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2050 Skills Project: Call for Evidence

Skills and lifelong learning should be at the heart of a fair and prosperous economy that works for both people and business Workers and employers have shared interests in a skill system that ensures workers can access training and skills needed to secure good jobs, while businesses secure the talent they grow.

As the economy undergoes profound change driven by new technologies, the transition to net zero, and shifting labour markets, working people must not be left to navigate these challenges alone. A fair transition and a sustainable economy require a skills system that supports workers at every stage of their working lives, from entry into work through to mid-career change and later life.

Yet for too many workers, access to training and opportunity is uneven, insecure, and dependent on employer discretion. For many employers, particularly SMEs, they are overwhelmed by the complexity of the skills system. And years of underfunding have left the post-16 training and education workforce underpaid, undervalued and stretched beyond capacity.

We believe that the skills system must be rooted in fairness, collective voice, and shared responsibility to meet the needs of workers, the public and private sector and drive growth and sustainability across local, regional and national economies. The government must support strong institutions to deliver skills training through sustained funding and policy that recognises the importance of place, the relationships between providers, employers and workers/learners, and the needs of local and regional economies in shaping the skills system. Employers must invest in their workforces and, crucially, workers themselves must have a right to access high-quality training and have a meaningful say in shaping the skills system they rely on.

The Skills 2050 Project is an opportunity to rethink how this can be delivered in practice, building a system that supports secure good jobs, progression, and shared prosperity for the workforce of today and tomorrow.

This Call for Evidence will help ensure that the next phase of the Skills 2050 project is grounded in the real experiences of working people, the needs of business and informed by those delivering and shaping skills provision on the ground.

We encourage all those with an interest in the future of skills to contribute.

About this call for evidence

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is undertaking the Skills 2050 Project to explore how the UK’s skills system can better support workers, employers, Further Education institutions and workforce, to strengthen fair transitions and contribute to inclusive economic growth over the long term.

Evidence to date highlights significant gaps in how the system operates - particularly in relation to mid-career transitions, employer investment, inequalities in access, and the role of institutions and collective voice.

We are seeking evidence to help address these gaps and inform the development of a coherent, long-term, worker-centred vision for the skills system, and are particularly interested in understanding what works, for whom, and in what circumstances.

The findings will inform the next phase of the Skills 2050 Project and support the development of policy recommendations.

This call for evidence is structured around four key themes:

Future skills needs – how the system responds to immediate, medium- and long-term changes including automation, artificial intelligence, and the transition to a net zero economy
Access and qualifications – who can access learning and training opportunities, and how access varies across different groups of workers
Worker voice and collective bargaining – the role of trade unions, worker influence, and employment rights in shaping access to skills and progression
Systems and infrastructure – how the skills system is funded, delivered, and governed, including employer investment, public funding, and the capacity of further education

Who should respond

The TUC welcomes submissions from:

Trade unions and union representatives
Workers and learners
Employers and employer bodies
Further Education providers and training organisations
Researchers, think tanks, and sector bodies
Local, regional, and devolved institutions

What to include

We welcome:

Evidence, data, or research
Case studies (including local, regional, workplace or sector examples)
Worker-centred accounts and lived experience
Identification of gaps where further evidence is needed

To submit to this call for evidence please send your submissions to Skills2050@tuc.org.uk by Friday 14 August 2026.

You can download the questions here.

You do not need to respond to every section or every question, only the ones that are relevant to you, your organisation and the evidence you want to submit.

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