East Midlands Chamber has welcomed proposals outlined by Skills England in its 2026 annual report and called for measures like a new skills portal to be implemented, to make apprenticeships and training more accessible to employers.
The first Skills England annual report outlines challenges resulting from the skills gap and lists actions aimed at resolving them.
Summary of actions in the Skills England annual report 2026:
- Address skills shortages as demand for key occupations increases
- Review and reshape the mix of apprenticeships and technical education to better align with labour market needs
- Respond to rapid adoption of AI, embedding AI skills in technical education
- Support employability of young people by working with partners like Youth Employment UK
- Work with authorities and local partners as part of a place-based skills system
East Midlands Chamber Director of Resources Lucy Robinson said: “With East Midlands unemployment still too high at 5.5% among over 16’s and over a million 16 to 24’s nationally classified as NEET – not in education, employment or training – the skills gap clearly needs to be addressed without delay, as we have been calling for.
“I generally welcome the actions outlined in Skills England’s annual report and its acknowledgement of the importance of training and apprenticeships in filling vacancies. It’s essential that any actions that could tackle the skills gap happen at pace, though and in consultation with business.
“The Chamber’s Framework for Growth sets out specific skills asks for the East Midlands, based on the insight we have for this region, where 7 out of 10 employers reported in our Quarterly Economic Survey for Q1 of this year that they had experienced difficulty finding appropriate applicants to fill roles.
“Implementing an online skills portal, as our Framework for Growth proposes, is an example of simple innovation that would cut through some of the complexity firms currently face in finding apprenticeships and training. A small business without HR support on hand might struggle to find time to spend in researching every funding avenue, as well as probably also not being resourced to have its people stuck in an inflexible training models that mean they can’t do their actual job. Factors like that limit the take-up of training, so it’s important that any approach to skills takes the way smaller businesses work into account.”
View East Midlands Chamber’s Framework for Growth here
View East Midlands Chamber’s Quarterly Economic Survey, Q1 2026 here
View the report from Skills England here
