Articles
Addressing the skills gap
The government’s announcement of the creation of Skills England marks a significant step towards integrating training with the country’s labour market needs. This new body aims to incorporate businesses, training providers, unions and government entities to create a cohesive and dynamic skills system. By placing employers at the heart of skills development, this new government body aligns with IMechE’s vision of ensuring that engineering education meets industry demands and that stakeholders collaborate towards common goals. With Skills England assuming some functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, we will continue to ensure that employer engagement is maintained, and vocational qualifications remain relevant to sector needs.
Skills levy
The apprenticeship levy reform is part of the government’s plan to introduce a growth and skills levy to address the skills shortage and align training with the country’s needs. The reform will provide businesses with greater flexibility to invest in a broader range of training programmes, including non-apprenticeship courses, which is crucial for the engineering sector, where diverse skill sets are required to meet the challenges of modern industry. Lifelong learning is a core value of the work of the Institution, and this could play a major part in how businesses choose to upskill their employees.
Devolution and local empowerment
The Labour government plans to devolve adult skills funding to combined authorities, empowering local leaders to tailor skills development to regional needs. This approach echoes IMechE’s advocacy for localised solutions that address industry challenges by fostering innovation and growth in engineering communities across the UK.
Teacher recruitment
Labour plans to recruit 6,500 teachers to address the teacher recruitment crisis, particularly in shortage subjects. IMechE has been working with the government to encourage engineers to become physics teachers, and it is recognised that there is a shortage of STEM teachers overall. We hope IMechE can complement this work by supporting educators in delivering top-tier engineering education.
Curriculum and assessment review
The government will launch a curriculum and assessment review that aims to create a curriculum that enhances school standards and prepares young people for life and work. This initiative seeks to address challenges in educational attainment and remove barriers that hinder opportunities for socioeconomically disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs or disabilities. The desired outcome is that people aged 16-19 will have access to rigorous and high-value qualifications and training, preparing them for the evolving workplace. It will also evaluate the current assessment system to explore potential improvements, maintaining the essential role of examinations while considering the impact on students and staff. IMechE will support this review by providing evidence, highlighting the importance of adding real engineering examples across the curriculum, showcasing careers and role models.
Work experience
As part of the government’s plans to partner with business, it has announced a new commitment to two weeks’ worth of quality work experience for every young person and to recruit more than 1,000 new careers advisers, building partnerships between schools, colleges and local employers to equip young people with work-ready skills. This is an important development, especially for engineering, as discussed widely in a review led by EngineeringUK. IMechE already provides virtual work experience, and we hope companies represented by IMechE will also see the importance of providing this work experience, both for them and the wider sector.
IMechE in action
IMechE remains committed to supporting its members and the government in delivering policies that ensure that the UK remains a leader in engineering innovation and development.