Fixing the UK’s public services and growing the economy is going to require people who are already in work and those looking to re-enter the workforce to upskill and reskill.
Rightly, the government aims to kickstart economic growth, while building an NHS fit for the future and breaking down barriers to opportunity. If it has any chance of succeeding, our education institutions need to enable life-long learning and ensure the nation has a job-ready workforce to meet the needs of employers in priority sectors.
For instance, the construction industry needs an additional 239,000 workers by 2029, otherwise the government’s housebuilding targets and wider infrastructure projects will be at risk. Our country’s health and social care system is already under real pressure. The NHS has over 133,000 vacancies, including 47,000 nursing posts. Projections suggest the NHS will need up to 488,000 more staff by 2030.
Social care faces similarly acute challenges: turnover is high, vacancies are rising, and workforce capacity isn’t keeping up with demand from an ageing population. Due to changes to migration and recruitment policy in recent years the supply of the necessary talent from overseas has tightened. These positions, therefore, need to be filled by the existing population.
Meeting this challenge means rethinking how the country supports people to reskill, retrain and requalify, not just once, but throughout their lives. It means designing education systems not only for young people starting out, but also for adults looking for a way back in or a route to progress.
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement creates a once-in-a-generation chance to make adult reskilling routine – but only if provision is genuinely modular, supported, and aligned to the needs of business.
With the right routes, and the right structures of support, adults can and do succeed in education and go on to fill critical roles in the sectors where Britain needs them most.
There are examples of higher education providers taking this into account and operating in ways that enable lifelong learning, with a keen focus on addressing the priority sectors outlined by the government and employers.
One of these is Global Banking School (GBS), which has more than 35,000 students across London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds.
Working in partnership with UK universities, GBS delivers programmes including health and social care and construction management, as well as other highly sought after skills in IT, finance, and business management. It also has a proven programme that supports student entrepreneurs to launch and grow their own businesses.
Strikingly, the average age of a GBS student is 37. Most already have jobs and want to acquire skills to get better paid work. Around 15 percent of them own their own small business, and want to develop expertise so they can expand. And others have family or caring responsibilities and are preparing to re-enter the workforce with stronger qualifications.
GBS’s success in widening participation in education to those that would otherwise miss out is also striking. It does this by designing its approach to teaching to fit the needs of students, rather than asking students to organise their busy and complex lives around their studies.
For instance, it offers classes seven days a week and until 9pm. And it delivers only face to face – there is no online learning, which is important for adults who need a classroom environment to fully focus on their learning.
Right now, the government’s focus is on broader economic growth, and more specifically building a skilled workforce for the NHS and addressing the demand across the construction sector. These sectors will struggle to meet demand at pace without the work of institutions like GBS, tapping into communities of mature age individuals who want to upskill, but haven’t had the chance.
It delivers graduates who are job ready from day one, and also brings a wealth of lived experience that younger graduates from traditional providers of higher education may not have.
If the government is serious about sustained economic growth and public service recovery, adult learners must be treated as core infrastructure – central to workforce planning, widening opportunity and building a more resilient future
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