09.12.24

Today, Make UK’s Industrial Strategy Skills Commission launches its call for evidence.

The Commission brings together a panel of experts, representing both businesses and employees, vocational and traditional education, policymakers and researchers, to focus on addressing issues for employers, education providers and the Government itself.

The decline in UK employer investment in skills training over recent years is well documented. Though many manufacturers have increased or at least sustained their current level of investment in training, they face a number of significant challenges in successfully engaging with the skills system.

Crucially, the number of apprenticeship starts in engineering and manufacturing has fallen by 42% since 2016/17 at a time when demand for skilled workers across a range of occupations – both lower and higher level – is increasing. Other key challenges facing industry and the workforce more widely include an an ageing workforce and the green and digital transitions changing the skills needed by manufacturers. While upskilling and retraining the existing workforce is growing in importance, there is no adequate policy framework to match.

>> Meet the Commission here

This ISSC project is crucial to creating a skills vision for the manufacturing sector, but more importantly, ensuring that both industry and Government can deliver on it. With the creation of the new Skills England body and the reintroduction of the Industrial Strategy Council, there is no better time to develop long-term solutions to these pressing issues.

We need to hear from you directly to inform our work. Please send your answers to the questions below to [email protected] 

Call for Evidence: Questions

1. What are the skills needed for an industrial strategy, and where are they needed? 

2. Where are the most significant gaps in employers’ access to skills training? This could be broken down by:

   a. Age groups of learners

   b. Sector

   c. Level

   d. Individual qualifications

   e. Company size

   f. Region/ devolved nation

    

3. What skills initiatives are you aware of? In the current skills training landscape, which things:

   a. Work well and should be retained?

   b. Do not work well and should be reformed?

    

4. What do you consider to be the biggest challenges in relation to employer investment in skills training for:

   a. Businesses

   b. Education providers

   c. Young learners and employees

    

5. The Government has proposed a new Growth and Skills Levy – a more flexible alternative to the apprenticeship levy. How should this flexibility work, and what training should be included or excluded from its scope?

6. What other policy measures could help to stimulate more employer investment in training? Please include, if possible, in your answer, initiatives you feel would work specifically for SMEs.

7. Finally, how can we ensure that marginalised groups (e.g. SEND/disabled people, women and non-binary people, ethnic minorities) can benefit from upskilling opportunities?

Closes 11:59pm, Friday, January 31st 2025