Why Data is Closing the Gap in the Latest Government Skills Agenda

The UK’s skills system is undergoing its most significant transformation in a long time. With the creation of Skills England, the incoming Growth & Skills Levy, and the phased roll-out of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), the Government has set the framework for a more responsive, employer-driven skills market.

Keir Starmer’s announcement yesterday, promising £800 million investment of extra funding for 16-18 year olds, is another huge milestone for further education in the UK. Backed by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, plans include the introduction of means-tested maintenance grants to students from low income households, boosting technical education, in order for 2/3 of young people to go to university, or, undertake a gold standard Apprenticeship. 

The goal here is linking education more closely to businesses, empowering individuals to retrain flexibly throughout their lives, and giving employers greater confidence in the workforce. But for all this to work, one ingredient is key: data. Without reliable, ethical, and actionable data, the gap between policy ambition and delivery will remain.

The role of data in policy and practice

Skills England has been tasked with coordinating priorities across government, employers, and education providers. Its role is to set direction and ensure resources are targeted where they will have the greatest impact. But this can’t be done with static reports or outdated figures. What’s required is real-time intelligence on vacancy patterns, skills demand by region, progression outcomes, and behavioural patterns of learners.

Data has the ability to transform policy from a high-level ambition into practical delivery. It allows local education providers to tailor their offering with confidence, while helping employers plan recruitment and training, and it gives learners the clarity they need on where to invest their time and money to deliver the greatest return.

Demand mapping by region and sector

The demand for skills varies from place to place. Regional economies have their own growth sectors, their own challenges, and their own workforce dynamics. Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) are already pointing in this direction, but in order to be effective, they need to be fed by up-to-date and consistent datasets.

When educational providers and employers can clearly see the demand (whether that’s a surge in digital skills in one city, or shortages in construction roles in another) they can respond with workshops and courses, micro-credentials, or apprenticeships that meet those needs directly.

Outcomes

For a long time now, success in skills has been measured by the number of enrolments onto an apprenticeship course. While it’s easy to report on such numbers, they tell us little about the impact that’s been made. The real measure of success lies in outcomes such as completion rates, wage progression, sustained employment, and how quickly an individual then becomes ‘productive’ in their role.

With data, it’s possible to track and evidence these outcomes. By linking learner journeys to employment and wage records safely and securely, gives a richer picture of what works and what doesn’t. This outcome-driven model builds credibility with employers, who want assurance that their investment translates into real productivity, and it also reassures apprentices that their choices will pay off.

Designing for flexibility with the LLE

The Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which is due to launch in 2027, will give people access to a loan entitlement that can be used flexibly across their careers. This in turn, represents a fundamental shift from full-time learning in early life, to a modular approach with career-long investment in skills.

Throughout this, providers will need data to decide how to structure modular courses, when to run them, and how to price them. Learners will want evidence that their chosen modules lead to positive career outcomes. Employers will demand clarity on which options align with the needs of their particular sector. None of this is possible without a robust data foundation.

Putting people first

By attributing a recipient-first approach to data, systems will be designed to start with the needs of the individual – whether that’s a learner, an employer, or an education provider – and every engagement/communication to them will be relevant, timely, and respectful.

There are three principles that underpin this approach:

Relevance: It’s better to engage the right employer or learner with the right opportunity, than to spread a blanket of generic offers that don’t actually land.

Timing: Analysing data allows us to understand when decisions are made and to align communications with those cycles.

Clean and refreshed data: Skills demand will change. Data that is refreshed regularly; that means every month as opposed to every year, ensures decisions are based on real-time, and not on data that could technically be classed as outdated after a month.

Applied to the skills agenda, these principles ensure that provision is learner-centred, employer-aligned, and therefore always responsive.

Building a common data layer

To make this work, we need more than just isolated datasets. We need a common data layer for skills, and a shared infrastructure that:

• Aligns to occupational standards and national priority sectors.
• Normalises outcome metrics like completion, retention, and wage uplift so they are consistent across providers.
• Respects privacy and security, building public trust into the system.
• Feeds insights back into curriculum design, funding decisions and employer engagement in real time.

This will give Skills England, providers, and employers a single source from which they can all act upon and work with.

What success looks like by 2026-27

By the time the LLE is live, the most effective providers will already have embedded data-driven practices into their operations. They will be able to show employers outcome dashboards that evidence pipeline and productivity gains. They will have modular product catalogues aligned with levy and LLE funding and they will have employer-backed prospectuses that map directly to local demand.

This is what success will look like, with fewer cold calls and more trusted partnerships, more dynamic dashboards, fewer courses designed on guesswork and more shaped by actual demand.

Closing the gap

The Government has taken important steps with Skills England, the Growth & Skills Levy, and the LLE. These create the structure, and data is what makes the structure work.

With accurate, ethical, and timely data, we can turn policy into practice, ambition into outcomes, and learners into productive  participants in the economy. That’s how we close the skills gap: by making data the link that binds the system together.

By Adam Herbert, CEO & Co-Founder, Go Live Data