Over the years, Edge’s Skills Shortage Bulletins have shone a much-needed light on the gap between the skills people need to thrive and the education and careers opportunities available to them. Our 9th bulletin brings together research on a wide range of issues: championing sustainability in our education system, the benefits of strengthening our creative industries, the penalties young people are experiencing in the labour market, and the difficulties older workers face in reskilling and transitioning into different job roles. As you’d expect, Covid-19 features front and centre as we look at where our economy is going post pandemic.
Edge Chief Executive, Alice Barnard“As we enter the post pandemic era, England’s politicians of all persuasions are finally making the connection between education, skills and the future of the UK economy. Our work has been highlighting the skills mismatch for years but our warnings have fallen on deaf ears. If Boris Johnson wants a highly-skilled, highly-waged and highly-productive economy he needs to act now by transforming and properly funding our education system.”
Key points from the report:
- Only 9.9% of young people feel confident that they will be able to access quality work where they live. (Youth Voice Census 2021)
- At a time of rising unemployment, a third of Britons (34%) want to change careers. (City & Guilds Group and Burning Glass Technologies)
- The skills shortages in AI and the digital sector reflect pipeline issues in schools. Fewer students are choosing to study ICT at GCSE, while schools lack resources to invest in equipment and digital skills training. (Learning & Work Institute 2021)
- As well as ‘support to get environmental jobs’, young people also want ‘more time spent learning in and about nature’ and ‘government, employers, businesses, schools and charities to pay more attention to the needs of young people and the environment’. (Our Bright Future, Nash 2020)
- By 2025 the Creative Industries could create 300,000 new jobs, bouncing back from the impact of Covid-19 and surpassing pre-pandemic employment levels. Again, creative subjects are falling in schools because of the narrow curriculum underpinned by the EBacc. (Creative Industries Federation and Creative England, July 2021)
All of this adds further to the weight of evidence behind Edge’s mission to Make Education Relevant. If we are to properly prepare young people for the future of work, Government needs to replace the EBacc and Progress 8 with a truly broad and balanced curriculum, Rethink Assessment to value a broader range of skills than simply memorising facts and reverse the damaging cuts to BTECs.