Spotlight on Skills

The “Skills Agenda” continues to dominate the discussions around HE and innovation. Reports, such as The Future of Jobs 2025 suggest that the labour market will undergo major reshaping by 2030, driven by demographic shifts, technological advancements, and the push for sustainability and the “green transition.”

Technology is already transforming education. Nearly all (92%) students using AI tools creating a clear need to review our assessment practices (through ideas such as ‘reverse scaffolding’) to ensure we teach students how to use it effectively, as well as avoiding a new digital divide. UK Govt is keen to address this, with a new Digital Inclusion action plan, ensuring digital skills strengthen the UK’s skills pipeline in support of Industrial Strategy.
The Russell Group universities have outlined their “pathway to growth” response to the Industrial Strategy, outlining 5 contributions focused on skills, partnerships and start-ups.

Our graduates are widely recognised as contributing significantly to innovation and productivity, as a Universities UK report emphasising the pivotal role of graduates in driving economic growth, showing how skills align closely to the government’s defined growth sectors as well as to regional growth(stating that the most productive regions of the UK have the highest proportion of workforce graduates). Such recognition underpins EEUK’s response to the recent OfS Consultation, where we proposed graduate outcomes statements such as “I am equipped with the entrepreneurial competences (skills and knowledge) to innovate and drive positive change in my chosen field” and “I actively share and apply my skills and learning within collaborative environments, contributing to innovation and positive impact within and beyond my communities/academic community.”

The focus on innovation also sees appointment of Sir Ian Chapman as the CEO of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), developing the government’s growth agenda through the industrial strategy, research and specifically, Horizon Europe, whilst Lord Willetts is shaping the regulatory approaches needed for new technologies such as drones, through the new RIO (Regulatory Innovation Office). However it is clear that support content for starts increasingly needs to be tailored as league tables recognise that it’s not just Business Schools or Tech that start graduate businesses.

In this evolving landscape, the government seeking to understand working from home, and potentially looking at summer HE white paper. EEUK reviewed its latest research, on the realities of an enterprise educator echoing the latest EDGE UCL report also looked at the changing roles across “third spaces” confirming shifting roles and diversifying support needs. With so much change underway, staying connected is more important than ever—see you at IEEC!