Last week’s announcement by the UK Prime Minister on new technical education routes from the age of 14 is a welcome and significant step. It recognises technical education as a first choice and creates an opportunity to rethink how we develop talent throughout people’s careers.
The ambition to place technical and academic education on an equal footing is both welcome and necessary. For too long, technical careers have not received the recognition they deserve, despite the vital role technical professionals play in driving innovation, supporting research, delivering public services and powering our economy.
The Technician Commitment was established in 2017 to ensure technical professionals in higher education, research and innovation receive the visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability they deserve.
Nearly a decade on, that work continues through the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy (UK ITSS). More recently, UK ITSS supported the delivery of over 150 T Level industry placements across English universities, helping young people experience technical careers within higher education and research, while demonstrating the breadth of opportunities that technical education can unlock.
A better-connected education and skills system
One of the most exciting opportunities this announcement presents is to reinforce that technical and academic routes are not mutually exclusive.
Creating clearer technical pathways is an important step towards achieving greater parity between technical and academic education. It is equally important that we recognise these routes as part of a connected education and skills system, rather than isolated pathways. In practice, careers are rarely linear.
Technical education can lead to higher education, research, leadership and entrepreneurship. Equally, academic study can lead to highly skilled and rewarding technical careers.
Our education system should support and celebrate movement in both directions, recognising that the combination of technical and academic expertise is often where some of the greatest innovation happens. The value of these routes lies not only in where they begin, but in where they can lead.
Technical career entry routes
Across higher education, research and many other sectors, there are countless examples of this in action. Many technical professionals began as apprentices or on vocational programmes before progressing into higher education and completing degrees, master’s qualifications and PhDs.
Others started in academic study before discovering that a technical career was where their passion and talents truly lay. Many move between technical, academic and leadership roles throughout their careers, bringing enormous value because of the breadth of experience they have gained.
Equally, many choose to build their entire careers within technical professions, and that is something to celebrate.
Whether someone becomes an engineering technician, laboratory manager, advanced manufacturing technician or cybersecurity specialist, technical careers are destinations in their own right, offering fulfilling, highly skilled and impactful opportunities.
A 120,000 technical skills gap
This matters not only for individuals, but for the UK’s future. Our recent report – Technical Skills in the UK’s Digital & Technologies Sector, developed with Frontier Economics, highlighted that the UK will need more than 120,000 additional technical professionals by 2035 to support growth in strategically important sectors.
Meeting that challenge requires more than creating new entry routes. It requires an education and skills system that values technical and academic learning equally, supports lifelong development, and enables people to move between different roles and opportunities as their careers evolve.
Last week’s announcement has the potential to inspire more young people to choose a technical education with confidence. It also gives us an opportunity to think differently about careers.
The strongest education and skills system is not one where everyone remains on separate tracks throughout their lives. It is one where technical and academic routes are equally valued, increasingly connected, and where individuals are supported to develop, progress and move between them as their ambitions and opportunities evolve.
For decades, we have thought about technical and academic education routes as pathways to different destinations. Perhaps the greatest opportunity presented by last week’s announcement is to recognise that they are better understood as different starting points.
One route in can lead to many paths.
When technical and academic education are valued equally, and movement between them is encouraged, everyone benefits: individuals, employers, our education system and, ultimately, the UK economy.
Technical and academic excellence are not competitors; they are partners in building the skills, innovation and talent our society and economy need to thrive.