Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government in which activities the Unit for Future Skills within the Department for Education engages other than, and in addition to, producing and updating their online dashboards.

The Unit for Future Skills (UFS) has now become part of the shadow body for Skills England. The purpose of the UFS was to provide key insights and data on current and future skills needs, as well as assessments on how current provision is meeting labour demand.

As well as producing and updating its online dashboards, the UFS has focused on a broad range of other activity. For example, the UFS provided robust data and insight on local skills use and provision, allowing current and future skills mismatches to be identified at an individual and local level. The UFS has:

• Ensured that Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) are based on solid evidence of local skills mismatches and future needs and are aligned with the government’s economic priorities.
• Published a Local Skills Dashboard, showing statistics on local employment and skills including at local authority level, LSIP area and mayoral combined authority (MCA). This reached over 14,000 users since its launch in August 2022, averaging 400 to 600 users per month.
• Trialled the use of AI techniques to extract insights from across the 38 LSIP reports, with 75% of the reports referencing the UFS and the department's data.

The UFS worked across government and with wider organisations to improve the foundation of data and the evidence base for decision-makers. Key achievements included:

• Publishing detailed job projections up to 2035 for the UK, nations, and sub-nationally, including areas for LSIPs, Local Enterprise Partnerships and MCAs. This information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/labour-market-and-skills-projections-2020-to-2035.
• Partnering with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on their development of online job adverts by profession and local area. This data is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourdemandvolumesbyprofessionandlocalauthorityuk. The department will continue to co-fund this work for the next two years.
• Supporting key sectors to consider future skills needs, including publishing a dashboard on Science and Technology skills supply in May 2024 and developing the evidence base underpinning the Green Jobs Delivery Group’s workforce action plan.

The UFS has also delivered Phase 1 of the UK Standard Skills Classification, which is a common skills framework that will allow a better understanding of skills supply and career pathways.

The total cost recorded on the finance system for the 2022/23 financial year was £1.86 million.

The main cost within the UFS was its staff. In the 2022/23 financial year, there were about 20 staff members, the majority being analysts. The team also commissioned external work by researchers and data experts to support the aims of the unit.