There is still much we don’t know about Skills England, from how it will deliver on high-level policy targets to how it will avoid the pitfalls of previous incarnations. However, we do know that 2025 promises to be a year of significant change – and with change comes opportunity.
As the sector positions itself to take advantage of the ongoing consultation phase and to share views collectively, we must find ways to ensure that employers can have their voices heard.
Coordinating a collaborative reform on this scale necessarily means making choices about representation, but employers are the ones witnessing skills gaps and facing retention and recruitment challenges. Without their buy-in, policy pledges like the industrial strategy and the Youth Guarantee will be hamstrung from the outset.
As the department for education and Skills England are consulting, at Lifetime we’ve also been in listening mode. We’ve brought together employer partners from across sectors to understand what they would want to see from reforms and from independent training provider support more broadly as we enter this new phase.
Closing the skills gaps
One key observation is just how universal – and familiar – their pain-points are. Employers consistently identify critical gaps in soft skills, digital literacy and leadership competencies.
They witness daily how a disconnect between education and employment can lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction in early-career roles. And they see that despite being digital natives, young people are often unequipped to utilise work-essential tools such as Microsoft Word.
Employers also recognise that young peoples’ expectations of the world of work are changing, with flexibility more highly prized than by previous generations. This creates an undeniable challenge, particularly for sectors such as retail, care and hospitality, where the potential for that flexibility is more limited.
With flexibility being the buzzword of Labour’s emerging skills approach, it is positive that the rigidity of apprenticeship programmes with regards to duration and functional skills are at least being addressed.
Unfortunately, and despite decades of campaigning from our sector, employers still find that apprenticeships are poorly understood.
Old habits die hard, and many find that young people are put off pursuing apprenticeships because of outdated misconceptions that they are ‘just’ for electricians and plumbers, or ‘just’ for those who are not suited to an academic path.
The fact that we have not managed to significantly move the dial on this perception highlights how essential employer collaboration is. Without involving them in the conversation, we risk preaching only to the choir.
We need their support to demonstrate real-world case studies and highlight inspiring success stories which counter misconceptions, as well as to tailor apprenticeship programmes to industry-specific needs, making them fit for purpose.
Balancing priorities
Many have already argued that Skills England should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It must balance the need to move swiftly in response to skills shortages with creating something which does not repeat its predecessors’ mistakes.
There are already several examples of successful employer involvement which Skills England should emulate. We know from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s trailblazer groups that involving employers in the process of shaping apprenticeship standards can be successful, delivering job role-aligned occupational standards.
Given how many of the challenges employers experience are long-standing (and therefore risk becoming intractable), there is also a need for new forms of engagement. We’re facilitating roundtables early next year to listen to employers’ views around foundation apprenticeships so we can feed these insights in at a policy level.
As we enter 2025, the stakes could hardly be higher. Without meaningful employer involvement, we risk perpetuating a skills mismatch that stifles innovation and hampers economic growth.
But by placing employers at the heart of the conversation, we can benefit from their collective insight as co-creators of a reformed and effective skills system.
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