Overview
The Education and Skills sector in England is organised into three interconnected areas:
- Formal Education: Includes primary, secondary, and higher education institutions, managed by the Department for Education (DfE).
- Skills and Training: Focuses on vocational training, apprenticeships, and lifelong learning, often supported by employers, local authorities, independent training providers and Sector Skills Councils (SSCs).
- Community and Voluntary Education: Encompasses adult education, community learning, and voluntary initiatives that complement formal education systems.
Education funding comes from central government, while local authorities also play a role in funding and coordinating educational services.
You can find out more about the organisations involved in education & skills towards the bottom of this page where we offer a 'birds eye view' of how they are typically organised in a region, and explain their typical remits.
Key Agendas
Successful collaboration starts with truly understanding what matters to your partners. Here's a quick guide to some of the key agendas you might come across when working to develop relationships in this area.
Future Skills and AI
- Digital and AI literacy: Incorporating AI, data science, and digital tools into all levels of education
- Green skills: Training for sustainability-related jobs (e.g., renewable energy, environmental management).
- STEM emphasis: Continued focus on science, technology, engineering, and maths to meet industry demand.
Tackling Skills Gaps and Workforce Shortages
There are skills gaps and workforce shortages across a range of industries, these are being tackled by;
- Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs): Aligning training with local employer needs through employer-led initiatives.
- Health and social care recruitment: Upskilling and attracting workers to critical shortage areas.
- Construction and infrastructure: Addressing skills shortages tied to national housing and infrastructure projects.
- Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE): Launching in 2026/7, allows adults to access loans for modular study and retraining throughout life.
Learner Wellbeing and Community Cohesion
Education can affect social mobility and well being and is a key driver in supporting people to access work. There are a range of initiatives across education that aim to address inclusion and
- Closing attainment gaps: Targeting support for underrepresented learners and improving access to higher education.
- SEND provision: Strengthening support for learners with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Inclusive access to learning: Ensuring education and training opportunities are accessible to all members of the community, including marginalised, migrant, and minority groups.
- Place-based provision: Designing programmes that respond to local social, economic, and cultural contexts, building pride and resilience in communities.
- Mental health and well-being: Embedding well-being support into educational environments, recognising its importance for learner engagement and success.
- Family and intergenerational learning: Supporting community-wide learning that brings together different age groups, strengthening family bonds and lifelong engagement with education.
- Civic participation and cohesion: Encouraging active citizenship, volunteering, and community engagement through education, fostering a shared sense of purpose and inclusion.
Top Tips for Working Together
Here are some key insights to help you collaborate more effectively with other actors in your place:
Understand the Sector's Needs & Local Landscape
Before reaching out, it's crucial to familiarise yourself with the local education and skills ecosystem. Use the birds eye view below to get an idea of the remits of different organisations and the levels they operate at.
- Familiarise yourself with the key challenges and priorities of the education and skills organisation you want to work with. This could include funding pressures, accessibility, and sustainability.
- Which organisations are you interested in working with?
- Review their website to understand their focus and how they work.
- What are their strategic aims?
- How are they funded?
- What's important for them?
- Why would they want to partner with you?
- Who might already have relationships with this organisation in your institution?
- Look at publicly available data such as school league tables or the index of multiple deprivation, use the civic impact dashboard tool to support with this.
Identify existing networks and forums:
- Reach out to people in your network or organisation who may already have connections, ask for introductions or recommendations.
- Go to local education events, meetings and networking meetups. Here are the sorts of events to look out for:
- Teacher meetups at local museums or cultural organisations.
- Local conferences or education events run by academy trusts or local authorities
- Special interest groups e.g. regional subject teacher meetings led by organisations like the Institute of Physics
- Invite representatives from education organisations to events you are running that might be useful or of interest to them
Approaching organisations
Engaging education and skills organisations from the outset, rather than after your research or project is designed, will help foster collaboration and ensure the research, or partnerships aligns with their needs. Early involvement can include workshops, focus groups, or advisory panels with education professionals, students, and other staff. It's important to consider the following when making opportunities to connect:
- Meet people where they are; this might be running meetings in their settings, using accessible language and finding out what they would want out of a partnership.
- Be in listening mode, don't try and push your agendas or research, listen to what organisations want and need and think about how you can work together.
- Get to know individuals; build relationships not just projects, find out their purposes and reasons for working in education.
- Speak their language; how do they talk about their work on their website and in strategic documents? Talk about what you work on in their language.
- Use asset-based community development principles.
Existing Relationships in your University
Universities are made up of many departments, faculties, schools etc., all of these are made up of individuals who may already have existing relationships with education and skills organisations. It's really important to respect existing relationships and work with colleagues who have already spent time and care building them.
Where might partnerships already exist in your university?
Teaching
Student placements for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) /PGCE programmes and other community engaged learning placements: placing students in local schools, trusts, and education hubs.
- Connect with placement teams in different schools and ask for introductions.
- Community engaged learning might sit in lots of different places in your university, try connecting with public, civic or community engagement teams. There may also be a team in the careers service supporting this sort of work.
Outreach and widening participation: there may be existing partnerships with schools, colleges, and community learning providers.
- Some departments have had long relationships with local schools, they might run competitions or tutoring schemes, search department outreach pages for more information.
Degree apprenticeships and professional pathways are being focussed on by more universities, this requires links with FE colleges, training providers, employers, adult learning centres and/or community education services. Universities may also partner with further education colleges to support delivery of T-Level courses which may require access to specialist facilities.
