Check against delivery. First delivered to the St Martin's Group report launch in June 2025.
I. Introduction: Acknowledging St Martin's Group and Setting the Scene
(A) Opening, Thanks, and Congratulations:
- Thank you, Ed Lethbridge, and Lincoln International, for generously hosting this important event.
- I sincerely thank The St Martin's Group, particularly James Kelly and Jane Hadfield, for the invitation, your unwavering commitment, and your vital work in championing a robust skills agenda for the UK.
- Congratulations on publishing your "Skills for All: Ten Key Insights from Employers" report
- This is a truly timely and insightful piece of research, drawing directly from the perspectives of over 800 employers.
- The collaboration with Ipsos lends significant credibility, ensuring the employer voice is heard as robust evidence.
- Its launch, ahead of the Spending Review and a period of reform, makes its findings crucial, actionable intelligence.
(B). The Indispensable Employer Voice:
- The employer voice is essential in shaping a skills system that drives economic growth, boosts productivity, and underpins social justice.
- This report is a powerful amplifier for that voice, offering a clear articulation of employer needs – invaluable for policy traction.
II. A Decade of Reform: Towards an Employer-Led System
(A). The Journey of Transformation:
- We've undertaken a significant journey of skills and apprenticeship reforms over the past decade. Key aims included:
- Transforming the prestige of vocational education.
- Transforming the quality of training.
- Critically, transforming the system to become genuinely employer-led.
- Transforming funding mechanisms, like the Apprenticeship Levy.
- Transforming careers advice.
The goal: aligning training and education with real-world needs.
(B) Employer Centrality as a Core Principle:
- Initiatives like the Apprenticeship Levy, employer-designed standards, T-Levels, and Higher Technical Qualifications all share a common DNA: employer input.
- Employers are best placed to identify crucial skills.
- The ultimate goals: boost productivity, foster growth, enhance social mobility.
- While reforms established an employer-led architecture, this report reveals that the experience of this system, particularly for many larger employers, indicates a gap between policy intent and practical reality. The next phase must enhance responsiveness.
- Success depends on continuous feedback. Reports like "Skills for All" are vital to keep policy dynamic and fit for purpose.
III. Reflections on the "Skills for All" Report: The Employer Voice in Action
(A). Significance of the Report:
- This report is a "significant and timely contribution."
- Its power lies in being a "direct line from over 800 employers," offering unvarnished truths.
- Those must inform effective policy on the frontlines. Traction and success depend on alignment with employer realities.
(B). Deep Dive into Core Policy Recommendations:
1. Supporting Young People into Sustainable Careers:
- The Challenge: Employers face challenges recruiting young people with no experience, often prioritising existing staff. A critical aspect is the "Soft Skills Challenge":
- While many find developing technical skills in young people relatively straightforward, this confidence diminishes significantly for soft skills like communication and teamwork, particularly for larger employers.
- Employer Preferences: Apprenticeships are highly valued, with a strong belief that they should be at least a year long to embed competency.
- Additionally, employers see value in vocational, work-based routes, including shorter, flexible training.
- Crucially, a tiny percentage of employers believe creating more traditional university places will support their growth – a decisive mandate for vocational pathways.
- Recommendation: The report calls for enhanced pre-employment support focused on soft skills, targeted support for employers hiring young people, and upstream educational reforms.
2. A System that Works for SMEs and Larger Employers:
- The Divide: The report identifies "marked differences" in needs and attitudes between SMEs and larger employers.
- Small employers often feel the government understands their training needs better. In contrast, many large businesses feel government departments do not understand their training needs well.
- New Products & Coordination: There is some confusion regarding new products like Foundation and Shorter Apprenticeships, highlighting that a "one-size-fits-all" approach will not work.
- There is an overwhelming desire for skills policy to be coordinated effectively at both the national and local levels.
- Recommendation: The report rightly calls for simplification, clear communication, and a system responsive to businesses of all sizes.
3. An All-Age, All-Level Skills System:
- Lifelong Learning Imperative: A clear consensus that skills policy should support people at all ages and career stages. A significant majority of employers state a national skills policy training all ages and levels would most benefit their organisation.
