Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness of The Skills Toolkit and (b) potential effect of that toolkit on improving the (i) employability, (ii) digital skills and (iii) maths skills of learners.

The digital, numeracy and work readiness skills we have chosen to focus on are the skills that everyone needs to thrive in the 21st Century and ones that evidence suggests are increasingly in demand across almost all sectors and occupations. In deciding which specific courses to offer we have spoken to a range of employers.[1]

We have prioritised high-quality short courses that are free for learners to access online. The digital and numeracy skills we have chosen to focus on are the skills that everyone needs to thrive in the 21st Century and ones that evidence suggests are increasingly in demand across almost all sectors and occupations.[1]

[1] The Employer Skills Survey 2016 found a third of employers identifying digital skills lacking among applications. Research commissioned by DCMS in June 2019 identified 75% of job openings at each level request digital skills. This is backed up by a report conducted for the Industrial Strategy Council last year, which identified at the current rate there will be 5 million people with an acute basic digital skills need by 2030.