Prime minister Keir Starmer and education secretary Bridget Phillipson today [22 July 2024] announced the launch of Skills England, a new body aiming to ‘bring together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions’.
The launch of this body was one of the pledges made in the Labour Party’s election manifesto. More light was shed on this on 17 July 2024 as King Charles III confirmed the new government’s plans to boost the nation’s skills at the State Opening of Parliament. “My government will establish Skills England which will have a new partnership with employers at its heart, and my ministers will reform the Apprenticeship Levy,” the King said.
Government statistics show that between 2017 and 2022, skills shortages in England ‘doubled to more than half a million, and now account for 36% of job vacancies’. Illustrating the importance of skills to economic growth, The Department for Education also highlighted that ‘a third of productivity improvement over the last two decades [can be] explained by improvements to skills levels’.
Commenting on the need for action, Starmer said: “Our skills system is in a mess, which is why we are transforming our approach to meet skills needs over the coming decades.
“[Skills England] will help to deliver our number one mission as a government, to kickstart economic growth, by opening up new opportunities for young people and enabling British businesses to recruit more home-grown talent.
“From construction to IT, healthcare to engineering, our success as a country depends on delivering highly skilled workforces for the long term. Skills England will put in place the framework needed to achieve that goal while reducing our reliance on workers from overseas.”
Phillipson added: ”Our first mission in government is to grow the economy, and for that we need to harness the talents of all our people to unlock growth and break down the barriers to opportunity.
“The skills system we inherited is fragmented and broken. Employers want to invest in their workers but for too long have been held back from accessing the training they need.
“Skills England will jumpstart young people’s careers and galvanise local economies. It will bring businesses together with trade unions, mayors, universities, colleges and training providers to give us a complete picture of skills gaps nationwide, boost growth in all corners of the country and give people the opportunity to get on in life.”
Skills shortages have long affected the logistics industry in the UK and were heavily exacerbated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Peaking in late 2021 at 60,000, job vacancies in the UK transport and storage sector remain relatively high, with 34,000 vacancies reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from April to June 2024.
ONS data also showed that in 2023, only 99,000 HGV drivers employed in the UK were aged between 16 and 45, while 156,000 were aged between 36 and 65, and 17,000 were over 66. With this in mind, the importance of encouraging young people into careers in logistics and giving them the skills they need to succeed has never been clearer.
The previous government invested in Generation Logistics, a campaign aimed at encouraging more young people to take up a career in the logistics industry, since its launch in 2022 and announced a further £300,000 in funding to support this in 2023. In February 2024, then transport minister Guy Opperman praised Generation Logistics, saying that it is “revolutionising how we view roles in the logistics sector”.
Bridget Phillipson has appointed Richard Pennycook CBE, former CEO of the Co-operative Group and lead non-executive director at the Department for Education (DfE), as the interim chair of Skills England.
The next steps for establishing the body include ‘setting up the organisation in shadow form within the DfE’ and ‘starting work on an assessment of future skills needs while building strong relationships with employers’
A permanent board, chair and CEO are set to be appointed ‘in due course’.
