Training and Apprenticeships: Reskilling for the Jobs for Tomorrow

As an emerging scientific superpower, the Oxford-Cambridge Arc will require more than most to comprehensively overhaul its training and apprenticeship provision to meet a skills requirement in transition. And yet, the last decade has been a nadir for learning and education for adults. At a time when work is set to be revolutionised by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, described by the International Labour Organisation as automation, digitization, the growth of platform employment and the application of artificial intelligence”, the UK is failing to meet even its current needs for reskilling and upskilling. The needs of business in the Arc in the next decade need to be synergised with the qualifications and skillsets of its workforce. Tertiary education must meet the skill gaps that exist in the market, and anticipate the likely needs of tomorrow.

While we shouldn’t be panicked by shifting skills requirements set in motion by factors such as automation, technological displacement of jobs, and ever-thickening globalisation, we ought to be normalising the practice of reskilling and making these resources available. According to the CBI’s own research, only a third of adults say that they have participated in learning during the previous three years, representing the lowest figure in the past two decades. Crucially the group at the highest risk of losing jobs to automation is the group least likely to have been involved in learning, those without a higher education qualification and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. To avoid the seemingly paradoxical situation of simultaneously high unemployment due to automation with a labour shortage driven by skill gaps, significant increases will have to be made in access to ‘future-proof’ opportunities for further education.