It's incredible to believe that it's been fourteen years since we got started with what became Skills Builder Partnership in a handful of classrooms back in 2008. From the 270 students in that first year, last week we went to the House of Lords to celebrate delivering more than 2.3 million high quality opportunities to boost essential skills in the last year alone. 

With speeches by our host Lord David Blunkett of the Labour Party and Lord Mike Storey of the Liberal Democrats, the event was a real testament to the cross-party support and momentum that Skills Builder Partnership is rapidly gathering. It follows our approach’s recommendation in various areas of UK policy: from the Government’s Statutory Careers Guidance, to the cross-party Future Perfect Education Commission and House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee, and most recently the Labour Council of Skills Advisors. 

We're looking forward to working more with each party and policymakers to scale our approach and build the essential skills of all.

It was also fantastic to see everyone come together to meet face to face, and celebrate the collective impact that the 841 partners who make up the Partnership are continuing to have around the common approach of the Skills Builder Framework.

In 2021-22, the Partnership delivered more than 2.3 million high quality interventions to build essential skills.

• Employers: 120 employers were part of the Partnership, with 55 working towards our Excellence Standards by embedding Skills Builder across their outreach, recruitment, and staff development.
• Education: 15,669 teachers have been trained and built the essential skills of 202,497 students. Students in partner schools doubled the rate of essential skill development against peers. In the last year, 87% of UK secondary schools and colleges have a touchpoint with the Partnership.
• Impact Organisations: 214 impact organisations delivered 2.06 million high-quality opportunities to build essential skills through youth work, the arts, careers and employability training, STEM activities, sports and more.
• Products: Our four products for individuals and teachers to assess and build essential skills were used by a further 96,390 active learners.

This year we also grew our international work, with programmes running in ten countries, and our products used in many more. 

We want to extend a huge thank you to Lord Blunkett and Lord Storey. We’re also, as always, incredibly thankful to our partners and supporters who attended and who have committed to achieving even more in the coming years.

This event at the House of Lords demonstrated just how much can be accomplished when we work as a unified voice. Together, we are driving global change to achieve our shared vision: one day, everyone will build the essential skills to succeed.

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