Leading Article: Closer ties with the world of work keeps on turning

Today, John Denham, the Minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills, is expected to announce a big expansion of evening classes, weekend courses and part-time degrees for adults in higher education. In his first speech to Universities UK (UUK), the umbrella group, the minister will give universities a prod in an effort to get them to shift direction and start offering courses to older workers.

This isn't the first time the Government has tried to persuade universities to join its campaign to upgrade the skills of the British workforce. In his speech to UUK a year ago, the former Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, exhorted universities to engage more with employers. "We need to break down the barriers which discourage employers from helping to fund and design higher education courses," he said.

Now Gordon Brown is in No 10, this agenda has added impetus. In fact, the creation of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is all about bringing higher education and business closer together to benefit UK plc. Denham will argue that it is in universities' interests to get into bed with the world of work because the number of 18- to 20-year-olds is expected to decline – and that could have an adverse effect on universities' coffers.

Higher education has usually not taken kindly to being prodded by government. The objections of vice-chancellors were given credibility by a Higher Education Policy Institute report earlier this year, which sounded the alarm about designing courses for employers. Employers often want such specific skills that they quickly become out of date. Sometimes there simply isn't the demand.

But ministers are offering carrots. In next month's comprehensive spending review, the Government will be financing 5,000 extra places for employer-led courses in universities in 2008-09, for programmes part-funded by companies and part-funded by universities. And there's the rub; the programmes carry a lower rate of government funding. There is scepticism about whether employers will be prepared to make up the difference. Ministers need to address these concerns. In fact, we need a debate about how universities can be used to upskill the workforce.