All the key reviews and reports on technical education over the past decade have highlighted the need to make sure businesses value skills training more.
We need them to have full confidence that government-funded technical qualifications are worth investing in to train and upskill their workforce and can be used as a reliable indicator of the quality of job applicants when recruiting.
Dating back to the Wolf Report 2011, it was noted that too many qualifications being offered students did not satisfy the needs of employers. The influential Richard Review of Apprenticeships, published a year later, and 2016 Sainsbury review of technical education reached similar conclusions and while we have come a long way since with the employer-led reform programme there is still lots to do.
With the passing of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act, and the powers contained within it, IfATE has been given a central role in ensuring that employers have their say in the development, approval, and ongoing review of all technical qualifications from levels 2 to 5. We already approve T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications and are now moving onto wider levels 2 and 3 qualifications.
