A new report warns that England’s occupational standards lack the agility to train up workers for the eight ‘growth-driving’ industries in the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

Occupational standards outline the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to be competent in particular job roles. Primarily used as a foundation for apprenticeships and other technical qualifications, they are also used by employers and educational institutions across a range of sectors.

Launched today, research from Learning and Work Institute (L&W), commissioned by Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L), the world’s lifelong learning company, finds that there are too many occupational standards in England and that they take too long to develop. This leads to overly specialised training that is difficult for workers to transfer between job roles, while new standards languishing in the pipeline can become overtaken by innovation. Other countries have fewer standards that can be developed more quickly, supporting people and employers to better adapt to changes in the world of work.

L&W contends that such a system is ill-equipped to sustain fast-paced change required in the likes of digital technologies and advanced manufacturing industries – so-called ‘IS-8’ sectors in the Industrial Strategy. The challenge, the report authors warn, is to create robust occupational standards that can stand the test of time and allow people to adapt to future change, but which also remain responsive enough to make the most of technological innovation.

Comparator countries are already modelling a rigorous, streamlined approach: while L&W identifies over 670 occupational standards in England, this contrasts with Switzerland’s streamlined 230 standards and Germany’s 330. While in England it takes up to two years or more to develop a new standard, in Germany standards are developed within one year. Switzerland, meanwhile, benefits from a fast-track procedure, enabling changes to be made to standards more quickly where needed.

L&W recommends that Skills England – the arms-length body responsible for occupational standards in England – learns from Germany and Switzerland’s examples and consider amalgamating and cutting standards where possible, benchmarking against other countries. It also calls for renewed efforts to include the voice of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) in the development process to ensure relevance across employers of all sizes.