The learning and development industry is at the vanguard of one of the most pressing issues facing the labour market: how to solve the skills gap.
Hundreds of thousands of the UK’s vacancies need to be filled – with the digital future hurtling towards us and ambitious net zero targets to be met, it’s vital that the UK workforce is armed with an arsenal of skills fit to fill the two million jobs linked to the green economy by 2030.
Investing in skills
Analysis of OECD data around participation in adult learning and public and private spending on tertiary education has found that the UK is the second lowest spending economy in Europe when it comes to public investment into further education with current spending just 52% of the OECD average. It’s no wonder the skills gap isn’t getting any smaller.
While UK learners and businesses are footing the bill on lifelong learning, other European nations are investing heavily
The approach to lifelong learning requires overhauling if organisations are to tackle the skills gap in the UK. The rest of Europe is pulling ahead in its approach to skills and investment and we risk getting left behind, with the public purse not currently going far enough to support UK learners who want to upgrade their skills. Tech-powered learning can provide a solution to this, ensuring the workforce of today is equipped with the skills of tomorrow.
UK learners left behind
With data analysis finding that the UK is falling behind in spending on adult education, we wanted to understand how UK learners are accessing training for in-demand skills and found that individuals and businesses in the UK are shouldering the cost of lifelong learning, with UK learners' private spending tripling the UK government contribution.
While UK learners and businesses are footing the bill on lifelong learning, other European nations are investing heavily. Norway, Denmark and Finland respectively spend 191%, 149% and 147% of the OECD average and have over 55% of adults over the age of 25 participating in adult learning or training. But the UK is being left behind in the race to upskill and it shows, with just 44% of adults participating in training.
This tells us something important - if governments rally to fund affordable education and skill-building schemes, lifelong learning is then made far more accessible and encourages significantly higher participation rates as a result. Our European neighbours are investing heavily in upskilling their workforces whilst the UK falls short.
Skills are an essential ingredient for the UK’s economic success
Although upskilling has increasingly become part of the political conversation, such as the Prime Minister’s commitment to the new Lifetime Skills Guarantee and the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, the UK clearly still faces a significant skills challenge that must be addressed.
A net zero economy, for example, will need highly skilled individuals driving change in their companies, creating the products, services and practices that make this future possible. The UK’s aspirations in this area and other innovative sectors like cyber security mean that we need decisive action to upskill workers, and we are running out of time.
For the learning and development sector and society more generally, the answer can be found in tech-powered learning
The entire UK workforce must be supported to get the skills they need. Higher levels of education will drive up wages and productivity, so getting those in work the skills they need will help level up the UK while enabling us to keep pace and equip the UK’s workforce for both today’s economy and tomorrow’s jobs.
How to upskill effectively and at scale
Upskilling at this scale is no mean feat. The World Economic Forum has reported that 50 per cent of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. UK employers have also stressed that the biggest barrier to meeting their skills needs through adult education and training is that funding is not available, or that such training is prohibitively expensive.
Given the task ahead of us, how can we find a solution? For the learning and development sector and society more generally, the answer can be found in tech-powered learning.
Online learning has the potential to deliver the in-demand skills the UK needs at the huge scale required, however the vast majority of online formats are unable to offer tailored, personal learning with high completion rates that really work. If the UK is going to catch up with the rest of Europe at the pace required, we need fresh and effective delivery methods.
Where traditional online courses fail to deliver tailored and effective personal learning with high completion rates, SPOCs pull ahead
The Small Private Online Courses (SPOC) model is designed to succeed where the traditional MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) with long course lengths, low effectiveness and completion rates, have been failing. Instead the SPOC model brings the more structured and supportive element of the classroom experience to the online world, giving thousands of people, wherever they are located in the country, access to high-level skills training in subjects as diverse as Coding, Data Science and Digital Transformation.
What sets SPOCs apart from the vast majority of other online course formats is the unparalleled access they offer students to the world’s most eminent faculties, meaning learners benefit from personalised courses, mentoring and career counselling that takes their career to the next level. Where traditional online courses fail to deliver tailored and effective personal learning with high completion rates, SPOCs pull ahead.
Whatever means is implemented, overhauling the approach to lifelong learning is essential to unlocking the potential of working people, ensuring that today’s workforce is equipped with the skills of tomorrow.
