Lifelong learning, apprenticeships and partnerships between businesses, education establishments and government – can it all work? Mandy Gill explores the shifting skills landscape
Just over a month in and the new Labour government has not delayed in progressing one of its key manifesto commitments – the creation of Skills England.
Skills England aims to bridge the current skills gap and support UK competitiveness on the global stage
The bill was announced in the King’s Speech and by 22 July, the new organisation had an interim Chair in the form of Richard Pennycook CBE, a very experienced businessperson with a solid reputation.
The stated goal for Skills England is to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all the regions, providing strategic oversight to the post-16 training landscape and to the workforce to deliver on the government’s Industrial Strategy. Skills England aims to bridge the current skills gap and support UK competitiveness on the global stage. According to the government data, skills shortages have doubled during the period 2017-2022 and now account for more than 36% of job vacancies.
For the financial services sector, this data chimes with the findings of the Financial Services Skills Commission’s 2023 report Skills for the Future of Financial Services. The report identified skills-based roles, whether technological, data or coaching, as being the hardest to fill.
By fostering partnerships between educational institutions, business and local government, Skills England seeks to create an environment in which training and development is capable of a speedy response to the demands of local and national workforce markets.
So far so good but what will this mean in practice and how will it work?
Regional hubs
Regional hubs are a key feature of the Skills England agenda. There have been previous attempts to link the central skills agenda to the regions (Learning and Skills Council anyone?) but an obvious difference between now and the early 2000s is the presence of the metro Mayors. They are in a great position to embed the Skills England agenda and to drive it forward across their regions. For the financial services industry, this is a real opportunity to support growth across the UK, as well as in the City.
Wider remit
With a wider remit than Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), another of Skills England’s responsibilities will be to promote lifelong learning opportunities. This reflects a reality that has been obvious for some time – that we no longer follow single career pathways, whether through circumstance or desire. CPD (continuous professional development) and lifelong learning should be used not only to support progression and continuous improvement along a pathway, but also to support agile transition from one role to another and to upskill at pace as technology changes and develops. Businesses will be given more freedom in their use of funding for these purposes.
Ongoing support for apprenticeships
Apprenticeships will come under the control of Skills England and the transition is already underway. There is talk of expanding the apprenticeship programme to encourage more of us, particularly the 16-19 age group, to see it as a route to a successful career, particularly in the digital and tech spaces.
Partnership
To meet its ambitions, Skills England will need to facilitate even stronger partnerships between education and employers, at both local and national level and to use these to drive both economic and social change.
The future is now
If it can get all of this right, Skills England is capable of delivering on the twin dreams of a skilled workforce to meet the challenges of now, as well as one that has the capability and flexibility to adapt for the future.
Mandy Gill is Executive Director of Global Learning at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
