The skills imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow’s workforce

This programme will investigate how demand and supply of essential employment skills is likely to change over the next 15 years and how these skills can be developed through the education system.

New technologies, coupled with major demographic and environmental change, are predicted to transform employment over the coming decades. Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, team work, problem solving and resilience are likely to become increasingly important for jobs across the economy.

It is crucial that we support the future workforce to develop these essential employment skills if we are to avoid widespread under-employment and enduring social and economic problems. However, there is currently only limited understanding about the relative importance of different essential employment skills, and how the education system can best support young people to develop them.

This five-year programme, led by the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) will:

• identify the essential employment skills that people will need for work in the future;
• project the demand and supply of essential employment skills for 2035, drawing on findings from a new survey of essential employment skills amongst young people and adults aged 16-65 in England;
• establish who is most at risk of not acquiring the necessary skills and being excluded from the labour market; and examining the potential welfare implications.
• investigate how these skills can be developed through the education system and other mechanisms.

Throughout the programme, the multidisciplinary team will engage with key stakeholders in government, industry and education to promote the programme, share findings, develop practical, workable recommendations, and ensure the research influences policy and practice.

Findings will be published as they emerge in a series of reports from January 2022, with events to launch and discuss recommendations focusing on practical insights and evidence that will inform planning for how to meet the future demand for essential employment skills.

Watch the event recording

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