How AI can help us future-proof UK education
The magic moment where learning develops a skill to be recontextualised for the workplace still eludes us.
Dr Gemma Gronland, Director of Learning and Development
Most learners aren’t gaining the skills they actually need to thrive in today’s world. Skills are changing constantly, and our current approach to developing learning products risks providing education that won’t serve tomorrow’s needs. Reviews like the Curriculum and AssessmentReview (CAR) and Skills White Paper (SWP) show we still haven’t clearly defined the skills that-prepare people, and by extension the Nation as a whole, for work and life. If we fail to teach the skills that matter, what future are we creating?
“If we fail to teach the skills that matter, what future are we creating?”
The CAR and SWP emphasise the value of teaching adaptive and transferable skills, often called “skills for life.” Useful in theory, but too abstract to improve learning on their own.Awarding Organisations must avoid simply stamping these skills onto existing specifications without any real integration.
Increasingly, these life skills equate to digital or communication skills, considered essential for work place success. Yet theAI glass-floor continues to grow, leaving some learners behind while those with access to AI and digital tools surge ahead. This growing gap between school, training, and work may be contributing to rising NEET numbers in the UK.
So how do we close the gap between the skills people have, and the skills they actually need? At Avencera, we see a simple solution: using AI-enabled research to guide learning design. This allows experts to focus on fixing the skills delta and refining education, rather than making aspirational tweaks. By reimagining the design process, AI can help us identify and create learning products that genuinely prepare people for work and life.
For this to succeed, organisations must work at two altitudes: driving incremental improvements while daring to dream big. Now is the time to move beyond buzzwords and define the life, employability, and transferable skills that will equip learners for a fast-changing world.
