How are policy changes helping us achieve our mission?  

It’s an exciting time for education and skills policy, with increasing recognition of the importance of essential skills for education and employment outcomes. In announcing the Advanced British Standard, this government recognised the importance of breadth in education, while the Labour Party’s mission ‘Breaking down barriers to opportunity’ commits to a curriculum review and crucially, a curriculum which is broad and builds knowledge and skills. 

The Skills Builder Partnership’s mission is to ensure everyone builds the essential skills to succeed. We delivered 2,635,000 high quality opportunities to build essential skills with our 900 partners in 2023. I joined the Skills Builder Partnership as Head of Policy and External Affairs this year and my ultimate goal is to see the Universal Framework embedded in national policy across education, skills and employment, to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to build essential skills.

Five stand-out wins in 2023

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We have extended the reach of the partnership and there has been further recognition of the Universal Framework by the government, the Labour party and influential bodies. Here are five highlights from 2023:

1. Careers Explorer tool

We launched the Careers Explorer tool this year through computationally mapping the Universal Framework to widely used taxonomy, the Standard Occupational Classification,  resulting in the essential skills profiles for over 1,000 different jobs. Not only is this a really useful tool for individuals, employers and educators; the data is open-source and can be used by researchers to study the relationship between skills and the economy.

2. A Skills Classification for the UK, DfE report

The Department for Education (DfE) published A Skills Classification for the UK which highlighted that “the language used to describe skills is inconsistent and unnecessarily complicated. The sharing of information on skills between key agencies is hampered by these problems and a standardised classification of skills is thus long overdue”. The report references Skills Builder throughout and maps a Proposed UK Core Skills Classification against the Universal Framework. 

3. Employer Standards, Career and Enterprise Company 

It is fantastic that the report on Employer Standards for Careers Education recognises the vital role of employers in ensuring young people have the opportunity to build their essential skills. The 9 Employer Standards include: employers providing meaningful opportunities for young people (Standard 1), building their essential skills and explaining their relevance to prepare them for the workplace (Standard 4). 

4. Labour's mission: Breaking down barriers to opportunity:  

Earlier this year, Keir Starmer announced Labour’s fifth mission ‘Breaking down barriers to opportunity’. Through the mission, Labour has committed to a curriculum review that will build knowledge and skills, and highlighted the need of  employers for school leavers with essential skills including communication, teamwork and problem solving. This builds on Lord Blunkett’s recommendations in the Council of Skills Report, published last year.

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5. Recognition in Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPS)

We have seen widespread recognition of the Universal Framework in LSIPs across England. 

• The London LSIP noted that the Framework ‘brings much needed clarity to the often confusing and fragmented debate about transferable skills’ and it included an action to ‘Support the scaling up of the Skills Builder Framework in London so that it becomes the primary route for education and business to help build transferable skills in Londoners, and standard across apprenticeships nationally’. 
• In the West Midlands and Warwickshire, ‘Use of the Skills Builder Partnership Skills Builder Universal Framework received positive employer feedback’ and the LSIP has set an action to pilot use of the Framework. 

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What’s the vision for skills policy in 2024?

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As a partnership we are working collectively towards our 2025 goal to provide 10 million high quality opportunities to develop essential skills. To support our efforts to extend opportunity, I would like to see government delivering on their goal of levelling-up and building a world class education system through:

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• Adopting the Universal Framework in the national curriculum and employment programmes as shared language for building essential skills. 
• Using the Universal Framework as the key measure of essential skills development in education, including through digital learner profiles. 
• Further integration of the Universal Framework into T Levels, A Levels and Apprenticeships. 

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These changes would ensure a common language and approach to essential skills and enable people to measure and reflect on their skills as they move through education and begin their working life. This would support a journey of lifelong learning of essential skills, and ensure the workforce has the skills needed for the future world of work. 

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It’s a really exciting time for the Skills Builder Partnership - if you would like to discuss our policy goals - please do get in touch.

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