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The Skills Agenda

@thomasbewick.bsky.social

The Bluesky home of the popular Substack — The Skills Agenda https://open.substack.com/pub/tombewick

25 Followers  |  28 Following  |  59 Posts  |  Joined: 15.11.2024  |  2.039

Latest posts by thomasbewick.bsky.social on Bluesky

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A declining graduate premium? With the gap narrowing between minimum wage rates and professional jobs requiring a degree, university courses face scrutiny like never before.

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

14.11.2025 14:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why the Chancellor needs to equalise tax Those who receive income from tenants and assets or work through limited companies have an unfair advantage over those who work via PAYE. The Budget is an opportunity to level the playing field.

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31.10.2025 14:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The era of 'performative policy' From securing borders to delivering a skills revolution, top mandarins, many think-tanks and lobbying bodies have become redundant actors on a giant stage, writes Tom Bewick

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

29.10.2025 14:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Labour eschews radical approach to skills reform With a blitz of technocratic tweaks and vague policy ambitions, Ministers opt to build on many of its predecessors' initiatives in a White Paper.

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22.10.2025 18:06 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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EXCLUSIVE: Top jobs at education department dominated by elites Since Labour took office the number of senior positions at DfE held by those who went to fee-paying-schools runs at more than twice the national average.

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17.10.2025 12:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why this must be a Budget for skills In the absence of growth, Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces a serious challenge to balance the books. A proper reset of the country's skills investment model would help.

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08.10.2025 16:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The rise and rise of bullshit jobs? Pointless employment appears to be endemic, yet simply calling for the 'death of the corporate job' is to misunderstand alienation in society, writes Tom Bewick.

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05.10.2025 13:09 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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80s Classic: Will the 'Youth Guarantee' beat YTS? Skills secretary, Pat McFadden, has been around long enough to remember Thatcher's Youth Training Scheme, but can he avoid its major design flaws?

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01.10.2025 12:14 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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'Skills Olympics' is a metaphor for Britain's managed decline Skills competitions sort out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to countries considered global productivity leaders. Sadly, the UK organisers can't even make gold.

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26.09.2025 10:34 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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'Privileged elites' still dominate Britain, a new report finds Social mobility charity, the Sutton Trust, finds little improvement since its landmark report of a decade ago.

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18.09.2025 10:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The class of students that educators don't want to fight for Fewer than 1 in 5 white working class boys in England achieve a strong set of GCSEs. Part of the problem is that educational leaders see no career advancement in tackling the issue, argues Tom Bewick

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

12.09.2025 17:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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My new book can be ordered with a 25% discount directly from the publisher. policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/skills-polic...

10.09.2025 23:48 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Memo to McFadden What does Labour's new "super ministry" mean for welfare reform, skills policy and the future of work? Tom Bewick provides some unofficial advice to the minister.

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07.09.2025 20:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Starmer’s shake-up could be the gamechanger FE needs Starmer’s decision to move skills policy from DfE could be a winner for FE

feweek.co.uk/starmers-sha...

07.09.2025 14:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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On the Kerala trail... The first state in India to achieve universal literacy is on a mission to lead in the global skills race.

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

03.09.2025 16:53 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Australia: scepticism hangs over latest skills reforms Federal Ministers have announced a new Tertiary System Advisory Council to shift the dial on joining up skills recognition and tackling sluggish productivity, but experts have their doubts.

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28.08.2025 11:46 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Is Artificial Intelligence destroying entry-level and mid-skill jobs? As the labour market faces one of its most subdued periods since the pandemic, Tom Bewick looks for hard evidence of whether AI-driven job losses are to blame.

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21.08.2025 13:50 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Reforming the Apprenticeship Levy Ministers appear to be in a muddle over one of the government's flagship policies to raise skills and productivity. Has a Labour-friendly think-tank just a found way through the impasse?

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14.08.2025 16:08 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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This is what the Skills White paper should say Education ministers in England have promised a comprehensive post-16 education and skills strategy by the autumn, Tom Bewick outlines what it should deliver.

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07.08.2025 12:41 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Skills shortages do not exist Only employers, governments and individuals who fail to plan or invest adequately in the human capabilities that really matter, argues Tom Bewick

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31.07.2025 17:31 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Orphan of Whitehall Skills policy has struggled to maintain a permanent home in Westminster. Perhaps it's time that skills and productivity had its own Secretary of State around the cabinet table, writes Tom Bewick

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25.07.2025 06:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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How to solve the NEET problem One in 5 young people globally are not in education, employment or training, yet, the solutions have been there all along, argues Tom Bewick

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18.07.2025 17:59 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Skills-First Policy and Skills-Based Hiring? New terminology is entering the labour market as both governments and employers look for different ways of diversifying and acquiring productive skills.

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11.07.2025 08:46 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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One year in, Labour’s skills revolution is feeling hollow Skills were meant to be at the heart of Labour’s economic revival. Yet, after a year of bureaucratic tweaks and missed opportunities the promised transformation remains elusive.

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04.07.2025 10:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The 'Repatriation of Skill'? Far from being a net job destroyer, Artificial Intelligence has the potential to expand human capabilities originally displaced by Adam Smith's division of labour.

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27.06.2025 13:09 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Ministers in the dock on apprenticeship quality A new report on England's expansive and diverse apprenticeship model finds internationally high drop-out rates and poor training practices.

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18.06.2025 16:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Spending Review: It's time to party like its 1964 With key economic indicators in a downward spiral, Britain's finance ministry looks back to some Labour governments of old to jump-start growth, by taxing higher and spending more.

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11.06.2025 21:48 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Education is not a 'magic bullet' to tackle inequality Chair of the UK government's Social Mobility Commission argues that innovation and competitiveness are what drive thriving local communities.

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

08.06.2025 13:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why the state should get out of devising 'skills products' Civil Servants like telling employers and learners what they can spend on workforce development, rather than empowering those affected to solve the issues themselves.

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02.06.2025 08:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Lack of teenage career readiness is holding countries back Two new reports show how formal education systems are failing to help young people make successful transitions to the world of work.

open.substack.com/pub/tombewic...

23.05.2025 13:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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