The skills White Paper could spark radical change
The White Paper calls for cross-departmental collaboration to build skills fit for the future
Alex Morris, Senior Consultant
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper marks a vital shift for UK education. It identifies the need to rethink how learning and working patterns can coexist in a world where people will do both for longer, with more fluidity and flexibility throughout their lives.
The plan’s proposed solution is to integrate employment and skills, two historically separate systems. Skills policy now stretches across both the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), making this join-up essential.
Published in October, the White Paper tackles some big questions: how do we engage employers with the skills system? How do we simplify vocational qualifications? And how do we keep universities financially viable?
The traditional education system — learn until you’re 16, 18 or 21, then work for 40 years — is crumbling. The speed and complexity of technological advancement means that standing still is falling behind. We now upskill and reskill between jobs, during jobs, or sometimes just to keep the job we have. To enable coming generations to enjoy varied careers and fulfilled lives, education needs to keep pace with a working world that’s evolving faster than ever.
“The traditional education system is crumbling — standing still is now falling behind.”
The White Paper demands new forms of partnership and institutional structures. It calls for more collaboration between employers and providers, to create qualifications and content that prepare learners for today and lay foundations for tomorrow, between universities and colleges to fill England’s historic gap at higher technical education, and between government and learners to define a new contract on who funds what training and when.
With the right execution, the White Paper could be transformational, bringing real opportunities to those in the educational sector who get their strategy right. For young people, it points to a hopeful future where education genuinely prepares them for modern working life.
