Much has been written about the recent decision by the Home Office to develop the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme.

The announcement, at a time when economic conditions are still somewhat uncertain, focused attention on the nature of the nation's skills base.

Together with our member companies and other organisations, Intellect is committed to the development of a highly-skilled workforce, capable of greater levels of productivity, innovation and quality delivery - a workforce able to respond to the varying demands of an increasingly competitive global environment.

Technology is a key enabler of the knowledge-driven economy. It underpins the tools and processes needed to support it and is fundamental to process and product innovation.

Intellect believes the development of an over-arching knowledge-driven economic policy is crucial to the UK's continued growth and prosperity.

The development of such a policy requires a number of approaches, such as:

• creating the right culture across academia, industry, citizens and government
• creating the right market environment - attracting investment, ensuring light regulation, strong governance and a competitive market
• developing a modern and robust national infrastructure, including communications, transport and energy
• nurturing innovation.

Of course, underpinning all of this will be a highly-skilled workforce.

To this end we recognise the importance of quality education at all stages.

We are living in an environment of continuous change. Today's workplace bears little resemblance to the workplace that our children will encounter in a generation's time.

We need to accept that success will be based on the ability to assimilate new skills continually and on tacit knowledge.

Therefore we strongly support the continued development of lifelong learning.

Without a strong educational base supported by lifelong development, citizens will be unable to rise to the challenge of creating a knowledge-driven economy.

On a practical level, our industry has a responsibility to address both short-term and long-term objectives.

In the short term, with demand for skilled individuals increasing in the public sector and beginning to recover in the private sector, it is important that companies only nominate individuals for roles that reflect their authority, skills and expertise.

At a time when customers demand increasing returns for lower investment, building and sustaining customer confidence in the industry's high standards of skill and professionalism is fundamental.

In the longer term, there is a need to establish greater clarity and consistency to the definition and management of skilled resources.

Intellect will work with the relevant professional bodies, such as the Sector Skills Council and e-skills UK, towards the establishment of a common set of terminology and standards for skills and roles, and their associated competencies and qualifications.

However, the creation of a highly-skilled workforce cannot be carried out in isolation. Partnerships need to be established between the government, industry and academia.

For example, while we support the 21st Century Skills Strategy produced by the Department for Education and Skills, we believe that more needs to be done to develop and promote the appropriate vocational training and the different types of education specific to the needs of today's environment - such as modern apprenticeships.

We have reached a critical juncture in the UK's development. Socially, economically and politically the UK must be able to develop and implement policies that empower it to compete successfully at a global level.

Never has the phrase "our people are our most precious resource" been so apt.

John Higgins is director general of Intellect.