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The latest from the Partnership

The latest news from the employers, educators, and impact organisations that make up the Skills Builder Partnership.

New approaches to essential skills in Uganda
Working in partnership with Kenya National Examinations Council
Practical ways to boost essential skills for business success in 2024
Essential skills to fuel North East Businesses
The sky's the limit for students in Heathrow Airport Essential Skills Masterclasses
How to tap into your leadership style to find professional growth and development
Skills Leader Network Event: Special ways to bring essential skills to life
Aiming high, achieving success: Boosting your professional development with strategic planning
How to articulate your essential skills on your CV and in interviews
What 100,000 young people say about their essential skills
How to boost your creativity skills to innovate effectively as a team
How to listen effectively and build the relationships to kick-start your career
Collective Mission, Collective Impact
A decade of building essential skills at William Tyndale Primary School
The power of a universal language at Envision
The versatility of the Universal Framework at Amey
5 Policy wins for essential skills in 2023
Celebrating 15 years: Partnership Day and Impact Report 2023
Building a movement - reflections and insights from Skills Builder
The power of partnership - Skills Builder’s 15 year journey with Tom Ravenscroft
What are essential skills?
Making management intentional
Essential Skills Preparing Young People for the Future: Impact Organisations Spotlight on Apps for Good
Building Leadership Skills: A Collaborative, Efficient and Inclusive Process
Using teamwork skills to resolve unhelpful conflicts in the workplace
9 Tips to Turn Adversity into Personal Development: Staying Positive through Early Career Challenges
The important role of educators in developing essential skills for the world of work
Empowering future generations to build their essential skills: Career Insights sessions making a difference
One year on from the Trailblazers Report: Supporting employers with essential skills
The Silent Skill: Personal development and active listening
8 inclusive resources to teach essential skills
Closing the Skills Gap: squiggly careers and mapping skills
Get specific about skills in your recruitment, outreach and staff development with the Skills Builder Careers Explorer
Practical ideas to teach learners how to be creative
Introducing the Skills Builder Careers Explorer: essential skills profiles for 1,000+ jobs
Improved confidence and capability for post-16 students on University of Sheffield’s Sutton Trust Summer School
Four ways to support students’ problem solving skills in the new academic year
How to improve employee engagement by developing listening skills
Building the listening skills of Learners
Amey achieves Gold Skills Builder Excellence Mark 
Laying the groundwork for effective leadership skills in the classroom
Top tips for using essential skills to support with transition
Essential skills for 2035
How to deliver Labour’s Education Mission
Investing in essential skills could help change the course for the quarter of UK workers set to quit this year
Focus on: complex problem solving skills, and how to build this soft skill
Global visits to UK for essential skills
Setting yourself up for success: The power of goal setting
Staying Positive in difficult situations
Unlocking Talent Acquisition Success: The Power of Essential Skills at CIPD Festival of Work
Essential Skills & Career Stories: Q&A sessions with employer partners
Address social mobility through Essential Skills
How Can the Government Empower Young People to Meet the Challenges of Now and the Future? Skills Builder at APPG
Gold Award school puts their essential skills to the test at The London Stock Exchange Group
How to write an essential skills case study for your school or college
Three ways to improve your creativity skills
Flagship School Insights: St Mary's CofE Primary School
5 steps to essential skills in staff development
Journey to a Million: How essential skills will help prepare future graduates for success
Developing essential skills at work
A focus on essential skills is key to successful skills-based recruitment
Speaking skills for starting out in your career: presentations and speaking up
Breaking down the barriers to successful work experiences with Skills Builder Partnership and Movement to Work
A global community bringing essential skills to life
Essential skills in work experience - how to use the Skills Builder Universal Framework
How can you support your students to aim high?
We’ve joined the Well Schools Movement’s Advisory Panel
Flagship School Insights: Pioneer House High School
Interview: Olly Tress, Founder of Oliver Bonas
Teaching learners the power of teamwork
Essential skills and the productivity puzzle
Skills & Employability Summit 2023
Building staying positive in learners
How can Skills Builder education programmes help you to map essential skills across the curriculum?
Virtual Q&As to celebrate National Careers Week
Why we need a portfolio approach to skills: £22bn annual cost of low essential skills revealed by new research
Top 5 speaking skills for success in interviews
Flagship School Insights: Dairy Meadow
Labour’s 5 missions: how essential skills can translate them into tangible outcomes
Tackling complex problems
Employer Insights: Envision
Top 5 leadership skills for line managers
National Apprenticeship Week - Essential Skills for Life
