New body launched to bring together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions
The Prime Minister and Education Secretary have announced the launch of Skills England to bring together the fractured skills landscape and create a shared national ambition to boost the nation’s skills.
The Education Secretary has also today appointed Richard Pennycook CBE, former chief executive of the Co-operative Group and lead non-executive director at the DfE, as the interim Chair.
Skills are crucial to economic growth, with a third of productivity improvement over the last two decades explained by improvements to skills levels.
But between 2017 and 2022 skills shortages in this country doubled to more than half a million, and now account for 36% of job vacancies.
Skills England will bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions, providing strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system aligned to the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
Supporting local areas to develop the skilled workforces they need – in particular across construction and healthcare - is fundamental to the Government’s mission to raise growth sustainably. By working with the Migration Advisory Committee, Skills England will also help reduce reliance on overseas workers.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
The organisation will identify the training for which the growth and skills levy will be accessible – an important reform, giving businesses more flexibility to spend levy funds on training for the skills they need, which employers have long been calling for.
Skills England will be established in phases over the next 9-12 months to create a responsive and collaborative skills system.
The Skills England Bill announced this week will transfer functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to Skills England.
This sits alongside work to simplify and devolve adult education budgets to Mayoral Combined Authorities to ensure that they can address their adult skills needs directly and support growth in their areas.
Next steps for establishing Skills England
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