Skills England latest – what it might mean for our sector
Following the announcement over the summer about the creation of Skills England, the Department for Education has released an initial report, Skills England: Driving growth and widening opportunities, which provides some insight into what the focus of the new body will be.
Here, Spencer Moore, Chief Strategy Officer at CIMSPA, shares what the report is telling us about the direction of travel for skills development and how the sport and physical activity sector can be at the forefront of what comes next.
“Back in July, one of the first announcements made by the new government was about the creation of Skills England. Anyone who thought this might be a token announcement with little action behind it was quickly proved wrong as an interim chair was implemented and DfE announced the transfer of responsibilities from IfATE to Skills England along with other planned changes to the Apprenticeship Levy.
Undoubtedly, the government is serious about its commitment to skills. In his first speech as prime minister to the Labour Party Conference, Sir Keir Starmer reinforced the role skills development has in economic growth. And with its first report, we’re starting to see where Skills England’s focus is likely to be.
The first thing to say is that while comprehensive, the report isn’t telling us what is or isn’t going to happen in terms of immediate policies. It’s very much setting out what the analysis of the current landscape is, and it is described by the interim chair as doing ‘nothing more than setting the scene’. But what we can see from it is some key themes that will undoubtedly shape the functions, remit and approach of Skills England through the policies that the government adopts.
The great news is that our sector is already making strong strides in many of these areas. But it’s imperative that we demonstrate the immense positive impact that we are making and ensure that as a sector we are a beacon for what great skills development, that meets the needs of employers and communities, can be.
The report details examples of gaps between the skills demanded by employers and the skills supplied by ‘the system’ and sets this as the driver of the work that Skills England will do.
Within the sport and physical activity sector, skills gap analysis has been carried out with over 1,000 employers of all sizes to identify the skills that they need in order to sustain and grow their operations and business. That analysis is being used to help education and training providers shape their provision to ensure that they can deliver on equipping learners with the skills that employers need. This is crucial across both technical and transferable skills. The Skills England report outlines issues in relation to ‘essential employment skills [which] are foundational capabilities that enable the competent performance of tasks across all areas of work’. In our sector, employers commonly report shortages in transferable skillsets such as leadership, customer service, safeguarding and working with specific populations. Through the ongoing development of Professional Standards, the quality assurance of education providers and the Training Academy, the sport and physical activity sector is addressing these skills gaps.