Global skills: Trends and best practice - A review for the City of London

Lifelong education and adult skills training plays a crucial role in creating a more equal society.
However, as our review, commissioned by the City of London, outlines the sector needs to adapt and respond to large scale demographic changes in the workforce, to shifts in demand for skills, and to new, innovative ways to deliver education and skills training. 

The report identifies three key trends:

1. Changes to workforce and learner demographics. Working lives are getting longer, people are following non-linear career paths, entrepreneurialism is on the rise for young people and globalisation is creating a more dynamic workforce. There is a role for governments to prepare learners for these shifts, and to respond with support for those who need to change career, need to upskill or re-skill, or who have lost jobs.
2. Changes to the skills required for employment. Technological advances and pressing global challenges such as climate change alter the mix of skills and competencies that employers require. There is growing demand for digital and socio-emotional skills, and a reducing (although still significant need) for physical and manual skills. These trends risk exacerbating existing inequalities, and favour those with higher levels of education. Employers, governments, and training providers are searching for new ways to map current skills demand and predict their future skills needs to ​‘future-proof’ learners and the workforce.
3. Changes to the learning ecosystem and learning methods. The private sector is playing an increasingly prominent role in delivering training, both in partnership with, and separately to government lead forms of training. There are risks that employers target those who already have access to work, exacerbating existing skills gaps. There is an important role for government to harness the energy of the private sector and coordinate between employers, learners and funders, to ensure that disadvantaged learners are not left behind.

There are many examples of good practice of how local and central governments, third sector organisations and the private sector are working together to respond to these changes with inclusivity in mind, many of which are outlined in the report. For example, social investors, the private sector and governments are working together in India and USA to enable access to skills courses for those excluded from training. There is a crucial role for government in convening the various initiatives to ensure that there is collaboration not duplication and to place equity at the top of the agenda.