Technical education reformed to become more employer-led

The Skills for Jobs White Paper enshrines the prime minister’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee, setting out a blueprint for a post-16 education system that will ensure everyone, no matter where they live or their background, can gain the skills they need to progress in work at any stage of their lives.

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee will offer tens of thousands of adults the opportunity to retrain in later life, helping them to gain in-demand skills and open up further job opportunities.

This includes the chance for adults without a full level 3 qualification (A-level equivalent) to gain one from April 2021 for free in a range of sectors including engineering.

Meanwhile, Skills Bootcamps – free, flexible courses of just 12-16 weeks – are giving adults the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. A Lifelong Loan Entitlement will also make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly, which can be used over their lifetime and for modules of a course.

The government hopes these new measures will ‘supercharge’ further and technical education, realigning the whole system around the needs of employers, so that people are trained for the skills gaps that exist now, and in the future, in sectors the economy needs, including construction, digital, clean energy and manufacturing.

Measures include:

• Business groups, including Chambers of Commerce, working alongside colleges to develop tailored skills plans to meet local training needs; supported by a £65 million Strategic Development Fund to put the plans into action and establish new College Business Centres to drive innovation and enhanced collaboration with employers.


• Giving employers a central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030, to ensure that the education and training people receive is directly linked to the skills needed for real jobs.


• Boosting the quality and uptake of Higher Technical Qualifications – that provide the skills that many employers say they need and that can lead to higher wages – by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022 supported by a government-backed brand and quality mark.


• Changing the law so that from 2025 people can access flexible student finance so they can train and retrain throughout their lives, supported by funding in 21/22 to test ways to boost access to more modular and flexible learning.


• Launching a nationwide recruitment campaign to get more talented individuals to teach in further education and investing in high quality professional development including a new Workforce Industry Exchange Programme.

Commenting on the white paper, Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK, said: “For too long our education system has not kept pace with the changes we’ve seen in the manufacturing sector as a result of digitalisation, technological advances and a changing model of work. Today’s package is an ambitious, yet measured step in putting employers back at the heart of the technical education system, realigning it to meet the growing skills gaps we face in today’s labour market.

“Manufacturers will be pleased to see the vocational and technical education system geared towards providing the critical skills the manufacturing sector needs now. But more importantly, a recognition that as we look to rebuilding our economy, meeting the skills needs of UK manufacturers tomorrow will be vital to boost productivity and power economic growth.

“At a time of considerable change for businesses already, any reform will need to be done in close consultation with the sector. Government must commit its support to a Manufacturing Skills Task Force, working with the sector to help drive a skills revolution.”

Make UK www.makeuk.org