Increasing skills across our economy - World2Rights outlines a skilful approach.

1. A government backed scheme to encourage employers to pay for staff training and tertiary education. The employee will "repay" their employer* by earning credits based on their length of service at the company. Where they choose to leave before the end of the repayment period, the government, on behalf of the employer, will clawback the balance of the training costs through the individual's future tax payments.

2. The aim is to solve a co-ordination problem where an individual employer has little incentive to fund important training because staff turnover will prevent them from benefiting from their investment. This co-ordination problem leads to a sub-optimal level of training for the whole economy.

3. Mobility of labour is preserved by the mechanism of a diminishing burden of debt (through credits earned over time) and through the option of long-term repayment facilitated by the government.

4. Private insurance companies would also be encouraged to sell an extra degree of cover for those training investments 'at risk' through the premature turnover of staff (where this turnover was voluntary). The role of insurance companies would be facilitated by the pooling of premature turnover risks, the backing of Government, and the contributions that would be made by departing employees themselves.

* or industry body