How do Skills Builder education programmes help you prepare for Ofsted?
Listening skills for senior managers
Amey and Skills Builder: Essential skills for young people
Flagship School Insights: Cleeve Meadow
How we’re working towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 4
Holes in the UK skills system - and how to fill them
Skills Leader Network Event 3: Careers guidance and essential skills
Boosting retention by investing in skills
Our takeaways from the Fair Education Alliance Annual Summit 
Skills Leader Network Event 2: Bringing essential skills to life
Flagship School Insights: Central & Bothal Primary Schools
Global Entrepreneurship Week: Sparking conversations between students, employers, and employees
Bringing the Partnership together: Skills Builder at the House of Lords
Autumn Statement 2022: Making essential skills a core component of skills reforms
Celebrating our Impact Report 2022
The Council of Skills Advisors: Essential skills leading the way
Recruiting with essential skills - getting it right first time
Skills Builder at the Party Conferences: Our reflections
Skills Leader Network Event 1: Assessment of essential skills
The role employers can play in supporting young people into employment
Trailblazers Report 2022: How the Universal Framework helps employers improve recruitment, staff development, and outreach
It’s here… Skills Builder Handbook for Educators launches
Three problems facing employers right now
Employer Insights: Amey
Employer Insights: City & Guilds
Employer Insights: AKW
Global Spotlight: Schola Empirica, Czech Republic
Employer Insights: Lloyds Bank
It's finally here: Now you can use Skills Builder with your team
Our new Impact Organisations programmes
Global Spotlight: Pragnya Bodhini High School, India
Partnership Day 2022: A celebration of collective impact
The 2022 WISE Awards Finalists
Skills Builder Partnership is a winner of The Escape 100: the top purposeful organisations in 2022
Accelerator vs. Digital Membership
Queen’s Speech 2022: More work is needed on essential skills to tackle inequality and rising poverty
10 questions with Deaf & Hearing Trailblazers
April 2022: New speakers confirmed for Partnership Day
What is the Youth Voice Census?
Statement on the SEND Green Paper
Statement on the Schools White Paper
Using Skills Builder to support a National Professional Qualification
Response from Skills Builder Partnership on the 2022 Spring Statement
Highlights from National Careers Week
March 2022: Breakthrough new research is out!
Essential Skills Tracker 2022
Stories from Accelerator: South West England
Understanding lifelong learning with the Association of Colleges
National Apprenticeship Week 2022: A sit down with the Harlequins Foundation
Bringing essential skills to life
February 2022: Join us for the Tracker launch
2022: The year ahead
Badge Nation Digital Badges: Including the Skills Builder Universal Framework
January 2022: New Year's updates
The power of the collective: Looking back on 2021
December 2021: Round up
How can parents and carers support essential skills development at home?
Skills Builder in the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Report: Our reflections
COP26: Universal essential skills are needed for a universal challenge
Highlights from this year's Impact Report
Education webinar: Careers & work-related learning
Learning beyond the classroom: An insight from Children's University
Supporting a collective impact approach to essential skills: A spotlight on Allen and Overy
Young people say essential skills are crucial for workplace success
Why essential skills are the secret to a healthy workplace
August 2021: Celebrating schools and colleges transforming essential skills this year
Education webinar: The launch of our new research ‘Essential skills: Teachers’ perspectives on opportunities and barriers’
School and college spotlight: Measuring progress
Partnership Day 2021
Closing the Gap
May 2021: Discover the new Impact Directory
School and college spotlight: Building a whole-school approach
Education Webinar: Creating Sustainable Change
April 2021: Introducing Skills Builder Launchpad!
School and college spotlight: Creating a common essential skills language
March 2021: Applications for the Skills Builder Accelerator are open!
Measuring Collective Impact
Better prepared: Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people
Our second Skills Builder Education Webinar
February 2021: Join us for a great event - plus, join our fantastic team
Children’s University: How Skills Builder helps us answer the ‘so what?’ question
January 2021: An Invitation and exciting new research launching today
Essential skills and their impact on education outcomes: a quantitative analysis of the British Cohort Study
Work Placements: A Springboard into the World of Work?
Bringing Learning to Life: The New Normal?
Looking back on our impact in 2020
Developing the Essential Skills through Kickstart
How to run a Challenge Day during a pandemic
Build essential skills with the new Primary Careers Resources Platform
Essential Skills in the Workplace: How the team at Skills Builder use the essential skills day-to-day
How do essential skills influence life outcomes? An evidence review
Welcoming the final report of the Future Perfect Education Commission
June 2020: Webinars, virtual visits and awards
10 Years of Partnership: UBS & Skills Builder
New partner: Ambitious about Autism
New partner: Great Minds Together
New partner: Culture Mile Learning
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External Press

