Society response to Skills England call for evidence

The Society has responded to Skills England's 'Skills for Work: shaping the future of occupational standards' call for evidence. Occupational standards are the backbone of England’s technical educational system, providing a structure to match training to employer’s needs. The call for evidence is timely as the Society considers how young people can enter geographical career pathways in a more diverse way, particularly through technician routes, V or T levels.

Our response focuses on the following points:

• The current standards and pathways fail to provide geographically related pathways through technician routes, V or T levels. There is also a gap in provision for those sectors where geographical skills and knowledge are required alongside other occupational skills (for example, ecology, forest management, data science, data technicians). We know there is employer demand for these roles and people with this training.
• Geographical skills and knowledge are often embedded alongside other sector specific skills. We think there is huge opportunity for a modular approach, which could fulfil the need of geographical/geospatial roles and also enable those skills to be embedded in other pathways too such as digital and data, land-based professions, infrastructure and construction.
• A more localised delivery focus would support opportunities to work with local companies, including SMEs and contribute to a more even distribution of opportunity for young people.

Alongside our work to inspire young people to consider geographical careers, we have started a programme of work to understand the landscape for skills development more fully and to support opportunities for young people to follow geographical careers. We would welcome your insights and suggestions on this, please contact Liz Fox-Tucker (Professional and Policy Manager) at l.fox-tucker@rgs.org. More details will be shared in due course.