‘West Bacc’ qualification announced by Labour mayor

The mayor of the West of England plans to create a new “baccalaureate” qualification that will train local young people to be work-ready.

According to Labour mayor Helen Godwin’s new skills strategy, the West Bacc will be a new regional “work-readiness award” for 16- to 18-year-olds that will help build the confidence, skills and experience employers are looking for.

The mayor’s team plans to develop the qualification over the next 18 months, designed in partnership with local young people, schools, colleges and training providers.

Employers are expected to support the West Bacc’s delivery through mentoring, work experience and wider engagement.

The strategy, published this week, said the purpose of the West Bacc is to build employability skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving and organisation, which employers report are the “biggest gaps” for new young employees.

A particular focus of the qualification will be supporting young people with fewer opportunities and “preventing disengagement”.

Godwin said introducing the qualification would help turn the tide on youth unemployment and inactivity, which she called “really dangerous and frankly sad”.

Speaking at a West of England Combined Authority scrutiny committee on Monday, the mayor said developing the West Bacc was “pre-emptive” of combined authorities receiving “more powers” over post-16 education and skills funding.

Integrated future settlement

She added that mayors are “pushing quite hard” for extra post-16 powers and “potentially expect” additional responsibilities when the second, solutions phase of Alan Milburn’s review is published in autumn this year.

The qualification would be funded through an integrated funding settlement, although the government has not yet confirmed that WECA will receive one.

Godwin is understood to have chosen to name the qualification a “bacc” after working on Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester baccalaureate, or MBacc, initiative while she was a local government consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The term “baccalaureate” originates in late 1800s France, where it refers to an exam in several subjects taken in the last year of school.

The French term is in turn borrowed from the medieval Latin “baccalaureatus”, which means advanced student.

However, unlike the French and Greater Manchester uses of the term baccalaureate, which refer to a collection of subjects, the West Bacc is planned to be a single award.

Rob Nitsch, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “Whilst there is clearly far more detail to come, the focus on employability skills is to be welcomed; they sit firmly in the shadow cast by the recent Milburn Review.

“However, it is not clear how the WBACC will be assessed and assured.

“The credibility and opportunity will be undermined if the qualification is not assessed independently and regulated.

“DfE and other regions are looking at employability too, including for adults. It would also be a missed opportunity if all these initiatives were not coherent by design.”

There are a number of existing employability qualifications, most at level 1.

These include City & Guilds’ certificate in employability skills, which had 4,800 enrolments in 2025, and Highfield’s certificate in personal development for employability, which had 4,500 starts.

A spokesperson for Colleges West, which represents five colleges and sixth forms in the region, said: “We welcome the opportunity to work with the West of England Combined Authority, employers, and partners to shape the proposed West Baccalaureate and its role in helping young people develop the skills, behaviours and attributes needed to succeed in work and life.

“While discussions are at an early stage, we look forward to working with partners to help shape a model that delivers real benefits for learners, employers, and communities across the region.”

Matt Tudge, head of skills at Business West, welcomed the move to establish the West Bacc given local employers’ need for courses that match their recruitment needs.

He added: “In our experience of leading local skills improvement plans in our area, when systems are designed with employers’ needs in mind, everyone wins.”