Press releases

Arriva has joined more than 150 leading employers from across England to make a public Skills Pledge supporting all their employees in developing numeracy and literacy skills.

Chancellor Gordon Brown; Education Secretary Alan Johnson and TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber are all backing the major scheme that already covers 1.7 million workers.

Alison O’Connor, Arriva plc HR director, said: “We're proud to make the Skills Pledge. We recognise that engaging employees through training leads to higher levels of motivation and retention and better customer service.”

Skills Envoy Sir Digby Jones officially launched the Skills Pledge.  He said:

I warmly congratulate all employers who have led the way by making the Skills Pledge. 

By taking this step, you are showing other employers that, by investing in the skills of your people, you are investing in your business. At the same time, you are helping the UK seize the opportunity that globalisation presents, enabling us to compete in the brutally competitive world economy of the future.

The Leitch Review of Skills, published in December 2006, warned that the UK must 'raise its game' on skills at all levels if it is to sustain and improve its position in the global economy.

For more information on the Skills Pledge, please visit www.traintogain.gov.uk or call 0800 015 5545.