Curriculum review could transform opportunities for disadvantaged

By embedding essential skills into education, the government can unlock social mobility

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London Luton Airport continues partnership with Skills Builder to deliver essential skills to young people in Luton
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A construction boom will depend on more than just technical skills

The labour market is in the middle of a critical transformation towards sustainable economic growth and productivity. Labour’s industrial strategy and its curriculum and assessment review both highlight the centrality of skills to achieving its missions for government, but which skills? And how?

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Bridging the gap between young people and employers
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How well are employers adapting to a changing work landscape?
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What employers are doing to boost their outreach, recruitment and social responsibility
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Can essential skills be taught?
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Lack of essential skills training leads to lower wages, study finds
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Soft skills can boost workers’ earnings £6,000, study reveals
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Lack of soft skills education traps disadvantaged – Lost £280K wage premium
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Huge impact of essential skills on UK wages and life chances revealed
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How do essential skills shape young people’s life outcomes?

What do we know about the impact of skills-focused interventions and what does it mean for teachers? Will Millard and Dr Elnaz Kashefpakdel review the evidence. What is it that young people really need to learn in order to thrive throughout school and later life? This question has always been hotly contested, and rightly so: the things young people learn at school set them up for further study, training or employment.

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Employability: Every student needs these 8 skills

With the pandemic magnifying trends that were already under way, the CBI’s recently published Learning for Life report estimates that nine out of 10 UK employees will need to reskill by 2030. The robust college system envisaged by the College of the Future report from the Independent Commission on the College of the Future will be a critical part of meeting this demand. These changes are largely driven by automation, and it’s worth reflecting on the skills that machines find hardest to replicate. You don’t have to spend a lot of time scouring job adverts to spot what employers are consistently seeking in the people they are after – the essential skills that are valuable to any employer: listening, speaking, problem solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership and teamwork.

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Business Charity Awards - UBS with the Skills Builder Partnership

The partnership between UBS and the social enterprise the Skills Builder Partnership has sought to address the skills gap between the education young people are given in school and the skills they need to thrive after education. When the founders of Skills Builder felt the students they were teaching were not being adequately equipped for life after school, they founded a partnership with UBS to build eight essential skills among their students: leadership, creativity, teamwork, listening, presenting, problem-solving, aiming high, staying positive. They wanted to do this with the same rigour as any other primary or secondary school learning.

