Skills Builder Partnership’s world-leading approach provides a blueprint for policy success

The government has formally announced its review of the national curriculum and assessment, setting up a commission to provide recommendations. The review seeks to  “develop a cutting-edge curriculum, equipping children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills” that will “support their future life and work.”

Explicitly teaching the eight essential skills including speaking, creativity and teamwork is seen by 92% of UK teaching professionals as important in preparing young people for life and work. Individuals see this play out in their own lives: higher levels of essential skills, as measured using the Universal Framework, drive a 9-12% annual wage premium, higher job satisfaction, wellbeing and social mobility.

For the teachers, education institutions, impact organisations and employers up and down the country who have long been building these skills on their own initiative because of the impact they’ve seen them to have, the announcement is very welcome. Across the Skills Builder Partnership, they have been pursuing excellence in how this is done: using a shared language that breaks the skills down into their component steps, focusing tightly on building specific steps, measuring progress and bringing the skills to life through application.    

At the same time, the government is clear that it wants “evolution, not revolution.” This is a sensible aim, and there are already strong foundations to build off. Skills Builder Partnership has partnered closely with Careers & Enterprise Company, which uses the Universal Framework in its programmes and widely-adopted Future Skills Questionnaire. The Framework is included in statutory careers guidance and backed by leading organisations in the sector including the Gatsby Foundation, CIPD, Edge Foundation and Fair Education Alliance.

The desire to evolve is also driven by being mindful of pressure on teachers. Given the fact teachers have lower wellbeing than the national average (and 24% lower job satisfaction), any changes need to work for teachers. The research is promising, however, showing that teaching professionals who are enabled to prepare young people for life and work - including by building their essential skills - have higher levels of job satisfaction and are more likely to want to remain in the profession. 

The tens of thousands of teachers across the country using the Skills Builder approach and Universal Framework show how this balance can be achieved with pedagogical rigour. Equipped with the right training and resources, they have threaded essential skills through their subjects and taught them in stand-alone projects. 

There are also existing, tried and tested approaches to assessing learners’ essential skills. Schools and colleges in the Skills Builder Partnership are already successfully using a combination of teacher-led and learner-led models to assess essential skills at all ages throughout education. Assessment of essential skills in qualifications is already done through the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and in some GCSEs, such as foreign languages. Part of the power of essential skills in social mobility is individuals’ confidence and ability to articulate them, so qualifications will need to link directly to a Framework for skills that learners understand and are familiar with.

It’s critical to get this right. The cost of low essential skills to the UK economy in 2022 was £22.2bn and the cost to young people is a skills trap of less advantage leading to lower income, job satisfaction, wellbeing and fewer opportunities to build skills to escape the cycle. 

At Skills Builder Partnership, we know the potential that a complete education holds and have a blueprint for getting there. We are excited to continue our work with government to share the insights and evidence from thousands of education institutions, social impact organisations and employers, accrued over 15 years of delivering tangible impact. 

‍

What are essential skills?

Essential skills are those highly transferable skills that everyone needs to do almost any job, which make specific knowledge and technical skills fully productive. These are distinct from basic skills (literacy, numeracy and digital skills) and technical skills (specific to a particular sector or role, sometimes drawing off a particular body of knowledge): 

• Listening: Receiving, retaining and processing of information or ideas 
• Speaking: Transmitting orally information or ideas 
• Problem Solving: Finding a solution to a situation or challenge 
• Creativity: Using Imagination and the generation of new ideas 
• Staying Positive: Using tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals 
• Aiming High: Setting clear, tangible goals and devise a robust route to achieving them 
• Leadership: Supporting, encouraging and developing others to achieve a shared goal 
• Teamwork: Working cooperatively with others towards achieving a shared goal 

The Universal Framework for essential skills breaks each of these eight skills down into 16 measurable, teachable steps.  

‍

About Skills Builder Partnership 

The Skills Builder Partnership leads a global movement of 900+ employers, educators and social impact organisations all working to ensure that one day everyone builds the essential skills to succeed. 

Tom Ravenscroft founded Skills Builder working as a teacher in Hackney, after seeing there was something fundamental missing in education. Students were leaving school completely unprepared for the world, without basic self-management and communication skills. 

Fast forward to 2024 and the Skills Builder Partnership delivered 2.6 million high quality opportunities to build essential skills in the last year alone. The Universal Framework for essential skills and the Skills Builder approach are the leading global ways that educators, employers and impact organisations are building essential skills. In the UK, 87% of secondary school students have a touchpoint with the framework. 

‍