Mayors and Business Leaders Join Education Secretary to Reshape Skills Training for Young People

Regional mayors, business leaders, headteachers and college principals sat down with the Education Secretary in Manchester on 10 September to help shape how England prepares young people for work. The summit, held at No.10 North, was billed by the Department for Education as the first of a series of regular gatherings designed to put local expertise, rather than Whitehall alone, at the centre of education policy.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell used the meeting to press the case for what the government calls a "technical education superpower," in which technical and academic routes carry equal weight. The discussion centred on vocational reforms starting at age 14, expanding work experience, and how councils and mayors can make better use of the billions of pounds in 16 to 19 education funding that is being devolved to local areas.

Why Lucy Powell Took Her Education Reforms to Manchester, Not Whitehall

The choice of venue was deliberate. No.10 North in Manchester has become a symbolic base for meetings that put regional voices alongside central government, and the Department for Education says this gathering will not be a one off. Officials describe it as the start of a recurring forum bringing together industry figures, politicians and educators to keep pushing reforms forward rather than leaving them to a single announcement.

The timing lines up with the forthcoming Devolution white paper, which is expected to set out how local leaders gain a greater role in shaping economic growth and opportunity in their areas. Discussions at the summit fed directly into that agenda, focusing on how mayors and councils can use devolved 16 to 19 funding to match training with the jobs actually available locally, rather than following a single national formula.

In her opening remarks, Powell told attendees she wanted a different way of working. "I want change to come not from Whitehall alone, but to be co-designed with those who will deliver it, those who know local strengths and challenges best," she said, framing devolution as a partnership between national government and local areas rather than a transfer of blame.

England's PISA Scores Held Firm While the Rest of the World Slipped

The summit landed in the same week as the latest Programme for International Student Assessment rankings, which compare pupils' performance across dozens of countries. England's results improved or held steady against a backdrop of declining scores internationally, and the country continues to perform significantly above the OECD average across all three subjects tested. The Department for Education pointed to Estonia as a comparison worth studying, arguing its results show that strong academic performance and strong technical education are not mutually exclusive.

That comparison matters to the summit's central aim. Ministers want to expand V levels, introduced from age 16, and continue rolling out T levels from next September, partly as a response to the near 1 million young people in England who are not in education, employment or training. The government frames technical routes not as a lesser alternative to academic study but as an equally credible path into skilled work.

Inside the University Deals Turning Degrees Into Local Jobs

On the same day as the Manchester summit, Skills Minister Baroness Smith of Malvern addressed Universities UK's annual conference, using her first speech to the higher education sector this term to argue that universities should see themselves as engines of local growth rather than solely national or international institutions. "There's no point building the growth this country desperately needs, if it just embellishes the places that are already prosperous," she told delegates, calling for growth that reaches every postcode.

Baroness Smith argued this kind of local alignment between universities, colleges and employers should become the norm rather than the exception, describing higher education institutions as "a network of economic engines throughout the country" capable of turning economic opportunity into courses, workplace experience and jobs for local people.

Colleges, Charities and Amazon React to the Skills Summit

Reaction from further education leaders was broadly supportive. Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, called the summit "a very welcome opportunity to discuss how to implement the ambitious reforms" and said reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training must remain a shared national priority. David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the Prime Minister had set out "a clear and exciting vision of positive pathways for young people through technical education into good jobs from age 14," and welcomed elected mayors taking a leading role in scaling up local partnerships.

Leora Cruddas CBE, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, framed the stakes more broadly, describing school trusts, colleges, universities and NHS trusts as civic institutions whose strength underpins trust and belonging in local communities. Amazon UK country manager John Boumphrey offered an employer's perspective, noting that around half the people joining the company's operations teams come either from unemployment or straight from education. "Talent is evenly distributed across this country, but opportunity is not," he said, adding that the right support helps young people thrive.

UK Job Vacancies Hit a Five Year Low, Just as Teenagers Need Them Most

The summit's push to get young people work ready comes against a labour market that has been cooling since the pandemic recovery. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics in September 2026 show UK vacancies fell to 702,000 in the three months to August, down 36,000 (4.9%) on the same period a year earlier and the lowest total since early 2021. That is a steep fall from the 1.3 million vacancies recorded at the 2022 peak, with the annual figures showing a decline every year since, from 1.24 million in 2022 to 1.02 million in 2023, 862,000 in 2024 and 749,000 in 2025.

The ONS has pointed to rising employment costs as one factor behind the slowdown in hiring. Its September 2026 labour market overview noted that feedback from its Vacancy Survey "continues to suggest that smaller firms may not be recruiting because of increases in labour costs." Employers have absorbed a series of cost changes since the Autumn Budget 2024, when the government raised the rate of employer National Insurance contributions from 13.8% to 15% and lowered the threshold at which employers start paying it from £9,100 to £5,000 a year, changes that took effect in April 2025. The Treasury said the increase was necessary to fund public services, while introducing a higher Employment Allowance to shield the smallest businesses from the full impact.

A tighter vacancy pool, combined with higher costs of taking on new staff, makes it harder for anyone without a track record, young people especially, to compete for the jobs that remain. That is the backdrop against which ministers are pitching earlier vocational routes and closer coordination between colleges, universities and employers, the kind of local partnership on display at the Manchester summit, as a way of getting more young people into training and work even while the overall number of vacancies stays subdued.

What's Next for T Levels, V Levels and the Devolution White Paper

No new legislation or funding figures were announced at the Manchester summit itself. Its significance lies instead in establishing a recurring channel between central government and the mayors, colleges and employers who will have to deliver reforms on the ground. Whether that translates into faster progress on T and V level rollout, or into a Devolution white paper that genuinely hands local areas more control over 16 to 19 funding, will only become clear once further details are published.

For now, the government's message is that technical education reform cannot be designed in Whitehall alone. The scale of the task, nearly 1 million young people not in work or training, and a labour market that increasingly rewards vocational skills, means ministers are betting that local knowledge, not national templates, will decide whether the reforms succeed.