Skills for the North: Devolving technical education to cities

Article

The north of England needs a skilled workforce and a system for skills development that meets the changing needs of the regional economy.

Qualifications levels across the north of England are lower than for England as a whole. The Employer Skills Survey suggests that that trends in skills shortages and gaps in the north of England are distributed differently across occupations from national ones, and also that there are some striking contrasts between parts of the North. Devolving some powers and budgets for skills would help to align provision with regional economic and social priorities, and to create more agile and efficient systems. For this project, we worked with officers from a small group of northern Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Our recommendations are set in the context of the Skills 2030 framework for reform of the adult skills system in England (Dromey et al 2017).

Related items

  1. A young boy and girl entering the front door of a house, smiling. Their father carries a baby behind them

    The homes that children deserve: Housing policy to support families

    As the government seeks to develop a new child poverty strategy, it will need to grapple with housing – the single largest cost faced by families.
  2. A car park with a series of electric vehicle charging point parking spaces

    Powering up public support for electric vehicles

    Tackling greenhouse gas emissions will only work if public support for action remains strong. That means ensuring tangible improvements in people’s lives and heading off any brewing backlash.

  3. Assessing the economy

    Over the past few days and weeks, there has been lots of rather histrionic commentary about the UK’s economic situation as if the budget has created an economic disaster from which we’ll never recover.