Introducing the VocTech Future of Skills Award: Reimagining how the UK skills system can get more adults learning 

Ufi VocTech Trust are excited to announce the launch of the VocTech Future of Skills Award, a new competition to share and celebrate big, tech-enabled ideas of how changes to the UK skills system could transform the way adults get the skills they need for work. 

We are looking for bold visions for a better skills system. We want to hear imaginative and practical ideas, enabled by tech, for improving the system and radically increasing adult participation in learning. We are interested in ideas that look beyond a new product, supplier, organisation or service, and which consider how different organisations, people and structures could work together to overcome systemic barriers to learning. 

We want to see ideas that get to the heart of systemic change – this could be through better deployment of technology, changes in policy or systems that enable different ways of utilising tech solutions, or structural change that sees technology utilised in new ways. 

Entries will be asked to respond to the question: “If you could make one change to the skills system to get more adults learning, what would it be?” 

Winning ideas will receive a £5,000 cash prize and be promoted across the vocational education community, including as a highlight of the Week of VocTech 2023. Winning entrants will be invited to discuss their ideas and meet with critical thinkers from across adult learning. 

Entries are encouraged from anyone with experience of adult learning, including learners, teachers, technologists and others. 

Applications open on Tuesday 15 August and close on 26 September.  

Find out more here. 

Part of the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an Economy in Transition 

The VocTech Future of Skills Award is a key part of the VocTech Challenge: Skills for an Economy in Transition, an ambitious £3m programme of work from Ufi VocTech Trust in partnership with Learning and Work Institute. 

Launched in June 2023, the multi-year programme is designed to support the adoption and deployment of technology to help every adult in the UK get the skills they need to participate and benefit from our transitioning economy. 

You can find out more about the Challenge here.