Where we started 

Skills Builder Partnership was founded by Tom Ravenscroft in 2009 when working as a secondary school teacher, at an inner-city school in London. 

Combining his background in business working at Oliver Wyman and with a degree in Economics & Management from Oxford he saw that there was a fundamental gap in how we support individuals to build essential skills through education and then in the rest of their lives.

Skills Builder Partnership was founded on the belief that essential skills should be a normal part of a good education and workplace training. And that everyone has the capacity to build those skills.

We committed to using the most cutting-edge techniques and innovation to create new, more rigorous ways to build essential skills for everyone, at every stage of their lives.

Where we are now

In 2020, we launched the Skills Builder Universal Framework – a transformative approach to building the essential skills of individuals throughout their lives, in education and employment.

Powered by 900 leading organisations across education and employment, the Framework has now been backed by the UK government in statutory guidance.

The Partnership now has a touchpoint with 87% of UK secondary schools and colleges, as well as being adopted by a growing range of businesses.

Beyond the UK, the approach is being adopted at a policy level in Uganda, Kenya, and Czechia as well as being delivered in 20 other countries.

In 2022, the Partnership announced the ambition to deliver 10 million new opportunities to boost their essential skills by 2025.