We’re excited to introduce our new UK CEO who will be leading Skills Builder Partnership’s work in the UK and share his reflections on taking up this new role:
Michael Englard
After six superb years developing the “most radical new university in decades”, I’m thrilled to be joining Tom and the Skills Builder team as the new UK CEO.
I am a proud Croydoner, first by birth and later by choice. I have had a lifelong fascination with forms of education, old and new, and with the power of learning to change lives and drive social mobility.
After teaching at the Doon School, one of India’s most interesting and influential institutions, I completed my PhD at Cambridge University. I subsequently taught in Cambridge and was Director of Studies at Emmanuel College.
In recent years, I have led and contributed to a range of educational start-ups and scale-ups. I co-founded Causeway Education, a university access charity which works across the UK, and set up the LIS Foundation - the sister charity to the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS).
In my role at LIS, I managed departments across the full student lifecycle from admissions to careers. As Registrar, I was privileged to lead the team which secured new degree awarding powers - the first institution in over fifty years to achieve this status from its inception. In January, LIS gained full degree awarding powers allowing it to teach any subject.
I’m excited to join the Skills Builder Partnership for many reasons. The biggest motivator is, very simply, how important and how distinctive the work is for individuals across the country.
The essential skills - leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, listening, speaking, staying positive and aiming high - are fibres that can connect, strengthen and enable achievements in the classroom and in the workplace.
At the moment, the chances to improve these skills are unevenly shared. Gaps in essential skills can turn into traps: young people who start with lower skill levels can get locked into jobs with less pay and less satisfaction.
As conditions shift, skills are moving up the agenda and the Skills Builder Partnership can lead real and positive change.
In England, the national curriculum review is well underway. Chaired by the redoubtable Professor Becky Francis, the team will outline its initial recommendations in the spring.
The review’s first priority is to deliver “an excellent foundation in core subjects of reading, writing and maths.” Intriguing Skills Builder research has shown that developing essential skills may provide a platform for success in these core subjects.
Beside the question of enhancing attainment, we know that there is a real appetite for bolstering skills education in the classroom. A 2023 survey found that 86% of teaching professionals want to see the incorporation of essential skills within the national curriculum. Given the increasing strains on teachers’ time, this represents both a remarkable consensus and a powerful practitioner-led priority.
Looking beyond the scope of the review, we can see a defining decade for skills education.
In a recent House of Lords debate, Lord Aberdare eloquently set the scene: “skills are central to the future of our young people and central to the future of our nation. Every one of the main challenges we face depends for its resolution on our having the right skills, now and in the future.”
Tackling these issues will not be easy. Last June, Martha Lane Fox, President of the British Chambers of Commerce, pointed to the “stubbornly high” skills deficit with 62% of UK firms reporting skills shortages.
In tackling this perennial problem, we can see a quickening political impetus to raise the skill levels of our current and future workforce. As Jacqui Smith has pointed out, skills are “essential” to all of the current government’s missions.
We know that technical expertise in areas such as data science and sustainability are needed to power economic growth. And it is now becoming clear that essential skills including communication and creativity must complement technical skills if they are to be applied to real jobs and productivity gains are to be realised.
Any consideration of future productivity must also consider the turbulent technological changes which are swirling around us.
As we witness the growth of artificial intelligence, we are glimpsing its power to disrupt education and – perhaps – to alter our understanding of underlying concepts like “learning” and “knowledge”.
Policy shifts. Revised economic imperatives. Unpredictable technological change. We do not yet know the exact directions or interactions of these shifts. What we do know is that each of them will have an effect on skills education.
Taken together, this presents a moment of challenge and opportunity for Skills Builder Partnership. With a touchpoint in almost 90% of the country’s secondary schools and colleges, over 950 partners, and a combined programme reach of close to 2 million individuals, the organisation will surely play a key role in the emerging skills landscape.
Through the Universal Framework, Tom and his team have defined a common language for essential skills and, in doing so, have brought together a powerful coalition of partners. The combination of outstanding internal expertise and wide reach means that the organization is well placed to drive systemic change.
The mission of Skills Builder Partnership is admirably ambitious: to ensure that, one day, every individual has the essential skills to thrive.
This mission can, of course, only be realised through partnership. A collaborative approach has defined the organisation from the outset and will be crucial to its future success. I am hugely looking forward to meeting many of the schools, colleges, companies and charities who are using the Universal Framework to build essential skills across the UK.The end prize for developing essential skills lies with young people themselves. We know that building essential skills can be a catalyst for achieving academic success, securing higher wages, and being happier in life.
Who wouldn’t be excited to work for goals like that?
