I am delighted to be writing this piece, commemorating the centenary of the Learning and Work Institute and highlighting an issue which is a key focus of all the work we do at City & Guilds. We believe that people deserve the opportunity to retrain and relearn again and again – gaining new skills at every stage of life, regardless of where they start, and that is why we feel so passionately about lifelong learning, and how we can more effectively build a culture of lifelong learning that is accessible to all.

Much like the Learning and Work Institute, we’ve learned a thing or two about the subject of lifelong learning in City & Guilds’ 143 year history, but we’ve also had to make sure that we change and adapt what we do, just as the way in which people learn, work and change jobs over the course of their lifetimes has also evolved.

100 years ago, the average worker would have most likely trained to do a job when they left education and in most cases that would have been their job for life. But life in England during the ‘Roaring ‘20s’ was one of many changes as society adapted to life post-war, and as well as many changes, especially for women, who had worked for the first time during the First World War, there were also increasing changes as a result of scientific and technological innovations. Today we also find ourselves at a pivotal time of change and reflection.

As we begin to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, many are finding themselves looking at learning and work in a different way and considering different approaches to it. Although Coronavirus has brought many negatives, it has also brought into sharp focus the importance of digital learning, and the use of technology to support assessment and work, both of which we are great champions of at City & Guilds.

Our adult education system sadly is not fit for purpose in meeting the demand that will be required of it in the future. It isn’t simply the potential scaling up or volume that is the issue – there is a real need for it to provide flexible solutions as we move away from a system that deals in large qualifications delivered to fixed classroom-based cohorts to one where people will need to access much smaller, bitesize learning far more frequently. Additionally, research from McKinsey has found that 14% of the global labour force will need to completely retrain by 2026 and many more will need to partially retrain as a result of automation. This is going to mean that a huge amount of upskilling and reskilling will be required. In order for workplace competence to remain current and able to be upskilled or reskilled to meet requirements in future careers, it is vital that we have a system which does not require individuals to return to square one with their learning, can fit around competing demands of home and work, and is accompanied by a flexible funding system which enables people to facilitate their own learner journey.

Our recent Skills Index found that there is still a great deal of progress to be made in this area for workers of all ages, to ensure that their skills remain up to date and relevant in a rapidly changing employment landscape. We found that almost a third of workers had received no workplace training for at least 5 years, with 47% of those age 55+ most likely to say they have not received any training in that period.

We also found that almost two thirds (61%) of people were not confident that they had the skills they needed to succeed in the workplace in the next five years. However, when we asked who should pay for training only 6% thought it should be the individuals themselves.

Developing a workforce that can meet the needs of the country to ensure sustainable growth of key industries and create an economy that is balanced across a range of sectors and geographically across the country is not just an option, it is essential for our future prosperity and well-being.

As people will now more than likely work in five-decade careers with a need to upskill throughout, ongoing training and development, which is easy and flexible to access regardless of your age or location will be essential in creating a sustainable economic future in the years ahead. As part of this, individuals, employers and government all have a role to play in supporting and funding lifelong education and that will require cultural as well as systemic change. Additionally, the pandemic has spurred on government and private enterprise to prioritise training and development as a way to bounce back, and so there is now a perfect opportunity to seize the day and build on this momentum by implementing training programmes that are designed to support ongoing learning throughout people’s careers .We’re also calling on the government to take a much bolder approach to lifelong learning by investing in a broader range of flexible, digitally delivered learning which makes it easier to learn, anytime, anyplace and anywhere.

Failing to instil this culture will have serious long-term consequences, with employers struggling to secure highly skilled staff, individuals facing the prospect of being unable to develop and advance their career, and government unable to deliver economic growth.

I’m proud that at City & Guilds we constantly strive to create flexible learning pathways that support lifelong employability, because we believe that people deserve the opportunity to retrain and relearn again and again – gaining new skills at every stage of life, regardless of where they start.

If policy makers and politicians are bold enough, now truly is the perfect opportunity to act quickly, and take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an FE education system that is fit for purpose and can truly fulfil its role to help get people back into work, prosper and progress in work and create a culture of lifelong learning which is inclusive of all ages and careers.

By Kirstie Donnelly, chief executive of City & Guilds