- Research the sorts of apprenticeship and professional pathways your university offers and speak to their respective recruiting teams.
Research
There may be collaborative research projects focussed on education and skills development already happening at your university.
- Does your university have an educational research centre? They may be engaged with schools, MATs, FE colleges on pedagogy, attainment, or curriculum innovation.
- Place-based research collaborations: Involving education and skills in broader regeneration, health, or social policy research. This may have been commissioned by a local or devolved authority.
- Is there any community-based participatory research at your university? This may be delivered across a range of schools with a focus on education and skills. They may be working with local learning hubs or adult education providers.
- Policy engagement and impact groups: These may be engaged with local authorities or skills boards on education and workforce planning.
Is there an external partnerships manager, or similar, in your research services team? Could you approach them to find out where the university already has existing partnerships?
Operations
- Procurement and supply chain teams may have links to local training providers offering skills-based contracting or apprenticeship training.
- Human resources or people development may collaborate with skills providers for internal upskilling or leadership training.
- Sustainability teams may work with colleges or schools on green skills or carbon literacy projects.
- Campus development and estates teams may have partnerships with construction, trades and engineering training providers.
Central Activity
Education is central to all universities mission's and is often a key part of strategy documents, or local agreements such as civic agreements. Universities must have an Access and Participation Plan (APP) in place.
An APP sets out:
- The risks to equality of opportunity that the provider has identified as relevant to their context,
- 'Intervention strategies' providers will take to challenge risks to equality of opportunity
- how the provider plans to evaluate the impact of their work
- the investment providers plan to make on access and participation work.
There may also be strategic relationships in other central teams;
- Civic or regional engagement offices may have formal relationships with Combined Authorities, local skills boards and other networks.
- Enterprise and innovation units often collaborate with FE/skills providers on startup support, incubation, and entrepreneurial learning.
- Alumni and development teams may have connections with local educators or skills providers among alumni networks.
Find out what teams there are in your university and what partnerships they may already have. How can you work together?
Who might you work with?
Explore some of the key people you might partner with:
Teacher
AKA: Class Teacher, Subject Teacher, Form TutorWhat do they do?
At primary school (11 and under) level a teacher will have a class of around 30 children and will teach most of their subjects to them. At secondary school (11 and over) teachers specialise in one or two subjects and will teach them across all ages, they may also have a form group that they teach citizenship or personal, social and health education to. Teachers are encouraged to run clubs and provide extracurricular activities and enrichment opportunities.
Where you might find them?
Primary and secondary schools, specialist school provision.
What's important to them?
Student outcomes, passion for their subject, inclusion, opportunity for all, safeguarding, and building relationships with children/students and parents. They focus on preparing students for life beyond school.
FE Lecturer
AKA: Tutor, Teacher, College Lecturer, College TeacherWhat do they do?
FE lecturers teach vocational, technical, and academic subjects to learners aged 16 and older. They often work with local businesses to tailor courses to regional workforce needs, helping students gain qualifications and practical skills that align with employment opportunities.
Where you might find them?
Colleges, sixth forms, or training providers, often in areas where vocational training is a key driver of local economic growth.
What's important to them?
Delivering engaging and relevant education, staying updated with industry standards, supporting diverse learners, and collaborating with employers to ensure students' skills are aligned with job market demands.
Skills Development Coordinator
AKA: Study Skills Developer, Career Pathways CoordinatorWhat do they do?
Skills development coordinators design and manage programs that address specific regional skills gaps. They work with training providers, local employers, and government bodies to create opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, especially in areas experiencing economic transitions.
Where you might find them?
Local councils, combined authorities, further education colleges, or employer-led partnerships e.g. chambers of commerce.
What's important to them?
Supporting local economic development, building relationships between education providers and businesses, and ensuring training programs meet the needs of employers and job seekers.
Educational Psychologist
AKA: PsychologistWhat do they do?
Educational psychologists focus on the learning and mental health needs of children and young people. They work with schools, families, and other local services to assess and support students facing barriers such as learning difficulties, emotional challenges, or trauma.
Where you might find them?
Schools, local authorities, or private practices, often collaborating with teachers, health professionals, and social services.
What's important to them?
Promoting student well-being, inclusivity, and resilience. They aim to help learners reach their potential by addressing individual needs and systemic challenges within schools and communities.
Apprenticeship Program Manager
AKA: Apprenticeship Manager, Apprenticeship Development CoordinatorWhat do they do?
Apprenticeship program managers oversee the development and delivery of apprenticeship schemes, connecting employers with learners to provide practical, on-the-job training. They liaise with local industries to ensure the programs align with regional economic priorities.
Where you might find them?
Training providers, further education colleges, local enterprise partnerships, or large employers running apprenticeship schemes.
What's important to them?
Building strong employer partnerships, ensuring the quality of training, and supporting apprentices to complete their programs successfully. They focus on addressing skills shortages and making effective connections with schools and employers
Birds Eye View
Key organisations and structures, click on the organisation to find out more.
National Bodies:
Government bodies:
Non-government bodies:
Regional Level:
Service Providers:
Community and Voluntary Education:
Case Studies & Resources
Browse a range of other resources relevant to this infrastructure:
Produced by the Independent Commission on the College of the Future and Sheffield Hallam University for the Civic University Network, it assesses current opportunities and challenges in building more integrated education and skills systems.
