Why employer buy-in is the missing link in UK skills policy
In October 2023, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used the Conservative Party Conference to unveil plans for a new “Baccalaureate-style qualification” to replace A-levels and T Levels, with the aim of raising Maths and English standards post-GCSEs. This would be scrapped a year later by the newly elected Labour government. It seems that every few years, a new educational or skill reform is put forward and debated nationally as an answer to Britain's productivity problem. While there seems to be an acknowledgement that many young people are struggling to build skills and experience employers demand, why has nothing been done to solve it? Disrupting an established educational system, which continues to train young people, reflects a much deeper issue that continues to trouble the UK: short-term mentality.
The missing link is not another qualification, but genuine employer buy-in. Employer buy-in means more than the occasional placement. It means helping co-design courses, opening doors to work experience across sectors and a range of courses, for eager students. Without this involvement and push from Westminster, their reforms will never deliver on their promise. T-Levels illustrate this tension. Uptake has risen, with over 25,000 new starters just last year and a pass rate above 90%. Yet industry placements remain a bottleneck as two-thirds of employers remain confused about what T Levels are. Ask any student who is scrambling for a placement it feels like the lottery, not a policy.
Larger companies, like BAE or Deloitte, play their part in engaging in graduate schemes and placement opportunities. But 99% of UK businesses are smaller and lack the budget and the staff to manage such placements, making the buy-in far harder. Smaller firms hesitate because placements mean supervision, liability concerns and time they perhaps cannot afford to put into other projects. But this is why government support and clarity are essential. Unless the government makes it easy with funding, simpler paperwork, and real incentives, students without connections will continue to be locked out, and social mobility will stall.
This is not just to ensure students receive the right training and experiences, but to continue filling the very real gap that is being left in Britain's economy. Britain faces an acute shortage in engineering, health, and digital roles. Having the employer buy in would not just be nice, but it would be the difference between training future generations and creating a self-sufficient nation or continuing to watch the gap spiral out of control. Without employers willing to shape and host placements, these sectors will keep crying out for skills that the education system alone cannot supply.
Other countries have proven that it does not have to be this way. Germany’s “dual system” of vocational training integrates employers into the design and delivery of qualifications, with apprenticeship pathways that have existed for decades. Singapore takes a different approach, using active workforce planning to align education, employers, and government priorities. By contrast, the UK lurches from one reform to another, each launched with ambition but abandoned before it could mature. This short-termism erodes trust, making it even harder to convince employers that the latest qualification is worth their investment.
Swapping one qualification for another just confuses students, burdens teachers, and solves nothing. Training existing teachers and recruiting new ones at scale takes years, not months. Launching another rebrand without solving this workforce crisis risks adding to the complications, rather than addressing the root of the problem.
Our priority must be to ensure that qualified young people do not feel lost in endless application cycles or left questioning whether their years of study were worth it. The answer lies in building long-term partnerships between schools, government, and, above all, employers. Without that, every new qualification will remain a promise unfulfilled. The choice is simple: reform with employers at the table or condemn another generation to glossy certificates that mean nothing in the workplace.
Alisha Durgapal is a War Studies graduate from King’s College London with experience in Parliament and Communications. She is interested in political communications and democratic engagement.
