Recommendation 32

HM Government Accepted

ACCEPT Skills England recognises the need to strengthen and expand jobs and skills data across government to enable robust skills needs assessments, particularly at local levels. High-quality data is also essential for delivering the Industrial Strategy and the Plan for Change. Progress is already underway: Skills England has begun mapping training pathways into jobs, as detailed in the Assessment of Priority Skills to 2030 report published in August 2025, and is developing the UK Standard Skills Classification, a new skills taxonomy, with a prototype due for public release shortly. Skills England has also taken ownership of the Employer Skills Survey, which captures data on employer-led training. Despite these steps, significant gaps remain in the current data landscape. Closing these gaps requires Skills England to go further in improving data collection and dissemination. In the short term, Skills England is exploring how to leverage data held by private organisations and enhance the value of existing datasets, such as the Employer Skills Survey. The Local Skills Dashboard will be developed as a model for releasing data more effectively. By early 2026, Skills England plans to publish a note outlining its Areas of Research Interest, including proposals to expand its own data collection initiatives. Over the longer term, Skills England will seek further, more substantial improvements in jobs and skills data by promoting cross- government collaboration in the use of data collected by other bodies. The government is already transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy. Smaller employers who do not pay the levy are important to the economy and to apprenticeships; they provide valuable opportunities for younger apprentices and apprentices from disadvantaged areas. In addition, the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16–21, and for apprentices aged 22–24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) or have been, or are, in local authority care, when they undertake apprenticeships with non-levy paying employers. For all other apprentices, employers that don’t pay the levy are required to co-invest 5% towards apprentice training costs. As we develop the growth and skills offer, we’ll continue to recognise the importance of ensuring that it supports SMEs to access apprenticeships.