The St Martin’s Group reflects on the last year of Government skills policy

In July 2024, the outcome of the General Election marked a pivotal moment for strategy and reform in England’s skills landscape. Labour’s victory ushered in a mandate to implement its manifesto commitments, notably the creation of Skills England, transformation of the Apprenticeship Levy into a Growth and Skills Levy and the further devolution of skills funding to local authorities.

With this fresh political context, Skills England: Sector Evidence on the Growth and Skills Offer was published in June 2025 and updated earlier this month. The report sets out a comprehensive assessment of skills needs across ten priority sectors, including industrial growth drivers alongside construction and health and social care, and aligns closely with government ambitions for economic growth and widening access to opportunity.

The analysis draws on official statistics, employer surveys, macroeconomic projections and local insights. It exposes the inconsistencies and gaps within current sector definitions and highlights the urgent need for clearer, localised evidence to support robust planning. The intention is to enable more coherent decision‑making for employers, training providers and policymakers, aligned with both national priorities and regional variation.

Overall, the report paints a picture of a skills system that remains fragmented despite institutional capacity. Learners and businesses frequently find the system bewildering, which in turn dampens investment and erodes stability within further and higher education. Skills England identifies structural challenges, including chronic technical and behavioural skills shortages, erratic employer engagement in training, falling levels of employer-funded development and uncertainty amongst FE and HE institutions about future demand. Importantly, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face particular challenges in accessing apprenticeships due to their limited capacity to deal with administrative requirements, making it difficult to commit to longer programmes. 

Nevertheless, many sectors are seeing mounting demand for skilled labour. Clean energy and utilities alone are expected to need more than 200,000 new roles by 2030, predominantly requiring mid-level skills at Levels 2 and 3 rather than degrees. The report underscores the necessity of these mid-tier routes to support net zero objectives and inclusive growth.

In response to its findings, Skills England outlines a path forward encompassing stakeholder consultation through roundtables and webinars, and the development of a standardised UK skills taxonomy and occupational roadmap. These tools aim to bring clarity and alignment to training pathways and support smarter use of levy funding. Importantly, Skills England is poised to advise the Government on how the Growth and Skills Levy can be shaped to fund high-value training in line with industry demand.

Through a series of connected actions, such as improving cluster analysis, boosting employer involvement, simplifying funding mechanisms and building strategic coherence, the report makes the case for a revitalised, evidence‑led skills ecosystem. It reflects a new phase of policy ambition, in which the lessons of 2024’s political mandate are turned into concrete plans to support economic growth, deepen social mobility, and close skills gaps across regions and industries.

The reforms heralded by Skills England are expected to evolve over the next 12 to 18 months. Like the Growth and Skills Levy and devolution of adult skills funding, Skills England itself will become fully operational this year, once its leadership and strategy are firmly in place. What lies ahead will demand close collaboration with employers and providers to translate policy into action, and ultimately to support the learners at the heart of the system.