In 1997, Tony Blair’s Labour manifesto said that the weakness of our industrial base was due to skills shortages. Thirteen years later, David Cameron’s Conservative manifesto said we needed to dramatically improve the skills of Britain’s workforce to compete. The skills challenge facing this government is nothing new, but we do need new ways to address it.
With the Chancellor’s continued commitment to establish Skills England and refocus the growth and skills levy through an additional £40 million investment in the government’s first budget, the spotlight is once again on how the UK can address its worsening skills gap.
This matters. The digital skills gap already costs the economy £63 billion a year in potential GDP according to the government’s own figures. A more flexible levy and a Skills England focused on cross-government coordination in partnership with both industry and education are a compelling way to address this.
While I understand some of the concerns over the independence of Skills England and use of the levy, we simply cannot go on as we are. Doing so risks creating a further disconnect between education and employment, making it harder to meet our pressing digital skills needs.
By focusing on non-traditional, flexible learning models, Skills England can carve its legacy in helping to address immediate skills shortages and upskilling the existing workforce to meet changing demands.
As one of the fastest-growing areas of the economy, there needs to be greater focus on creating pathways that allow individuals from all backgrounds to enter, and transition into the tech sector and tech-adjacent roles.
Digital skills should be integrated more thoroughly into national education policy, from primary school through to higher education and beyond, with more opportunities for adults to upskill and engage in training throughout their career.
Tech UK suggests the potential exists to create a further three million new technology jobs by 2025. In order to fill these roles with talent equipped with the right skills, Skills England needs to harness centralisation of decisions to implement faster changes to standards and qualifications.
We need to create more access points for new talent
Working in collaboration with business leaders and industry, it must increase flexibility in the design and delivery of courses which are eligible for levy funding.
The current apprenticeship levy is rigid and limits funding to accredited, long-set qualifications. This approach prevents innovation in skills training, especially in fast-moving sectors like tech, where the ability to quickly upskill is critical but the length of time to gain a qualification can sometimes be up to three years.
This investment is an opportunity for crucial reform to support flexible learning models, including short, non-accredited courses, to help businesses address immediate skills shortages. For this to work effectively, Skills England must have the authority to collaborate with industry and shape processes that are agile and responsive to the changing world.
It is no secret that skills demand outpaces supply. For this demand to be met, we need to create more access points for new talent to enter the field, and more opportunities for current employees to pivot into new tech careers to plug the skills gap, or upskill to meet the fast-changing demands of their role.
As a starting point, government policy should actively promote diversity, recognising that women remain under-represented – making up only 22 per cent of our IT professionals.
This limits the industry’s potential to innovate and grow. To change this, diverse talent pipelines must be nurtured from the school curriculum through to employment.
At Code First Girls, we have a 96 per cent conversion rate from education to job role. We have so far delivered over 200,000 opportunities to women and non-binary candidates to upskill in tech, working with over 130 clients to place these candidates into tech roles.
Our results are a testament to a successful model that realises the potential of forging partnerships that build regional tech talent pipelines and boost local economies by aligning training with business needs.
Flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to evolving business and economic needs is the only way we are going to close skills gaps, particularly in tech and digital skills.
The best way to achieve this is for Skills England to cut through the bureaucracy, backed by strong ministerial directives.
Your thoughts