In the UK during 2020-25:
1,469
UK education Institutions issued with Skills Builder Awards for best practice 2020-25
2024-25 Key results
Number of learners reached:
218,895
Number of educators trained and supported: 18,535
80%+ Proportion of UK secondary schools and colleges reached by Skills Builder partners.
Our approach in education
At the heart of our work with educators in the UK is a set of six principles, refined over a decade of research and practical experience, that define what excellent essential skills education looks like. These principles provide a clear, actionable guide for schools and colleges seeking to embed our approach.
We recognise and celebrate the schools and colleges that are successfully applying these principles through the Skills Builder Awards. Institutions can achieve a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award, demonstrating their commitment and success in embedding essential skills education across their curriculum. These awards are a public acknowledgement of the high-quality practice that is transforming outcomes for their learners.
To help schools and colleges achieve these awards, we offer the Skills Builder Accelerator programme. This is our flagship education programme, providing dedicated, structured support to help institutions implement a complete strategy for building essential skills. Partnering with a dedicated Skills Builder Education Associate—a qualified teacher—schools and colleges develop a long-term plan, upskill their staff, and use our tools and resources to achieve demonstrable student progress. The Accelerator is a proven path to achieving a Skills Builder Award, ensuring that our partners have all the support they need to create sustainable, impactful change for their learners.
Our impact on learners
How we measure impact
We use educator assessments of learner progress as our primary means of understanding the impact of the Skills Builder Accelerator programme over the course of the year.
Educators complete these assessments through Skills Builder Hub, identifying the extent to which learners in their classes are able to demonstrate each step of the essential skills. This gives an overall skill score (0-16) which can be tracked over time.
How programmes accelerate impact
This year, we were able to demonstrate that learners made accelerated progress in their essential skills, as measured by educators, compared to individuals who had not taken part in a Skills Builder programme:
We have been tracking out impact in this way since 2020, and have seen notable consistency in the levels of progress that are made by learners who are not in Skills Builder programmes over that time. It has been good to see continued progress year-on-year in the additional progress made through Skills Builder programmes as a result of refining our training and learning resources.
We have been able to demonstrate accelerated progress across all year groups and each of the eight skills.
Our Impact on educators and institutions
Our impact on educators
The impact that our education programmes have on individual learners is all due to the dedication and commitment of the educators we train and support with learning materials. In the last year, we trained and supported 10,035 educators through our Accelerator programme.
We particularly work with a Skills Leader in each school or college who becomes the champion and driving force behind Skills Builder in their institution. The Skills Leader benefits from training from Skills Builder, peer learning with their cohort of other Skills Leaders, and regular planning meetings to support them to embed the best practice principles across the institution for the benefit of all the learners.
In 2024-25:
- 95% of educators said their confidence teaching essential skills had grown
- 94% of educators had seen their learners progress in essential skills
Our impact on institutions
We were pleased to announce 256 new Skills Builder Awards in 2024-25, representing schools and colleges who had demonstrated great progress in embedding best practice principles across their institutions.
107
Bronze Awards
94
Silver Awards
49
Gold Awards
16
Flagship Awards
Our impact on systems
We are glad to continue to support strengthening how essential skills are built across the education system, with a particular focus on England:
- Statutory Guidance for Careers Education: The latest guidance advocates building essential skills using the Universal Framework.
- Careers & Enterprise Company: The CEC continues to strengthen the case for essential skills through its work, particularly the Future Skills Questionnaire which this year tracked 300,000 learners’ performance against age-related expectations in essential skills, defined using the Universal Framework.
- Curriculum & Assessment Review: We were pleased to contribute to the Review with many partners and to see its commitment to ‘develop a cutting-edge curriculum, equipping children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills which will enable them to adapt and thrive in the world and workplace of the future’.
- Ofsted Guidance: The new inspection framework incorporates developing essential skills including speaking and listening as an expectation of education.
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