- Flexibility in Funding and Content: Robust support for the new Growth and Skills Levy to fund a broader range of qualifications beyond traditional apprenticeships, including vocational/HTQs, management, and soft skills training.
- Many employers also prefer apprenticeship programmes that are partially prescribed, allowing flexibility.
- Recommendation: The report advocates for the employer voice to be central in levy allocation and policy shaping, emphasising ongoing consultation and clear implementation.
IV. Integrating National Strategy: Skills England and Future Challenges
- A. The Role of Skills England:
- Acknowledge the recent establishment and pivotal role of Skills England in unifying the skills landscape.
- The appointment of a strong board, with figures like Chair Phil Smith CBE and Vice Chair Sir David Bell, signals a serious commitment.
- B. Addressing Critical Workforce Gaps – The AI and Automation Revolution:
- Skills England's recent report highlights a "critical workforce emergency," with alarming vacancy rates: Construction at 52%, Manufacturing 42%, Healthcare 40%, Tech 43%.
- AI is "supercharging" this crisis. In creative industries, 69% of employers report an urgent retraining need due to new tech. This demands reskilling the existing workforce.
- The reformed Growth and Skills Levy and Skills England’s proposals like "8-Month Fast-Track Apprenticeships" and "'Bolt-On' AI Training" attempt to align policy with this rapid change.
- C. Aligning with Skills England's Strategic Priorities:
- Insights from this report directly inform Skills England's priorities:
- A "data-driven annual skills assessment": This report is a prime example of essential employer-led data.
- "Simplifying access" and reducing bureaucracy: Echoes this report’s recommendations.
- Boosting the "domestic pipeline of skilled workers": Connects to findings on recruitment difficulties for higher-level skills.
- Ensuring "consistent, high quality" Local Skills Improvement Plans.
D. The Value of Higher-Level Skills and Degree Apprenticeships:
- Level 6 (degree) and Level 7 (Master's level) apprenticeships are vital for addressing higher-level skills gaps, a challenge exacerbated by AI.
- These offer parity with traditional degrees, embedded in employer needs.
- The report's finding that many employers value apprenticeships of at least a year creates a nuanced landscape. It's essential to articulate that longer apprenticeships and shorter, fast-track options serve different, complementary purposes. Clear distinction is vital.
V. Political Context and Future Hopes
(A). Political Insights: The Spending Review:
- The Spending Review occurs amidst "tight public finances."
- Adult education and Further Education have seen "significant real-terms reductions."
- The apprenticeship budget is due to rise, but other skills budgets face pressure.
- The argument is that investing in skills and FE is not a cost but a strategic investment in future growth, productivity, innovation, and resilience.
- Advocate strongly for protecting and strategically growing this investment.
(B). Personal Hopes for Skills and Further Education:
- A Genuine Lifelong Learning Culture: Where continuous upskilling is the norm, supported by flexible provision, reflecting employer desires for policy catering to all ages and levels, especially with the AI revolution.
- Continued Parity of Esteem: Elevating vocational and technical education. The report shows few employers see more university places as the answer, while many want more apprenticeships and short courses.
- A Responsive and Agile System: A skills ecosystem that is agile enough for diverse employer needs (especially given that many large employers feel misunderstood) and rapid technological change.
- Protecting and Growing Apprenticeships: Ensuring new flexibilities don’t undermine core apprenticeship quality or availability.
- Productivity and Opportunity: A skills system as an engine for UK productivity and extending the "ladder of opportunity to every citizen."
VI. Conclusion: A Call to Action
- A. Synthesising the Message:
- The past decade laid the groundwork for an employer-led system.
- This St Martin’s Group report shows where we must go next: a flexible, inclusive, and responsive approach, guided by the employer voice.
- B. Forward Look – Partnership and Investment:
- Achieving this vision requires an unwavering commitment to genuine, ongoing employer partnership.
- This must be backed by sustained, strategic investment.
- A relentless focus on skills is the bedrock of national growth, individual opportunity, and enduring social justice.
