This report reveals a disconnect between young people’s career aspirations and jobs in the UK, whether current vacancies or projected demand. This report is based on an international survey of over 8,500 people aged 14-18. There were over 7,000 responses from young people in the UK and this report focuses on their responses. The massive disconnect between aspirations and reality is not confined to this study – the phenomenon has been identified consistently in multiple studies. For instance, the Your Voice survey confirms previous work such as Drawing the Future and Nothing In Common that show a discrepancy between aspirations and available jobs. Nothing in Common looks at whether the aspirations of UK young people have anything connection to labour market demand. Disconnected was timed to be launched alongside new analysis of PISA data by the OECD, also published on the 22nd January 2020 in partnership with Education and Employers. The launch of “Dream Jobs? Teenagers’ Career Aspirations and the Future of Work”, took place at the secondary school in Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF). The students at the school were been asked to write about their views on the future of the world, the issues that matter to them and their own career aspirations. A number of WEF delegates visited the school and talked to the students about views and aspirations – the first time the WEF event has been used as a direct catalyst for supporting career events at local schools.

With the rising economic importance of human resources and skills, employment and training agencies are now often expected to play a more important role in local strategies to support new job creation, facilitate restructuring and increase productivity. The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme has developed a series of Reviews on Local Job Creation to examine the contribution of local labour market policy to boosting quality employment and enhancing productivity.

The apprenticeship levy began operating in April 2017. The levy is, in effect, a tax of 0.5 per cent on the pay bill of UK employers with annual wages of over 3 million pounds. These employers pay their levy contributions into a digital account held by [Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs] HMRC and can then 'spend' their contributions on apprenticeships delivered by registered training providers. Other employers who do not pay the levy can access the funds that the levy generates through arranging apprenticeships with registered providers as well. In its first full year of operation, the levy raised 2.7 billion pounds and this is expected to rise to 3.4 billion pounds by 2023-24. However, there have been repeated warnings in recent months that the funding pot generated by the levy is about to run out. This report investigates what is happening with the apprenticeship levy and with the apprenticeship system in England more broadly.

This report presents the findings of a formative evaluation of the Employability Skills Pilot (ESP) programme, a Welsh Government programme to support unemployed adults to get a job and stay in work. Arad Research was commissioned by the Welsh Government to undertake an independent evaluation of the design and initial implementation of the programme. This report presents findings from the evaluation fieldwork undertaken between October 2016 and January 2017. The aims of the ESP are to support unemployed adults into sustained employment by improving their employability skills. It specifically targets unemployed adults who are within six months of reaching the labour market. The programme is delivered by four main training providers who offer work preparation training, essential skills if required1 , and a work placement or employer specific training to those referred to them by Jobcentre Plus (JCP) and others. The aim of this evaluation is to provide a formative assessment of the design and initial implementation of the ESP in order to inform the future development of the programme. The qualitative evidence used to inform the evaluation findings were gathered from deskbased research; interviews with the four main training providers and four subcontractors; interviews with Welsh Government, JCP and Careers Wales; interviews with 11 participating individuals and three employers.

The analysis, which forms part of the CIPD’s formal response to the Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, highlights the failings in the UK’s skills system and offers thoughts and recommendations on how we can improve our performance. One of the purposes of this report is to persuade policymakers to give a higher priority to developing a range of high-quality vocational routes to employment as complementary to a university education. We need both systems to work effectively if we are to meet the huge changes in the content and organisation of work driven by new technologies, deal with increasingly complex organisational structures, and ensure progression in the workplace for as many people as possible. That means looking at how people can acquire and develop skills throughout their working lives, and not just in the early years. Overall, the recommendations focus on making significant progress in a limited number of areas by building on what we have and recognising that meaningful change will be gradual and requires stability and consistency. The thoughts and recommendations are grouped around six themes. Strength and stability in the system Improving basic/core skills Increasing the quality of vocational pathways Building capacity at a local and workplace level Promoting learning across the life course Access to quality information, advice and guidance.

Skilled technical occupations—defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor’s degree for entry—are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives.

This is the first report specific to the Foundation Apprenticeship programme. As the programme is very new, and in its initial phases of roll-out, data is provided to describe its early evolution. It is important to note that FAs are part of the senior phase curriculum and should not be directly compared to the Modern Apprenticeship programme. Senior phase school pupils choose to study a Foundation Apprenticeship in the same way as they choose any other senior phase subject. As it is only possible to start a Foundation Apprenticeship at the beginning of the academic year, progress reports will be produced on an annual basis. In this report, we provide detail for four groups of Foundation Apprentices. The first two groups of apprentices were engaged in the pathfinder projects for the FA programme. The information provided for the pathfinders contains less detail as these were focused on developing the FA model and testing its viability. Data for the pathfinder cohorts was sourced from SDS internal management information. As of September 2017, all Foundation Apprenticeship data is captured through our Financial and Information Processing System (FIPS). The second two groups of apprentices are described as ‘Cohort 1’ and ‘Cohort 2’ – being the first two groups of pupils that have engaged in the FA beyond the initial pathfinder3 . The information for these participants is more detailed than that collected for the pathfinders. In future publications, we will report by year – e.g. 2019 starts; 2019 completers – and not by cohort. Start figures for FAs are reported as at 30th September for each year. They may be subject to revision if we receive late registrations. In this report, we have included starts as of 31st January for Cohort 2 to provide the most up-to-date data for this first publication in March 2018. Future publications will be released in November / December of each year. Any revisions to figures will be detailed in subsequent publications. As we expand the FA programme and more pupils participate, we will be able to provide a more detailed breakdown of the data we collect. Current sample sizes are too small to enable meaningful disaggregation of data and, in many cases, are subject to disclosure control.

This report offers advice on the challenges, obligations and opportunities facing business leaders. It also outlines recommendations that, taken together - as coordinated action between industry, governments, young people and other stakeholders - create a strong framework for advancing the cause. But it's more than a collection of ideas. This report represents a bold vision to convene business around a movement to prepare youth for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It’s a call to action to respond to critical challenges by committing to support and develop the workforce of tomorrow.

The Business Performance and Skills Survey (BPSS) is a study of skills utilisation from the perspective of the commercial establishment. The analyses and findings from this study will provide relevant and timely data on skills demand and skills utilisation at the establishment level for tracking and diagnostic purposes as well as to inform skills policies at the sectoral level.