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HS2 draws attention to importance of investing in essential skills

HS2 Ltd. has highlighted the importance of its workforce in times of crisis, when human skills and the ability to be able to stay positive, focused and recognise and support others makes a significant difference. The company has said that it has been able to adapt to the changes that needed to be made quickly and efficiently in multiple ways, with major construction works still taking place at over 80 per cent of the HS2 work sites between Birmingham and London, office-based staff being supported in working from home and the communication with external partners and the community being adapted in order to hold meetings and events virtually, instead of in person.

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Business coalition calls for focus on ‘soft’ skills with launch of new framework

Leading businesses and employers groups are today launching a framework to help businesses identify and quantify transferable soft skills. Created in light of the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Skills Builder Universal Framework will create a structured way for employers to keep a record of the skills their workforce has learned and developed – including listening, problem-solving, staying positive, leadership and teamwork – to help bring those skills in line with education and work experience on their employees’ CVs.

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Talent, internal mobility and workforce agility during COVID-19

There are times throughout the year when workers reflect on their careers and look for new opportunities. This can happen after a holiday, post qualification and, as a result of the situation for many implementing now, after being furloughed. But talent is hard to maintain. 90% of employers say that new hire retention is an issue. Organisations lose, on average, 30% of new recruits within three months. For some, this figure rises as high as 70%. Given that it costs approximately 33% of a new recruit’s salary to replace a leaver, retaining your best talent can give your organisation a competitive edge.

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Education must transform to make people ready for AI

A recent study by Oxford university estimates that nearly half of all jobs in the US are at risk from automation and computers in the next 20 years. While advancing technologies have been endangering jobs since the start of the Industrial Revolution, this time it is not just manual posts: artificial intelligence — the so-called fourth industrial revolution — promises to change the shape of professional work as well.

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Education’s missing piece

There is something fundamental missing in education. I saw it first-hand a decade ago as a teacher in a challenging secondary school in East London. Every new teacher faces challenges: seating plans, behaviour management, coursework. But there seemed to be a much bigger problem. I was worried that my students struggled to listen to one another and articulate their ideas. It didn’t seem sustainable that I worried more about their coursework and deadlines than they did – or that the expectation was I would organise them. And what about creativity, or the ability to problem-solve?

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‘The Missing Piece’ book review - Dr. Mary Bousted

Tom Ravenscroft has not only done his research – the sources in his book are wide and varied – but he also wears his learning lightly. The result is a very readable and convincing argument for the explicit teaching of skills.

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School reports miss the talents that matter - just look at Alan Turing

Alan Turing is one of an illustrious cast of over-achievers whose school reports did little to hint at what was to come. His mathematics teacher suggests that he would do rather better if his work was “intelligible and legible”. There is little hint of the deep problem-solving skills that would make him a formidable code breaker in the Second World War.

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Profile: Tom Ravenscroft

Tom Ravenscroft is perhaps the most quietly passionate proponent of a “skills” curriculum in education today – and if that rings alarm bells, keep reading. He was just nine years old when he set up a little production line making greeting cards. His mum, a speech and language therapist, suggested he sell them at village fetes, which he did. At 11, he offered his services as a car washer around his town of Marlowe in Buckinghamshire, soon “rebranding as a car valet” to charge a bit more. In the same year, Ravenscroft’s father, an auditor with BP, helped him decide which secondary school to choose by listing his key criteria, such as “IT equipment” and showing him how to weight them mathematically. A five-mile run was treated with similar foresight, with goals worked backwards over several months.

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Start-up success: six lessons for aspiring social entrepreneurs

While it may sound poetic, Enabling Enterprise was not born in a flash of inspiration. Rather it emerged from my desperate attempts as a naïve new business studies teacher to engage a class of challenging 14 and 15-year-olds. Through my time spent with this class I became increasingly aware that there were key elements missing in their prescribed business course. Namely, there was no practical element, few opportunities for students to develop their employability skills, and limited real world application.

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