Minister Smith Delivers Keynote Address at SKOPE Skills Summit Held in Oxford
The UK Labour government has unveiled a comprehensive Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy, aiming to break down barriers to opportunity, unleash economic growth, and improve access to higher education for disadvantaged students and care leavers.
The strategy seeks to move away from a fragmented and competitive post-16 education system towards a more coherent and coordinated framework that better serves students and employers. This includes raising standards, improving access, and securing the future of higher education aligned with economic needs.
One of the key initiatives is the creation of Skills England, an arms-length body that will provide authoritative assessments of skills requirements across the country and help align education and training with the government’s missions. Additionally, selected Further Education (FE) colleges will be converted into Technical Excellence Colleges, providing high-quality technical education that meets industry demand.
The strategy also emphasizes flexible funding mechanisms, such as the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), which harmonises student loan offers for higher education and adult learning above level 4. This allows individuals to receive loan finance for individual modules and technical courses, increasing flexibility and access for people who need to upskill or reskill during their careers.
The Labour government has committed to £1.2 billion annual investment in skills and training, supporting over one million young people into training and apprenticeships. The strategy also aims to unlock £132.5 million of dormant assets to support disadvantaged young people, including care leavers, to access new opportunities in their communities.
The strategy will focus on a more focused skills system, clear qualifications, financial stability, and a culture of 'skills first'. The government is providing funding to recruit and retain high-quality Further Education teachers and encouraging universities to participate in Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) and local growth discussions.
The government has adopted a sector-based approach to address key skills needs, starting with a construction skills package worth £625 million. The speaker's government also announced further packages in the Industrial Strategy, including an Engineering package, a Defence package, and a Digital package.
The LLE has the potential to transform how employers work with providers to train and recruit staff, and the government is ending the culture of talking down universities and dismissing the opportunities higher education provides. The strategy aims to boost personal and national prosperity, reduce reliance on migration to fill skills gaps, and ensure that background never equals destiny.
The independent sector educates around 6% of school children in the UK, but they make up 33.8% of Oxford entrants. The speaker believes that technical education needs to be a respected alternative to academic pathways, and universities, including Oxford, have much further to go in ensuring access and improving outcomes for disadvantaged students.
The speaker's government will publish a Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy soon, which will include a vision for a world-leading skills system. The government is establishing a renewed partnership between the government and business to identify skills gaps and develop solutions. The discussion about this research is happening across the sector, including the government.
The LLE will fund new, flexible modular pathways, widening student finance to a broader range of courses and learners. The speaker's government will introduce new short courses from April 2026, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, artificial intelligence, and engineering.
The speaker welcomes Oxford's recent commitment, along with other Russell Group universities, to do more for students who grew up in care and to increase admissions transparency and use of contextual admissions. The speaker believes that further education needs to emerge from the shadow of higher education as an equal partner, and only when there is parity will we secure high-quality post-16 routes for all learners, rather than the lucky few.
References: [1] Department for Education. (2023). Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy. Retrieved from
- The Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy, unveiled by the UK Labour government, aims to create a more coherent education system, aligning it with policy-and-legislation, politics, and general-news, as it seeks to improve access to higher education for disadvantaged students and care leavers.
- The strategy outlines a new funding mechanism, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), which focuses on education-and-self-development, providing flexible loan finance for individual modules and technical courses, thereby allowing individuals to upskill or reskill during their careers.
