Skills England

Skills England is an executive agency of the Department for Education formally established on 2 June 2025. The agency has assumed the functions transferred to the Secretary of State from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

The main purpose of the agency is to increase flexibility within the skills training area, to properly cater for skills shortages within regional economies. It would also use the apprenticeships levy more effectively. The stated ambitions are to build world class skills, enabling growth and opportunity, understand the nation’s skills needs and improve the skills offer, simplify access to skills to boost economic growth and to mobilise employers and other partners, co-creating solutions to meet national, regional and local skills needs.  

The main reason cited for the creation of Skills England is that between 2017 and 2022 skills shortages in the UK doubled to more than half a million, and accounted for 36% of job vacancies.