Over the last 11 months, since I started in my role at Skills England, I’ve seen first-hand how we’re putting employers at the heart of the skills system.
From engaging in place, where employers are based, to gathering insights and valuable feedback about assessment reforms and skills gaps, their guidance is vital to our work.
I’ve been so impressed with the excellent contributions made by thousands of employers who work closely with us. And I fully appreciate that their expertise will be vital to getting it right with upholding quality, simplifying the system and becoming more responsive.
Just this week Skills England announced our first ‘fast track’ apprenticeship unit, as reported by FE Week.
This battery manufacturing apprenticeship unit will help a new gigafactory in Somerset to deliver around 4,000 jobs and over £700 million in annual economic value to the south west.
To make this happen, we relied heavily on the expertise of the battery sector, mixing the knowledge of employers with data and the insight of academic experts in this field.
With their help and through our investment and infrastructure skills service, we turned this new apprenticeship unit around fast – hitting our target of meeting skills needs for major projects in three months, without reducing quality.
It’s a great example of how Skills England has been improving how we work with sector experts. Employers and learners in a key sector, right across the country, will ultimately reap the benefits.
We’re building on that through what we are calling our ‘expert network’. An important goal with this is to reduce the time burden for employers, speeding things up while keeping quality and enhanced employer expertise at the centre of our decision-making process.
Existing stakeholders will become part of a wider community of more than 4,500 experts; employers, SMEs, providers, unions, regional partners and regulators, which means the knowledge we already rely on will now be complemented by an even richer, more diverse pool of insight.
We heard from employers and sector partners at summits and roundtables that they want to stay involved – but they would like to do this in a way that feels proportionate, not a return to long meetings, fixed cycles or heavy admin.
So, Skills England will take on the administrative burden and typically produce the first draft, giving members a proper starting point so that their expertise can land where it matters most.
The focus is now on sharing insight, not struggling with process. And if a full group isn’t necessary, we will keep it light, using quick conversations, short surveys or emails instead. The whole approach is faster and more flexible, which will give people a way to contribute without the time-consuming processes everyone was keen to move away from.
But it’s not just about technical and transactional updates.
We will also bring people together for bigger picture work, groups that look across sectors and regions, spot emerging trends, and help us understand what’s coming down the track.
These groups will give us the real-world intelligence we need to keep the system moving at pace, making sure we’re responding to what employers, providers and learners actually need rather than waiting for a cycle to tell us it’s time.
The expert network represents a natural progression of how we already operate and will build on a huge amount of good work that has already been done.
It will allow us to capitalise on employer expertise in a more focused way, which works better for them, while adding value from training providers and other key stakeholders.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please email us at expertnetwork.skillsengland@education.gov.uk.
Together, we will make a real difference. By improving on how expertise is used and valued, we will be better placed than ever to close critical skills gaps, help businesses grow, and support future generations to succeed in rewarding careers.
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