The latest Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) report from the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) gives us a rich picture of essential skills building in England. With over 331,000 young people participating, the latest data gives us a clear view of how young people are performing against age-related expectations as set out in the Universal Framework.
Alongside the latest government statutory guidance for careers in England that includes the Universal Framework, these findings are another part of ensuring that building essential skills is a normal part of a good education for every learner.
The 'Skills Dip' in early secondary
For years, many have operated on the assumption that essential skills are simply 'caught' as young people mature. This report provides clear evidence that this is not the case.
The data shows that while some skills grow, skills like Teamwork and Listening actually decline relative to expectations after Year 7 and fail to recover by the time students leave secondary school.
This finding confirms that essential skills cannot be left to chance. It's a trend we have seen consistently in our own national datasets, and this report validates it at a new scale. It highlights the need for the deliberate, structured, and progressive approach that so many educators are already delivering. The Universal Framework gives educators age-related expectations to enable them to focus tightly. Without this sustained focus, we risk young people leaving education without the core collaborative and communication skills they need.
Aligning aspirations with opportunity
The report offers important insights into how student aspirations are aligning with national priorities. There is strong interest in key Industrial Strategy sectors, including Health, Digital, Engineering, and Construction.
However, the data also reveals a disconnect. Students interested in high-demand sectors like Construction and Engineering report weaker essential skills in teamwork, leadership, and communication compared to their peers.
This 'Sector Gap' presents a clear challenge. It's not enough for young people to be interested in these careers; they must also be equipped with the collaborative and human-facing skills that these industries depend on. This is a clear illustration of the Skills Gap and Skills Trap our research has identified. It gives us and our employer partners a precise evidence base to align our work and ensure the future workforce is truly career-ready.
Using evidence to target support
The report's findings on disadvantage provide a powerful tool for the entire sector.
The data shows that learners eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) consistently report lower essential skills than their peers, year after year. In Year 7 students eligible for FSM report 9% lower essential skills than their peers. This data provides a clear baseline to target interventions and measure our collective impact in closing equity gaps.
Implications for Policy and Practice
This data is particularly timely. As reports like the NFER Skills Imperative highlight, the rise of AI and automation only increases the importance of the very essential skills that this report shows are weakest.
This evidence base strengthens our policy position that essential skills cannot be a 'nice to have' or left to chance. We need a clear approach across curriculum, enrichment, careers education and workplace experience:
- In the Curriculum: These skills must be a deliberate, timetabled part of a broad and balanced curriculum for every student.
- In Enrichment: High-quality enrichment and employer engagement, a key focus for the CEC, provide the perfect opportunity to apply these skills. By using the Universal Framework, we can structure these experiences to ensure skills are not just 'encountered' but are actively built and reflected upon.
- In Careers Education and Workplace Experience: the government’s commitment to two weeks worth of workplace experience provides further opportunity for young people to build these skills in a real-life setting.
The Way Forward: Collective Action Through a Common Language
The FSQ proves that essential skills can be measured and tracked at a national scale. The Universal Framework provides the common language to act on the findings.
- For Educators: The evidence validates the vital work educators are doing. It makes the case for the resources and time needed to deliver a rigorous, progressive essential skills curriculum from primary through KS3 and beyond to reverse that 'skills dip'.
- For Employers: Our employer partners now have clear data on the skills pipeline. This allows us to work together to adopt the common language of the Framework, aligning outreach, recruitment, and internal training with the national picture.
- For Policymakers: We have a national baseline, a common framework, and clear evidence of the gaps. We look forward to working with policymakers and sector leaders to use this data to inform and evaluate system-level strategy.
We are very grateful to our partners at the Careers & Enterprise Company for producing this report. The insights from over 330,000 young people are clear. It is our collective opportunity to use this evidence to ensure every young person can build the essential skills to succeed.
Find out how you can use the Skills Builder Framework to support your students.
Discover how your organisation can join our employer programme and become part of the collective solution.
