</p><p>On advice from the independent
Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), the Government broadened the eligibility of Skilled
Worker visas from graduate jobs only to include jobs skilled to RQF level 3 (roughly
equivalent to A-levels) and lowered the salary threshold to £25,600 enabling employers
to recruit in more customer facing roles than was possible under the previous immigration
system.</p><p>Yet where a job needs only a short period of training or time to acquire
the qualifications necessary the focus should be on recruiting from the domestic labour
market, especially given the economic impact of the global pandemic means many may
be looking for new employment or to change careers.</p><p>Immigration policy cannot
be seen as an alternative to improving training and career pathways or tackling issues
such as unattractive pay and working conditions for those undertaking customer-facing
roles. Given this we will not be introducing a general migration route allowing employers
to recruit at or near the minimum wage, with no work-based training requirements,
including to such roles.</p><p>More broadly, the Government’s Plan for Jobs is helping
people across the country retrain, build new skills and getting back into work as
part of the UK’s recovery from COVID-19, with the Department for Work and Pensions,
Department for Education and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
leading work on the overall UK labour market and skills.</p>
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