VC Firm Talis Capital critique Rishi Sunak's Job Support Scheme

by Startacus Admin

Vasile Foca, co-founder and managing partner at Talis Capital outlines why the Chancellor's measures are not enough to tackle the skills deficit and social security issues...

Yesterday Rishi Sunak unveiled further details of the UK government’s 'job support scheme’ to support workers’ wages throughout the pandemic, however many feel that it is not enough. Vasile Foca, co-founder and managing partner at Talis Capital, the leading venture capital investment firm, believes that this new-age subsidy doesn’t tackle the core issues of social security and the skills deficit that have widened as a result of the pandemic, particularly in relation to the tech and startup sectors.

Vasile comments: “It is absolutely essential that the government has finally taken the decision to continue supporting businesses through the new job support scheme and the extension of CBILS loans, which will be a lifeline for small businesses through what will inevitably be a long and hard winter. But offering a new-age subsidy as a replacement of the furlough scheme is doing nothing to address the real problem.

From what we’ve seen within and outside of our portfolio, there’s been a huge number of redundancies as startups try to stretch their cash runways as far as possible.

The government needs to redirect some of its energy towards upskilling: it’s critical that we address the skills deficit in the tech sector, which is expanding 2.6 times faster than the UK economy. While the sector boasts huge demand for talent and skills, there were an estimated 600,000 unfulfilled vacancies in digital technology in the UK in 2018 - a gap which has only widened throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

If the government could subsidise courses and resources for digital skills qualifications for workers out of employment, the UK could even come out of the coronavirus recession with a skills dividend. This in turn would contribute to higher productivity, which will be even more crucial as we seek economic recovery.”

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• #skills divide

Published on: 25th September 2020