The CBI’s submission to the Post-18 Education and Funding Review

The review of post-18 education and funding represents a rare and welcome opportunity to look at England’s education system as a whole, rather – as if often the case – just looking at higher education or further education in isolation.

Considering rising skills needs, for the UK to thrive post-Brexit and develop an effective industrial strategy, it is critically important that we create the right conditions for high-level skills. This is CBI’s vision for how that can be achieved through the government’s post-18 review.

Business has a positive and essential contribution to make to this debate, both helping young people navigate a rapidly changing world, but also working in partnership with the higher and further education sectors to build an education system that develops the future talent the UK economy needs.

A successful post-18 education system must be one which prepares all our young people, regardless of background, for the changing world of work. As well as education and training at the start of someone’s career, it should also effectively develop or retrain those already in work so that they can develop their full potential in terms of knowledge, skills, and capabilities.

Many of the building blocks of an effective skills system are already in place – the aim of this review should be to recognise and build on these successes. There is no room for complacency however if we are to maintain a world class education system.

Further work is required to unblock the pipeline to higher level skills – regardless as to whether these are provided through colleges, universities, on the job training, or a mixture of all three. This submission covers three priorities:

• Unblocking the range of routes to higher level skills.
• Bolstering the further education sector to making a success of the Industrial Strategy.
• Expanding the contribution of the higher education sector to prosperity, including far beyond the university campus.